Dealing with spanish guests

[lcr]

Hi,
I am a newbie to renting out my villa.
Just want to know if anyone has many bookings from spanish clients. I am getting so many enquiries (think may be the fact that my villa is where a lot of spanish folk take their hols) I can speak a little spanish, but not enough to communicate via email or phone, so all I really do is, say that the villa is available and ask if they speak english. Saying that I have one confirmed booking (took a while, but we got there in the end). Does anyone know if I need a rental agreement in spanish aswell as english, thank you

[Chianti]

Hello CasaRosa

Yes, I'm quite certain that in order to rent to the citizens of the country in which your property is located that you would need a contract in that language, as the local laws apply.

Chianti

[lollybeth]

Hi

I'm getting loads of enquiries in Spanish at the moment and have used Google Translate to translate documents and emails. Its not 100% accurate so you might need to play around with the english wording first.

Its worked have got one booking in done all in Spanish.

Liz

[Bellywobble]

I'm also getting some Spanish bookings and enquiries this year.

I try to answer the enquiries in Spanish. I keep my wording as simple as possible and then check it using Babel Fish. I can generally, I hope, see if it looks reasonably correct.

I then ask them to excuse my Spanish if its incorrect.

Then write it in English too as I feel I can be more "friendly" in English as I'm not having to keep it simple for the translating programme. I like to hope that they will be able to read the English version.

I have a Spanish lesson at home, once a week and we are working our way through my bumf, translating it into Spanish. I'm hoping to have it all in place before the first Spanish guests arrive.

If an enquiry comes in near to my lesson day, I mention that my teacher will be here at that time and give them the number to call if they want to discuss anything in their own language.

I thought I had done very well with one lady, but after I had explained that we have two dogs here, she wrote back to ask if they would be sleeping in the apartment with her!

[pepsipuss]

I can send my Spanish T&Cs to anyone who wants one - just send me a pm. They have worked well for apartments and villas for several years but may need tweaking for individual requirements.

[CSE]

Although a B&B, we are based in Spain and we can help you make up your mind.
First of all our booking terms are governed by the local Junta (Xunta de Galicia). We have them posted in every language that is on our website. The Dutch we had to translate from English as the booking Xunta’s basic terms are not in that language.
The rules of the house i.e. things like times to vacate rooms etc are in Spanish only and are in the information folder in every room. These rules are agree with the Xunta and this being Spain involves a lot of paperwork to change them.
Here in Galicia holiday rentals for the whole house are not regulated by the Xunta, we understand that each Junta has it’s own rules about this.
Out of respect of your adopted country you should have your T&C’s written in Spanish too. But PLEASE PLEASE do not use Google or any other online translator. Ask an English speaking Spaniard, even if you have to pay a professional. We have seen too many badly translated documents and web pages done from Spanish to English to know that it is a must to get it write.

[pepsipuss]

Agree 100% with about online translators which I think are the work of the devil... I am in the process of writing an article on that very subject! I am pretty fluent but I had my T&Cs checked over by a Spaniard because however fluent, you always make little mistakes which give you away, or in the worst case can lead to misunderstandings.

P:S: I&E: hate to be the one to point it out, but 'get it write'???!!!

[CSE]

I&I

[pepsipuss]

You missed the deliberate mistake . I called you I&E because I have buddies called Ian and Elaine.... sorry

[Ben McNevis]

I think you are too critical of machine-translation. It can be really useful - you just have to use it carefully.

Four things help:
1. Keep the sentence construction simple.
2. Avoid words which have two meanings where possible
3. Get your grammar and spelling 100% correct
4. Occasionally check the results by getting the translated text translated back into English.

All my routine communications with renters get automatically translated (unless they are English renters of course), so they get something that looks like:

Dear Jean-Luc

----------- French ------------

Oo la la ...

------------ English -----------

Original text...

---------------------------

and it seems to work well!

[Giddy Goat]

That's excellent advice Ben - I used Google Translate recently for a French document, and when I reviewed the French version I quickly learned what not to write; the end result, if I hadn't checked it, would have been hysterical! I'm about to do another one so I shall be applying all those rules.

[Rocket Rab]

Ask an English speaking Spaniard, even if you have to pay a professional.

Spot on. If you possibly can, you will always be best served by asking a native speaker to do your translation. So, if you want something translated into Spanish, try and get a Spaniard (a translator, preferably) to do it, rather than, say, someone English who speaks Spanish (however well).

If time and/or finances mean that is not an option, then an online translator is better than nothing.
But only just (cough). Now don't go fretting, folks, you know I would say that

[Big Sis..]

If time and/or finances mean that is not an option, then an online translator is better than nothing.
But only just (cough). Now don't go fretting, folks, you know I would say that

....yes but youre spot on as usual!!

[pepsipuss]

I agree that applying those rules you can get something which will probably be understood (but rule 4 needs to be appied EVERY time). If it is important that the document is gramatically and idiomatically correct (and that it does not read like pidgin French) then even following these rules an online translator cannot deliver.

However, most people do not follow those rules, mainly because they do not understand that the problem is IDIOM. We speak all the time in idioms without even recognising it and idioms do not translate literally, which is the only thing that online translators can do.

Maybe I should get on with the article... But before I abandon my soapbox for the day (and how would Google cope with that I wonder?!?) I should say that my main beef with online translators is their use by businesses, for example in their websites and for printed material. Usually it is obvious that no one in the business has any real knowledge of the target language, and certainly not enough to know if it says what they want or not. So they end up with a public face which is gobbledygook and looks hopelessly unprofessional and they would be better off without anything at all. I completely fail to understand why they bother. If they don't speak a language well enough to communicate, how are they going to handle any enquiries that might result?

[Mustbemad]

Hiya

Firstly - absolutely no disrespect intended here - but the Spanish do have a reputation for booking a property for 6 and turning up with 12 people who they will sleep wherever they can!

Unless you don't care how many people are in your property, you need to make it absolutely clear how many people are permitted to stay for the price.

If you do get more people, the wear and tear could be considerable, as well as additional laundry costs.

Hopefully you have a Spanish speaking representative on site who can negotiate and if necessary turn extra people away...

My friend is on site with her rental properties and has had several experiences with Spanish enquirers who simply slam the phone down when they realise she is on site!! Which kindof says it all....

I would rather have my house empty than overfilled, however nice the poeple, the more in there, the more chance of damage, misuse etc...

It is of course, your decision but do be aware of this particular possible pitfall. I was warned a few years ago about this habit of Spanish families, turning up with twice the people booked for.

Good luck whatever your decision