What International Guests Wish Their Host Knew

I travel a lot, and I've stayed in places where I didn't speak the local language well. It changes everything about how you interact with a property.

At home, if something's confusing, you just ask. But when you're in a country where your language skills are shaky, you think twice before sending a message. You worry about being misunderstood. You worry about bothering someone. You worry about looking stupid.

So you don't ask. You just figure it out — or go without.

Here's what that actually looks like.

The appliance problem

Every country has slightly different appliances. Washing machines, ovens, dishwashers, shower controls — they all work a bit differently. The labels might be in a language you don't read. The buttons might have symbols you don't recognise.

As a local host, you don't think about this. You've used that washing machine a thousand times. But for a guest from another country, it's a genuinely confusing piece of equipment. And the instruction manual — if there even is one — is probably in the local language.

The "is this normal?" problem

Every property has quirks. Maybe the hot water takes 30 seconds to come through. Maybe the front door sticks a bit. Maybe the smoke alarm beeps once when the heating kicks in.

A local guest might message and ask. An international guest is more likely to just worry about it quietly. Is it supposed to do that? Should I tell someone? I don't want to make a fuss.

The review problem

Here's the thing hosts don't always realise: international guests who had a confusing experience often won't tell you about it during the stay. But they will mention it in the review.

"Nice place but a bit hard to figure out some things" — that's a guest who had questions but didn't feel comfortable asking.

Meeting guests where they are

This is one of the reasons I built StayAnswered with multilingual support from day one. It works in 43 languages. A guest from Japan can type their question in Japanese. A guest from Brazil can ask in Portuguese. They get your answer back in their language, instantly.

No awkward messages. No worrying about grammar. No going without because they didn't want to bother you.

You don't have to do anything extra for this — it just works. You enter your answers in English (or whatever your language is), and the system handles the translation automatically.

If you host international guests — and if you're listed on Airbnb, you almost certainly do — this is one of the easiest ways to improve their experience without changing anything about your property.

Start your free trial →