Harmersbach in the black forrest region, Germany – 4 November 2016
1An unhappy story: Because google translate failed and didn’t translate correctly, the small privately operated hotel Mottenhof in Zell am Hamersbach, in the Black forest region of Germany, became the victim of an international shitstorm. Media stressed that the hotel was fully booked and therefore an interested guest from Israel received the following answer: „We don’t want guests from Israel, because our apartments are not for them.“ This triggered a harsh reaction from the rejected tourists and resulted in a complaint about discrimination to booking.com. The hotel in now blocked at the OTA and has been hitting the international headlines, as repeatedly stated by a dpa report. This would not have happened with a professional translation tool.
These are the right measures to look up correct answers for an English booking request from abroad: translate your texts sentence by sentence or only enter half sentences on platforms like bab.la or use the App „Reverso Context“ with the same approach; don’t enter whole paragraphs into tools like google translate. Hire a translation agency for an English transcription of standard phrases like “we are unfortunately fully booked” or “please try again next time” etc. Practice English vocabulary from hospitality and gastronomy with educational books ; there are also vocabulary trainer apps, like Kern (1) or Reverso Context (1)
