Hi, this is the NEWT Chat editorial team. We field a lot of questions from accommodations about multilingual support, so in this article we lay out "if you start with four languages, where do you begin?"âin the same order we actually walk through it on site.
When a property tells me "we want to do multilingual support," the first questions are almost always the same: which languages, where, and how to bring them in. The answer differs enormously from one property to the next, so there's no single right answerâbut the order in which you think it through is the same for everyone.
Hiroki UkedaExecutive Officer, CBO, Reiwa Travel
Joined Loco Partners in 2018, leading the launch of its vacation-rental (minpaku) businessâlisting 600 properties a year and winning the company's annual MVP award. He went on to lead a 7-person new-business sales team in eastern Japan and managed major foreign-owned hotel chains in the Tokyo metropolitan area. In April 2020 he co-founded TASTE LOCAL and drove its growth, and joined Reiwa Travel as an executive officer in 2021.
First, understand the basis (and the limits) of "four languages"
JNTO (the Japan National Tourism Organization) reported more than 42.68 million inbound visitors for 2025, a new record (JNTO December 2025 estimate). The top five marketsâSouth Korea, China, Taiwan, the United States, and Hong Kongâtogether account for roughly 70% of inbound visitors (JNTO 2025 inbound statistics). On the face of it, covering four languagesâEnglish, Chinese (simplified/traditional), and Koreanâlets you answer the majority of those voices.
That said, no real property fits the "average" exactly. A ski lodge in Niseko skews toward Taiwan and Australia; a machiya townhouse in Kyoto mixes Western and East Asian guests. A hot-spring ryokan in Sapporo and a resort in Naha look very different too.
The first thing to do is check your own OTA booking data and your website's access by language, and identify your top three languages. Your own numbers are a better basis for operational decisions than the nationwide statistics.
How the friction is distributed
According to the Japan Tourism Agency's FY2025 "Survey on the Reception Environment" (PDF), the things visitors struggle with most include a shortage of trash cans, communication with facility staff, crowding at tourist sites, public transport, and a lack of multilingual signage. If you add up the items tied directly to language (communication and multilingual signage), roughly a quarter of inbound visitors experience some kind of language stumbling block.
What you don't want to overlook here is that guests are getting better at coping on their own. In the same survey the previous year, 70â80% of visitors who struggled with communication handled it with a translation app. Pulling out a smartphone and showing the screen is now the on-site standard. It's best to design around that assumption.
Separate the situations by where support is needed
The situations inside a property that require multilingual support become much clearer once you split them into three different kinds. Trying to do everything at once just makes the whole thing too big.
1. Static signage (top priority)
These are displays whose content never changesârestrooms, emergency exits, large-bath (onsen) rules, Wi-Fi, in-room amenities, evacuation routes. You can cover them simply by combining pictograms with fixed text in four languages. It's low-cost, requires only swapping out printed materials, and can be done in as little as two weeks.
This is where to start first, and these two in particular are non-negotiable:
- How to use the large bath (handling towels, using the washing area)
- The emergency evacuation route map
Reading OTA reviews of hot-spring ryokan, you still often see low ratings along the lines of "I didn't understand the rules and felt awkward."
2. Face-to-face and phone support at the front desk
Check-in, booking changes, handling troubleâsituations that demand context and immediacy. Canned responses alone won't cut it. The fact that staff communication shows up near the top of the tourism agency's survey in many years is the flip side of there being room for improvement here.
3. The consideration-stage website and the booking path
If guests come via an OTA you can ride on the platform's machine translation, but your own website is different. Items like pricing and cancellation policiesâwhere a mistranslation tends to cause trouble laterâare exactly the ones you want to publish correctly yourself.
How to choose your tactics
Laying everything out in a table looks tidy, but that's not how the choice gets made on site. It's more practical to look at "what's usable" for each situation.
Translation apps / Pocketalk â for instant front-desk support
When dealing with foreign guests at the front desk, this is the mainstay at almost every property. Every staff member can use it from day one, and the cost is minimal.
But don't use it for text where accuracy directly leads to troubleâpricing, cancellation terms, the house rules (terms of use), and cautionary notes. Prepare those in advance with proper translation and native review. Almost every case of a mistranslation becoming a problem later originates in this territory.
Outside multilingual interpretation services â insurance for emergencies
These help when you suddenly need an interpreter by phone or online (an ambulance transport, dealing with police, a complex complaint). There are services you can contract from a few thousand yen a month, of the type also used in healthcare and government. Even if you rarely use it, just having a contract changes how reassured you feel.
Hiring full-time multilingual staff â when service is part of the brand
This is an option for luxury hotels and hot-spring ryokan where the average spend is high and hospitality is part of the brand. It doesn't fit a need that only exists in peak season, so it presupposes a scale that can keep someone working year-round. Narrowing to one or two languages that match your guest mix is the realistic move.
Making the website multilingual â for properties that want to grow direct bookings
This suits properties whose OTA share is too high, or that want to grow direct bookings from their own site. The sensible path is to start with an English version and add other languages as the guest mix warrants.
How to think about the order you tackle things
When in doubt, think in this order.
- Look at your own guest data â which languages are used most
- Identify which touchpoint is causing friction â static signage, face-to-face/phone, or the web
- Assign a tactic to each touchpoint â apply the "how to choose your tactics" section above
The common failure is skipping the guest-mix check and going straight to "let's just buy a translation tool" or "let's just make an English page." The next most common is putting off multilingual support for emergencies. You want to avoid the situation where, after an earthquake or sudden illness, you're left thinking "we should have translated that."
Get the non-language pieces in order too
Multilingual support isn't finished with translating words alone. As part of your reception setup, you'll want to think about the following preparations together:
- Payments: if you have many guests from Asia, supporting Alipay and WeChat Pay opens up sales opportunities
- Meals: English labeling of ingredients and an allergy-intake flow
- Emergencies: post evacuation routes in four languages plus pictograms in every room, and prepare earthquake/fire/tsunami announcement scripts in the four main languages
- Healthcare and government: a list of nearby medical institutions that handle English, and consulate contact details
These aren't translation issuesâthey're about getting your reception setup in order. Only once all of this is in place do you have the foundation of a property where guests can stay with peace of mind.
Conclusion: four-language support isn't "translation"âit's design fitted to your own guest mix
Multilingual support isn't a matter of "line up four languages and you're done." The starting point is not the nationwide statistics but your own OTA booking data and access by language. Identify your top languages from there, and assign a tactic to each touchpointâjust keeping to this order makes your investment priorities far clearer.
To close, here's the order of thinking, summarized.
- Look at your own guest data: grasp your top three languages, not the nationwide "average"
- Pinpoint the touchpoint causing friction: static signage, front-desk support, or the web
- Assign a tactic to each touchpoint: use translation apps, interpretation services, multilingual staff, and a multilingual website in the right place for each situation
For the order of execution, make static signage (large-bath rules, evacuation route maps)âlow-cost and fast to take effectâthe top priority. And don't put off multilingual support for emergencies like earthquakes or sudden illness. Miss that, and when it matters you'll be thinking "we should have translated that."
And only once you've got payments, meals, and your emergency setup in order too does multilingual support turn from "translation" into "building a property where guests can stay with peace of mind." Starting from your own numbers and moving forward one step at a time, from wherever you can, is the shortest path even when it looks like the long way around.
