Lay My Hat

Yesterday I received an enquiry for Christmas week written in French from French via OD via Abritel.

My listing states I only speak English (although I do have some very(!) basic French)

I sent her a quote from OD and direct from PIMS. She initially replied in basic English and asked for the address and directions as they'd be arriving by car (before any indication of confirming a booking) which I hadn't replied to before I received another email (direct) asking for my quote/contract in French.

Now, should the onus be on me to translate everything for her or suggest she try Google?

When I get stuff like this I type it in English, run it through Google Translate and send both versions - that way at least if the Google translated bit is gobbledygook they have the original to work with.

I would just send the English version to be honest.

Google doesn't half mangle the languages it translates at times and you need this to be a binding agreement. If there is any ambiguity or errors then you could have problem as they could argue that you sent them the French version and it's your fault they were mislead etc etc

If you just send the English version it is up to them to translate it and any errors are theirs not yours.

Considering that your potential guest is booking a place in England, I also think the onus should be on her to translate, rather than to expect you to.

When it comes to contracts, your guest should only be signing your original, English copy, or you may find your contract null and void (and, as someone else pointed out, gobbledegook!) in legal terms. We had a similar situation with British guests who didn't understand our French contract. In their case, being a native English speaker, I could accompany the French contract with a truncated version of the important points in English, but as a French registered company, we could only accept a signed copy of the French contract. I certainly wouldn't have done the same for, say, a Spanish guest for fear of misleading them with a bad translation.

It is also possible, with your original English documents, emails etc. that she could find someone bilingual to translate for her, rather than her having to second guess what you might have meant if you were to send her Google translated text.

In this instance, she was actually enquireing for our Portuguese property, our terms are set out under English law. I would have thought if she was savvy enough to find and enquire online she should be savvy enough to get a translation, depends how much she wants to book I guess. 2ivevmot had this issue with non English speaking guests before.

She's just emailed me again stating she wants to pay but still wants a French contract as her English is bad. I'm thinking of just using google translate but adding something to the effect that my English version stands as the original worded contract in case of any misunderstanding. Is this the right way to go perhaps and how can I clearly word and of course translate it clearly?!

Would she ask the same if your contract is in Portuguese?
How do you stand in law?

• *If the contact is in English and then translated?
  *If your property is in Portugal and one would have to assume the Portuguese law would prevail?

Hi Sam: I've sent you a pm...I think!