Google attempts to match the information in your property list to the information that is publicly available on Google Maps. In regions where multiple languages are used, including your inventory in all local languages helps Google match the listings.
Using multi-language property lists is strongly recommended when a hotel property inventory spans countries where there are multiple languages spoken and the primary language across all countries isn’t always English.
For XML property lists hosted on your server, the language should be set at the file-level. Refer to this sample code to understand how it works.
Best practices
These best practices can help you maximize your match rate using multi-language property lists.
- If possible, provide a file in English for all properties in your inventory. Contents of the file, such as name, address, and country should be in English.
- If your inventory isn’t available in English, share the information in a language file that matches the language it’s available in. Don’t send localized language content in an English language file or English content in other language files.
- For example, it is best to not send non-English localized content - for example, a Korean name and address - in an English language file. If only the Korean name and address is available for a property, only send it in a Korean language file.
- Provide content for a property in all common languages spoken in a property’s location.
- For example, providing property information for a Japanese property in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese language files, in addition to English, may help improve matching.
- If you have partial information about a property in different languages, send the information in all languages it’s available. Make sure that the localized language content is shared in the correct language file.
Learn how to set up multiple XML files on a server.
How it works
When you send us both English data and the local language data it can help increase the likelihood that your property correctly matches to the appropriate Google Maps location. Add corresponding local language XML files based on the country of the property. Each language should have its own XML file.
Once all your language files are ready, compress them into a single ZIP file and host it on your server using Hotel list pull.
Review the below example to understand how to build a sample hotel list with properties in countries that use multiple languages.
Example
You have properties named “Tower Hotel” (English only), “ホテルジェイク” (Japanese only), and “Tokyo Sunset Hotel”. For “Tokyo Sunset Hotel,” you also have the localized name in Japanese, which is “東京サンセットホテル”. In this example, “Tower Hotel“ should be in the English language file, “Tokyo Sunset Hotel” English content should be in the English language file and the Japanese content “東京サンセットホテル” should be in the Japanese language file, and ホテルジェイク (the property with only Japanese content) should only be in the Japanese language file.
The sample compressed zip file “http://samplepartner.com/samplepartner_local.xml.zip” contains the following files and properties:
- Samplepartner_local_en.xml [English language file]
- Tower Hotel (English content)
- Tokyo Sunset Hotel (English content)
- Samplepartner_local_ja.xml [Japanese language file]
- 東京サンセットホテル (Japanese content for “Tokyo Sunset Hotel”))
- ホテルジェイク(Japanese-only content)
In the above file:
- Tokyo Sunset Hotel and 東京サンセットホテル are the same hotel.
- Tower Hotel only has an English name stored in the partner system, so it’s only present in the English file.
- ホテルジェイクonly has a Japanese name stored in the partner system, so it is only present in the Japanese file.