Copenhagen – no longer the secret star among Europe’s travel capitals. It wasn’t the Little Mermaid statue that triggered a massive tourism rush in the 2010s, but the Danish attitude towards life known as hygge, which has become popular worldwide. The Motel One Group is positioning itself for this: with its new accommodation in the heart of Copenhagen, which opened in October 2021, it is fully committed to the cozy lifestyle.
At the same time, the Nordic country has caught the travel bug itself. For years, its citizens have been among the most well-traveled in Europe. Statistically speaking, Danish tourists actually plan their vacations the furthest in advance of any nationality in Europe – so they are certainly clicking through hotel offers, recommendations and tips about their travel destination ahead of time.
Expansion and touristic potential – two excellent reasons for Motel One to make its website available in Danish in the future. With 79 hotels in 37 locations, the hotel group welcomes international business travelers and city hoppers alike in what are now almost 23,000 rooms around the world. Its buildings have a clear corporate identity – above all through the recurring design elements in turquoise – and thus excellent brand recognition. Motel One entrusted Supertext with the translation of its content to ensure that the tone of its online texts also maintains the same recognizability in every language.
From casting and corporate wording to professional Danish translations
Supertext has made a name for itself as a partner for renowned customers in the tourism industry. The language service provider was already responsible for the Polish translation of the Motel One website in 2018. For the Danish version, it held a translator casting – only the very best native speakers should get a chance to translate and proofread the texts. The company chose a language team that was as well-versed in tourism and the hotel industry as it was in search engine-optimized writing.
As soon as the team was in place, the first batches were delivered – first via XLF file and later in XML format. Both target formats were easy to handle thanks to the Supertext platform. During the translation process, it was important to respect Motel One’s rules for corporate language in the target language. For example, when it came to the hotel names, only the city names were to be localized and not the entire title, such as with MOTEL ONE KØLN-MESSE or MOTEL ONE HAMBORG-FLEETINSEL. In another example, the hotel’s “beOne” membership program needed to be written consistently across languages.
Piece by piece, Supertext translated the entire 100,000-word website into Danish. The user experience on the website was then tested, including all booking steps up to the payment process. This final layout check ensured that everything fit from A to Z. The new version of the website was then ready to be launched in mid-February.
“Supertext supports us in our global growth.”
Supertext also regularly translates for the hotel group’s marketing department – from small texts for the website and the newsletter to the local breakfast menu – and even door signs – at the different locations. Supertext handles translations into English, French, Dutch, Polish and Czech, so that Motel One’s guests from all over the world can feel at home. Hygge, even.
“Our mission to offer the best service also means catering to international guests in their own language. That’s why we are glad to have a reliable partner like Supertext by our side, supporting us in our expanding web presence.”
Andrea Winkler, Senior Content Manager, Motel One
Cover picture from Motel One