Wohlfühlhotel

English translation: wellness hotel

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

German term or phrase:	Wohlfühlhotel
English translation:	wellness hotel
Entered by:	Michael Schubert

18:26 Feb 8, 2005

German to English translations [PRO]
Tourism & Travel

German term or phrase: Wohlfühlhotel

"Wohlfühlhotel im Zentrum mit wunderbarer Bergsicht."
Wellness hotel just sounds so...German

Kathryn McFarland

Wellness hotel

Explanation:
I almost suspect "Wohlfühlhotel" is itself their translation of "wellness hotel"; the term "wellness" is a bit trendy for my tastes, but very established.

Selected response from:

Michael Schubert
United States
Local time: 19:03

Grading comment

It seems a shame to end this animated discussion but I have a confession to make to all of you - I have succumbed and decided that writeaway is right - the hotel itself probably expects to see the term "Wellness" in the translation - so that's what they're getting. It seems "wellness" is going to be one of those English words that other languages take on, turn into a monster, then spit back at English! ;-)
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +2

Feel-good hotel ?

Nesrin

spa resort hotel

Michael Bailey

Wellness hotel

Michael Schubert

A friendly, relaxed hotel

Kurt Beals

hotel with relaxed atmosphere

rangepost

Well-being hotel

Nick Somers (X)

Discussion entries: 9

Answers

8 mins confidence:

Wohlf�hlhotel hotel with relaxed atmosphere

Explanation:
;-)

rangepost
Local time: 19:03
Native speaker of:

English

3 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

Wohlfühlhotel Feel-good hotel ?

Explanation:
-

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 mins (2005-02-08 18:35:27 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Found it in a title of a New York Times article:
Ginkgo Chic: The Feel-Good Hotel
By JULIE V. IOVINE
Published: November 19, 1998

\"... The hotel, by Starwood Hotels and Resorts, is the most ambitious extension yet of this all-purpose feel-good brand \"

http://travel2.nytimes.com/mem/travel/article-page.html?res=...

Nesrin
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:03
Works in field
Native speaker of: Arabic
PRO pts in category: 16

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Trudy Peters: Beat me to it! // Maybe the link was ill-chosen, but I still don't think it has anything to do with wellness. See my note above.

3 mins

-> I agree with your interpretation, but I don't think the link was ill chosen. The fact that "wellness" is mentioned in the article shows that even if the term "wellness" is used in "proper" English, the author preferred to call it a "feel-good hotel".

disagree

Michael Schubert: The way "feel-good" is used here does not parallel "Wohlfühl" in the example. Even in the article you link, they make immediate reference to the "wellness" industry.

11 mins

-> I can't see what else "feel-good" could mean here.

agree

Claire Cox: Yes, that would be my interpretation too - maybe even in inverted commas. Wellness definitely sounds very odd to my ears, even though you do see it (regrettably!)

12 mins

agree

Johanna Timm, PhD: I think it's meant to evoke the same associations as, for instance, 'comfort food'

18 mins

-> That's how I see it too.

neutral

writeaway: I think that the hotel will be very upset if if the buzzword Wellness is avoided for the sake of trying to produce an original translation-am fairly sure this would have to back-translate to Wellness/because they wanted to use a German word

22 mins

-> So why didn't they go ahead and use the word "Wellness" in German, seeing that the word is more widespread in German than it is in English?

10 mins confidence:

Wohlfühlhotel

Wellness hotel

Explanation:
I almost suspect "Wohlfühlhotel" is itself their translation of "wellness hotel"; the term "wellness" is a bit trendy for my tastes, but very established.

Michael Schubert
United States
Local time: 19:03
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 12

Grading comment

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Michael Bailey: would agree that Wohlfühlhotel is a back-calque of Wellness.

4 mins

agree

writeaway: it is definitely the going term and this is probably an attempt to avoid using Wellness in German-even the French use Wellness a lot.

12 mins

neutral

Annika Neudecker: Not necessarily. You could be right, but: Just because they use "Wohlfühl" doesn't mean they provide the typical services associated with the term "wellness" (spa, massage, aroma therapy etc.)

1 hr

agree

Dr.G.MD (X)

2 hrs

disagree

Lancashireman: Sorry, Michael. I am currently encountering a plague of ‘wellness’ in the Balearics. What do these earnest entrepreneurs mean? As long as the clientele are Germans: no problem. But use this word on an Englishman and all you’ll get is a blank stare.

5 hrs

disagree

Francis Lee (X): with Andrew - the Google hits are generally from German/European sites

12 hrs

disagree

Kurt Beals: There are a lot of wellness centers, etc., in the US, but I've never heard of a wellness hotel. I'm with AnnikaLight - a Wohlfühlhotel doesn't necessarily have what a US visitor would expect of a "wellness" hotel.

19 hrs

17 mins confidence:

Wohlfühlhotel spa resort hotel

Explanation:
A way round using "Wellness" - a dreadful, yet sadly prevalent term.

Michael Bailey
Austria
Local time: 04:03
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 3

11 hrs confidence:

Wohlfühlhotel Well-being hotel

Explanation:
There is an alarming number of hits for wohlfühl hotel and most but not all of them are indeed wellness. Personally, I have no problem with wellness - it's a buzzword that's become established for a buzz concept. Lots of neologisms that we take for granted started out like that. Software is probably one.

Anyway, if you are nevertheless uncomfortable with wellness, for whatever reason, this might be an alternative.

Reference: http://www.kreuz-post.ch/cms/front_content.php

Nick Somers (X)
Local time: 04:03
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 24

20 hrs confidence:

Wohlfühlhotel A friendly, relaxed hotel

Explanation:
This may be a good way out - rephrase it so it's describing instead of categorizing. If it's a spa, go with that because it sounds nicer, but if all they mean is a hotel that makes you feel good in some general way, I'd go with something like
"A friendly, relaxed hotel in the middle of the city..." (or city center, etc.)
Putting "wellness" or "spa" or something at the beginning may put the hotel in a category where it doesn't belong.
(Note that these references are from websites for hotels in the UK, not Germany)

Reference: http://traveljunkies.com/links/United_Kingdom/England/
Reference: http://travel.world.co.uk/hotelsuk.htm

Kurt Beals
United States
Local time: 19:03
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English

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English translation: wellness hotel

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