Searches in foreign languages

Special characters

[surfgatinho]

I've just started getting some translations done on a couple of sites but was wondering how characters and keyboards affect serching.

For instance if a searcher in france was looking for a hotel would they just type hotel or would they have an ô key, i.e. hôtel and does this make any difference?

Help appreciated,
Thanks

[webdoctor]

If a German searcher is searching for a hotel in Munich, and they're using a PC with a German keyboard, in my experience they will enter:

Hotel München

If they're using a PC with an English keyboard (no umlaut characters) they'll enter

Hotel Muenchen

So I think it depends on whether you're targetting nationals in their own country (with their 'own' keyboard), or expats typing on an English keyboard who may not know all the ALT-xyz combinations necessary to get at the extra characters...