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Homestay Visits


What to Expect During Homestay Visits

A member of staff from our office will usually contact you during the week to arrange a suitable time to visit. You will be given a 60-minute time slot for the visit, so please make sure that you are at home when the Homestay Manager arrives. If for any reason we are unable to visit at the time arranged, we will contact you in advance.

Why do we need to visit you?

Home visits are an important part of the application process. You may still have many questions to ask at this stage so it’s the perfect opportunity for us to answer them. There are a few things that need to be considered when deciding your suitability to become a host with us:

When we visit we may take photographs of the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living/communal room(s). These photographs will be used by our team when matching students with hosts. We build a Host Profile with a description and photographs of the accommodation so that students have a clear idea of what to expect when they arrive.
You can see an example of one of our Host Profiles here.

Rest assured we will never publish photos of your home on any website or promotional material without first asking your permission. Your personal information will not be given to any third parties.

During the visit we will conduct a Fire Risk Assessment of your home – it’s highly unlikely that you have carried out one of these before if you’re new to hosting students, so we will help you to complete this.
You can find out more about Fire Risk Assessment here.

We will also ask to see and take a copy of your most recent Gas Safety Certificate, issued within the last 12 months. If you do not already have one, we can help you to get that too.

We aim to provide you with all the information you need to help you decide whether becoming a homestay host is right for you.

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WHAT HAPPENS AFTER HOMESTAY VISITS?

After the visit, you will be sent a confirmation email letting you know whether you have been accepted as a host with Warm Welcome Homestays. Once the application is accepted we then need to complete registration. In order to do this we need:

When all the necessary paperwork has been received, we will be delighted to start placing students with you. Please bear in mind though that even if you are accepted as a host/host family, we may not be able to place students with you straightaway. This could be due to one of the following factors:

1. Seasonality

Peak season is during the spring/summer months of May to September. This is when many international students have their school holidays and they use this time to attend English language schools in the UK. Students arrive year-round but October to April is usually much quieter.

2. Location

Experience tells us that students prefer accommodation that is within 15 minutes’ walk to a bus stop, metro or train station, with a relatively short commute to the city centre. So, if you are more than 45 minutes away from the city centre it may make your accommodation less favourable during the quieter months of October to April.

3. Host Flexibility

When matching students with hosts, we need to consider the students’ requirements and which host is in the best position to provide for these. So it's good to be flexible. Things you should consider are:

  • The meal plans on offer. Some hosts choose to offer only bed and breakfast and self-catering. However, the most requested meal plan from our international students is half board (breakfast and evening meal)
  • Whether to accept guests who are smokers. Many of our hosts are non-smokers and agree to accept students who are smokers so long as they do not smoke within the home
  • Whether to accept male and female students

Book your home visit

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