Homestay

Homestay accommodation is living in the home of a local family

If you want to learn English and have a great time living in the UK or Ireland, we recommend this kind of accommodation.

The main advantages of this kind of accommodation are

You will speak English nearly all the time, because you will be living with English speakers.
You will learn about the culture of the country.
You will have a secure and friendly home environment to relax in.
All your bills are taken care of, so the price you pay is the total price.

We choose our homestay hosts because they have comfortable relaxing homes and friendly, caring personalities.

To book homestay accommodation please use our online registration form or you can download a paper form. You should send us your details at least 2 weeks before you want to start the accommodation. Otherwise, we might not have enough time to to arrange it for you.

The price for homestay is listed on our prices page and varies with location. You must pay the booking fee of £50 for us to process your request. We charge this fee for each request separately.

Generally, homestay accommodation will include:

A single room with a lock on the door
Clean bed sheets
The people who live in the house will speak English as their first language
Breakfast every day
Dinner in the evening with the people who live in the house (another opportunity to practice your English!)
Lunch at the weekends (Saturday and Sunday)
Use of the washing machine
Broadband internet (in most homestays)
Public transport not more than 40 minutes from our city centre school (in Manchester)

Some important differences between different homestay accommodations are:

Most homestay rooms do not have an en suite bathroom, but some do.
If you require special food (eg. vegetarian or Halal) then you will have to pay extra (£20 per week), as the family will have to cook special food for you instead of sharing their meals with you.
Some people have pets in their house, like dogs and cats, some do not.
Some homestay hosts live very near the school (e.g. about 10 minutes) but some live further away (as much as 40 minutes by public transport).
Some homestay hosts have access to very regular public transport, like a train station, but in other places you must take a bus, which may be less regular.
Many homestay hosts are not typical families; they may be single parent families or older people whose children no longer live at home. This is why we do not call it "living with a family", because families in Britain and Ireland are not always parents with children.
Many homestay hosts are from other ethnic and cultural groups, but they will always speak English as their first language.

Be careful...

It is important to remember that homestay accommodation is not a hotel; you are welcomed to stay in another person's home. If you have very high expectations about the standard of your accommodation you should pay for a hotel, and if you want to come home late often or bring friends back to your accommodation you should not choose homestay - perhaps a student residence or a studio flat would be more suitable for you.