What We Do
• Arrange accommodations in American homes for international students, executives, and business interns.
• Our clients: language schools, colleges & universities, individual students & interns, and, hosts.
• Market homestay services to schools, agents, businesses, and, individuals worldwide.
• Manage billings, collections, and, payments to hosts.
• Provide daily support to all clients, i.e., provide guidance regarding homestay issues, mediate problems, etc.
What The Host Family Provides (in the home of their residence):
- • Lodging
• Bedroom: private or shared
• Bed, desk, chair, lamp, closet space, bed linens
• Bath: private or shared
• Toilet paper, bath towels, wash cloths
• Cleaning of linens & towels weekly
• Clean & safe home
- Meals (3 options)Full Homestay:• Continental Breakfast- self-serve (breads, cold cereals, milk, juice, coffee, tea, yogurt, or fruit)
• Dinner (as eaten by family)
• Storage and refrigerator space for student snacks
Bed & Breakfast:• Continental Breakfast
• Cooking utensils, pots, pans
• Kitchen access
• Cabinet and refrigerator storage space
No Food
• Cabinet and refrigerator storage space
• Access to kitchen & cooking accessories
3. Interaction with Homestay Guest
• Conversational English
• Assistance with understanding public transportation around the Bay Area. You can use the website at: http://511.org/ to plan any trip on public transportation or to figure out a route in the Bay Area.
Interaction Between You & Students
Students are here to learn English; interns are here to get work experience. Both want to get a sense of our culture, meet people, practice language skills, and, enjoy themselves as they explore local life. A homestay accommodation offers them an affordable residence, meals or no meals, and, warm welcoming locals who can add a friendly local touch to their stay. A homestay home is clean, safe, and, one in which the guest feels welcome.
A host’s job is to provide the physical accommodation (bedroom with bed, desk, lamp, chair, a place for clothing, and a standard door; bathroom with linens included), weekly linen service (bed linens, bath towels), meals (as described below), and some interaction with the student (usually during mealtime).
The host also helps the student settle in and become familiar with the area and with transportation around the area. In making the student feel welcome, please apply the old but true Golden Rule, "Do unto others…". The host might also help the student learn the location of certain businesses (post office, banks, etc.), grocery stores, retail shops, and so on.
Both hosts and students have a right to a warm, friendly, and safe living environment. The student is looking to feel welcome and to practice language skills. You are expected to be available for some interaction with your students, especially at meal time, however, the degree to which you interact during your free or recreational time is at your discretion. You are under no obligation to include them in your family recreational activities. Usually, dinner during the week is the expected interaction time, however, on the weekend, you are under no obligation to spend time with the students. That is up to you to decide. Many students will meet other students and go out on the weekend.
IMPORTANT: Please keep all interactions with students on a professional level. They may be living with you, however, they are still paying guests. Family or personal problems, financial problems, etc., are not a student’s business and should not be discussed with them.
Below are some details and guidelines to follow when working with us and students. Also, please familiarize yourself with the
Guest Guidelines. If you have any questions or confusions, please feel welcome to phone us. We are happy to help.
Meals Meal agreements are for seven days a week and are not negotiable; e.g., your student can't trade breakfast for lunch or for dinner. If students want to change their meal arrangements, please refer them to us.
- Meal options are:
Full Homestay – includes self-serve continental breakfast and family dinner. - Bed & Breakfast – includes self-serve continental breakfast only; student has kitchen privileges for cooking own dinner. Family should share condiments with students.
- Home Accommodation/No Food – student is responsible for purchasing and preparing own food. You provide storage/refrigerator space and access to kitchen for food preparation and cooking.
- Please provide students with refrigerator and cabinet space to store snacks that they might purchase. If you don't, they will store food in their rooms, and that can be a problem.
If a student eats considerably more than most people, consider portioning their serving and not allowing all to serve themselves. It is usually not possible to get more money from students who are big eaters.
Continental Breakfast:Cereals, breads, jam or jelly, fruit, yogurt, coffee, tea, milk, juice. This is a self-serve meal. Suggestion: find out your student's preferences so that you won't have to purchase everything and then throw things away.
Lunch and Snacks:
These are the student's responsibility- never provided in ordinary Homestay arrangements. From time to time a group may request bag lunches, and extra compensation is always negotiated for special services.
Dinner:Students eat the same meal with the family. Unless special arrangements are made by SFH, they are not to be given a different meal than the family eats. When you cannot be home for dinner, or, will be away on a weekend night, please have a cooked meal available for the full homestay student to heat-up. In some cases, certain students may be amenable to cooking their own meals if you have food available for them to prepare, but remember, not all will be willing to do so.
Schools and students view dinner as the best social time for English language practice. Please do what you can to be able to dine with your students or provide them with some social time each evening during the week (Monday – Friday). This will help the student feel more welcome and help with the practice of English skills.
Bookings
We will match the appropriate student/intern with your family and contact you when there is a placement to be made. If you keep us informed as to your availability, we can better serve you.
When given a student, please make certain to record the student's name, nationality, school, and, arrival & departure dates. A booking is confirmed when you have spoken or communicated by email with us and have agreed to take the student. We generally send a confirmation. If you have not received one, please ask about it, sometimes email gets lost or swept up in spam filters.
IMPORTANT: Because students are here to learn and practice their English, we are usually required to not book 2 students of the same nationality at the same time in one home. If you work with other coordinators to book students, please take vigilant care not to double book same nationalities. When this occurs, schools get upset and require that we move the student in question.
Sometimes a student is booked into your home and upon arrival, you or the student realizes that the chemistry is not right. That’s ok, it sometimes happens. We just work to move the student as quickly as we can.
IMPORTANT: We will negotiate a particular accommodation in your home for the student on your behalf.
Once the student arrives, please don’t change the student’s room assignment without consulting us first. Sometimes, the change is not appropriate for what they have purchased and we will hear from the school, an agent or another student. In the long run, these changes don't work out when you haven't communicated with us beforehand.
Your Host Information Profile
Your profile: We build a family profile based upon the information on your application and on our visits to your home. The student is placed into your home based upon your profile. Your profile is given to the school and student upon confirmation of a booking.
If there are any changes (no matter how insignificant or personal) to your home or family situation, you must inform us so that we can adjust your profile accordingly. This is very important as you will be held accountable for what we "advertise" and promise to students and schools on your behalf.
Some examples of changes are: pets, separations or divorces, family crises, new relationships, children, smoking habits, a new household member, washer/dryer access, renovations, illnesses, vacations, short trips, etc.
Keeping your profile updated and accurate is of vital importance. Our goal is to provide a safe and pleasant experience for both you and the homestay guest. If something changes in the home, or, if you are having a personal problem, this can seriously affect the student, your ability to host, and, our business. If we are told about it in advance or as soon as it happens, we can act quickly to prevent serious business and legal problems from occurring.
Please take this requirement seriously. We do not judge anyone who is experiencing difficult times or emotional changes. We keep any personal information about you and your family confidential and have the utmost respect for the personal nature of all of our lives.
No Guarantees
This Should be Supplementary Income: Homestay is designed to provide hosts with a supplementary income, not be the primary income. While the overwhelming majority of students do show up and do stay the entire time that they booked the reservation for, there are times when students cancel their reservation, don’t show up, or, arrive but depart earlier than expected. We cannot control these circumstances; therefore we cannot guarantee any income for hosts or SFH.
No-Show's and Cancellations: San Francisco Homestay cannot guarantee that any booked student will arrive to your home, nor can we guarantee that any student will stay for the entire time that they booked the reservation. Both our organization and the schools that we work with do our best to determine that the student truly intends to follow through on their reservation, however, we can never guarantee that this happens. Various things will happen that cause the student to either cancel the reservation or simply not show up. We have no control over this and we do not receive payment for homestay if the student does not arrive, therefore, we cannot guarantee any payment to you for such a student. Please be prepared for this to happen periodically. What we do, however, is to put you on the top of our list of available homestays so you are first in line to receive the next appropriate student.
Two-Week Notice: When a student is in your home, he or she may decide to depart earlier than originally planned. Sometimes, we can ask for a 2-week notice of departure and sometimes we can’t – it depends upon which school the student attends and whether or not they allow for a 2-week notice. Or, it depends upon our ability to collect for that two weeks if the student is a "private" student.
If the student attends a school that supports a 2-week notice policy, the student must pay for the following 14 nights beginning the day that notice was given (the student can leave anytime). If we cannot press for a 2-week notice, they can leave when they want to and only pay for nights spent in the home. If the student departs without paying and we cannot collect the fee, we cannot pay the host. So, we cannot always guarantee a 2-week notice.
Please don’t fret much as San Francisco Homestay has an excellent collection record and has policies in place to best ensure collection of fees. However, if a student skips without paying us and we cannot collect the fee, we cannot guarantee payment to the host family. Don’t worry, this is a very rare occurrence.
Arrivals
It is important for you to be home to greet your student and help him/her settle in. In most cases, during the week prior to arrival, San Francisco Homestay will provide you with an arrival time for the student. Some schools (ELS in particular) do not provide arrival times for some of their students, other than the day of arrival. Students and schools will insist that someone be home if an arrival time has been provided.
If the school or student has not provided us with an arrival time, you certainly can go about your daily business, just leave a note on the door as to when you will return, or, where the student can go until you return.
Weekend Arrivals:If you have been provided with an arrival time, please be home to greet students and help them settle in. If you are in a bind and can't be home, you must arrange for a neighbor or other family member to be there to greet your student. This is a great way to begin the relationship. If you can’t arrange a welcome, you will risk losing the student to another host who is available.
Weekday and Late Night Arrivals:We are sensitive to certain limitations that hosts may have regarding weekday and late night arrivals, therefore, we ask students to give us plenty of lead-time to make special arrangements. These arrangements may include giving you enough time to arrange for someone to be home, or, for the student to find somewhere to go (usually to school) until you return home from work. During the peak season, we generally refuse weekday arrivals.
In the event of a late night arrival, we request that students who will arrive in the home after 10pm, Sunday through Thursday, either get approval from you to arrive at that time, or, check-in to a hotel the first night. Some schools allow for students to arrive, at the airport, up to 10pm, making their arrival into the home around 11pm or so.
Guest Instructions and GuidelinesIMPORTANT: Please familiarize yourself with both the Host Guidelines and the Student Guidelines.
You are provided with the
Guest Guidelines. Please keep a master copy in a safe place for reproduction, or the address of the Guidelines in your computer bookmarks. We find that it is useful to keep a student copy available for each student room or copy one for each student. We can email you a copy that you can print out at any time.
Please review these guidelines with each student once they have settled in. In addition to San Francisco Homestay Student Guidelines, most families have their own specific guidelines or instructions for family members & students to follow. Please provide students with a copy of yours. Help your students understand what behavior is either expected or not desired.
Please have clear written instructions regarding the use of kitchen & bathroom appliances, bedroom items, window coverings, etc. Help students understand how to use anything that they may need to use. Before we can bill students for breaking something, we must know that you have reviewed the use instructions with them.
Please provide your students with a house key and make sure they know how to use it. Also, please be vigilant about getting your keys back when the student leaves, as changing locks gets expensive.
Transportation, Insurance, Safety & Liabilities
You are not responsible for any transportation of students. Please help them become familiar with public transportation from your home to school or wherever. However, if your home is located in an area that does not have good bus service in the evenings or weekends, you may need to help your student with some transportation needs. Please check your auto insurance for coverage as you will need extended coverage to transport students. If you do not have insurance, or, your coverage is very limited, please do not transport students.
You are responsible to ensure that your home is a safe environment for yourself, your family, and guests. For example, you must have working smoke detectors in your home.
As for insurance generally, our hosts are expected to obtain whatever coverage they deem appropriate in order to insure them against potential claims arising from the host services they provide. San Francisco Homestay does not offer insurance coverage for our hosts. Please consult your insurance agent to ensure that you have the appropriate homeowner, auto, and, general liability insurance coverage.
As a condition of your participation in this program, you agree to release and hold San Francisco Homestay, its parent company SafeLodging Corporation, and its owners and employees, harmless to the full extent permitted by law from any damages or liability resulting from your participation in this program. San Francisco Homestay and its owners and employees are in no way to be considered as having a legal guardian status or being in any other way responsible to the behavior or actions of the guest(s).
Phone
You are not required to provide phone service to students, however, it is usually offered to students. If you do provide a phone for them, please protect yourself from large bills by placing a toll block or an international block on that phone. Ask your phone company for information about either one. Consider having a phone specifically for students with a toll block placed on it. Students are required to use phone cards to make phone calls, but, if you are not careful large phone bills could be left behind and they can be very difficult or impossible to collect from the student.
Executive accommodations will likely require a personal phone or phone extension in their bedroom.
Phone Lines: Computers and Internet Access
We prefer to offer internet access to students, however, if you have these it does increase the satisfaction of guests as we live in an increasingly "wired" world and students are often required to use the internet for their studies. This is provided at your discretion, and you should know that it makes an enormous difference to your guests. We understand the phone line and phone bill problems that can occur when students access the internet from your home. We also advise students to visit places that offer free wireless & to use school computer labs.
Entertainment- TV, Stereo, VCR, Etc.
You are not required to provide these in bedrooms, unless a specific arrangement has been negotiated. Most families do offer access to television and VCR’s to students. Please be clear with your students regarding their use. Many schools will want students to view television as language practice.
Executive accommodations will likely require a TV and stereo in the student bedroom.
Tax and Financial Information
It is important to understand that by marketing your homestay capabilities and collecting the payments from the students, we provide a service to you. The payment we receive from the students on your behalf has two components: 1) the host homestay fee, which we receive in a trust account and pay to you as soon as the student’s payment has been cleared by the bank, and, 2) the application and management fee which we retain for payment of our services.
We recommend that you carefully keep track of your income and expenditures related to homestay. We do not provide this service to our hosts. Our hosts are expected to determine the tax treatment of any payments which they receive through us related to this service. We will make our own independent determination of the tax treatment given to any payments we make to our hosts related to this service, and may, from time-to-time, submit reports and tax forms to our hosts as required by law.
Please consult and follow the advice of a tax accountant or other tax professional regarding the potential tax liabilities of your homestay income.
Financial Policies and Fee Payments
We manage the negotiation, billing, collection, and, fee payment process. Please, avoid speaking with students about any financial arrangements that have been made between us, San Francisco Homestay Incorporated and the student, or, between us and you. Uncontrolled conversations regarding these fees can cause serious problems regarding that student’s stay in your home. We do not have any idea what agents charge guests or how much markup there could be because of intermediaries who charge fees.
Please, do not negotiate any financial arrangements directly with the students--leave the negotiations to us. If there is a question on anyone’s part, it is important to stop the discussion and call us to handle the issue (or refer the student to us). Any arrangements must be negotiated with us. San Francisco Homestay is the broker who brings the host and student together. We must always be involved in any arrangement made at any time between the two parties. If a student or host has any desire to alter the services provided and the fees paid, this negotiation must take place with San Francisco Homestay. School can ask us to avoid placing students with your family on the basis of reports that you have negotiated directly with students.
We understand that sometimes a student might need to decrease the cost of services but will still want to remain in the same home. We work with the host first to negotiate some arrangement that will meet all of our needs.
Please, do not allow the students to pay you directly unless this has been specifically arranged between you and San Francisco Homestay.
For students staying 4 week or longer, we quote fees on a 28 night (4 week) basis, not a monthly basis. For other students, their quote is based on the 4-week rate, but prorated weekly or daily.
For students who attend one of the schools with which we have a financial arrangement, we bill the school and they pay us on various schedules. We will always let you know when to expect payment. We pay hosts only after the school has paid us. Please be patient if the payment does not arrive as quickly as expected.
Refunds
It is important to remember that the fee paid by students is a
stipend that follows them wherever they go. Unlike a rental, this is a service, which provides for a mutually consenting house guest status.
If students leave early, they are more than likely due a refund. What happens will depend upon the specific circumstances under which they depart, so, we can only suggest some possibilities, but none are "written in stone". Therefore, please be financially prepared for what may happen.
If, for any reason, the student is dissatisfied with the services provided by the host family, or the family is dissatisfied with the student, we first attempt to resolve the issue and keep them in your home. If unsuccessful, we move them to another home. When moving a student out of a home, sometimes a 2-week notice to leave will work, other times the move must be immediate. If they move, you are due payment for the days in your home & must refund the rest to San Francisco Homestay immediately.
If services are provided and all is basically well, yet, the student wishes to depart for other reasons, we ask for a 2-week notice, but cannot always enforce this request. This depends upon the policies of the school involved, or, whether or not we already have student money and can control what is refunded.
Problems/ Mediation/ EvictionMost issues that arise can be handled within the home. You have your own guidelines, and, you have our student guidelines. Please make sure that all students have access to a copy of the appropriate guidelines. For simple issues, it is your responsibility to make sure that students know what they can and cannot do. For example, make sure that students understand what meals they have purchased. If a student is consuming something they should not, stop it quickly. Know what they have paid for and what they have not paid for.
From time to time, issues may arise that you feel our assistance would be beneficial. We are happy and available to help resolve any issue. Please involve us early in any problems. Our first goal is to work with the student and family (and sometimes the school) in order to iron out the issues and keep the student in the same home. However, we are quite willing to remove the student from the home, upon any reasonable request from the family or the student or the school. Sometimes, we will give all involved a 2-week notice; sometimes, the move will be immediate.
No one is ever expected to live in an unpleasant, unbearable, or, unsafe situation.
IMPORTANT: Some issues may arise that can become serious personal, professional, and, legal problems for all involved. Please contact us immediately so that we can ensure the proper handling of the situation. As was mentioned earlier, please don’t be embarrassed by any problem that may arise, be it personal or whatever. It is better to be honest with us and involve us immediately so that serious financial and legal problems are avoided.
To give you an idea: personal problems and family stress is, without a doubt, noticeable to a homestay guest. The guest might not let the host know how uncomfortable they are or how threatened they feel. They might not even tell us what is happening. The host might not inform us of a personal crisis. The student might suddenly leave the home. Then, seemingly "out of the blue", we will receive a threatening fax from their agent or school and be put on notice that they are expecting a refund for stressful services provided and a pay-off for the stress experienced by the student. They will threaten that legal action will take place if we do not settle. This has happened.
Please, inform us of any problems that might be occurring that could become serious. We maintain confidentiality.
San Francisco Homestay Standards and Agreements
As we are the organization that represents all of our affiliated homes, we strive to maintain a professional reputation of providing clean & safe accommodations that meet the standards as described by San Francisco Homestay and our client schools. You are held accountable to these standards and regulations as set by each of our client schools.
Please abide by the previously mentioned and following guidelines. We reserve the right to terminate homestay services to hosts who neglect to follow our guidelines.
- Provide the service that you have agreed to provide in the home that we qualified and that is your residence.
- Notify us immediately when any portion of your family profile changes.
- Please be familiar with both the Host and Student Guidelines.
- Please make certain that students have access to a copy of their guidelines and an evaluation form provided by us.
- Any and all changes to the student’s service or accommodation must be arranged by San Francisco Homestay.
- Refer all financial questions to San Francisco Homestay.
- Please pay all fees due to San Francisco Homestay if the student is asked to pay you directly or if refunds are required.
- Immediately inform San Francisco Homestay of chronic or serious problems that arise or problems that you are not comfortable handling.
- Please inform us of any personal problems that may affect the Homestay guest.
- If you are in any doubt regarding an issue, or, something arises that has not been covered, please call us.
- Allow San Francisco Homestay to be responsible for especially sensitive conversations with the student. If they are being asked to leave by you, it is best for all involved that you allow us to manage that process and communicate with the school and student.
- Allow San Francisco Homestay to be the buffer between you and the school. In normal situations our schools are not to phone you, nor are you to phone them, unless we have previously discussed the issue.
- When students wish to stay in the home beyond their school commitment and beyond their original departure date, please let us know as quickly as possible. Other students may be booked in that room or, schools may require that we just notify them if a student is extending.
- Any students we have provided for you are provided by special arrangement. If they extend their stay or return to your home in the future, they should still book your home through San Francisco Homestay. This is a courtesy that we expect.
- Again, since we negotiate all fees with the schools and students, please, do not discuss or negotiate any financial matters with your students. Our negotiations are done in the best interests of all parties and any secondary negotiations would be unprofessional and could create serious problems.
- If you find that you are beginning to "burn-out" on homestay, please take a short break from receiving students. Burnout does occur, but, if you are proactive, you can prevent problems from occurring.
- Please feel welcome to call us at anytime with any questions or concerns.
- Homestay Meal Options
(Excerpt from the Student Guidelines)
Full Homestay:
Breakfast: Self-serve continental: breads, cold cereals, milk, juice, coffee, tea, yogurt, or fruit
Dinner: as served by family – no special requests.
- You are responsible for your own lunch and snacks - no negotiations.
- Please do not take food from the home.
- If the family is out for the evening or on a weekend outing, a prepared dinner will be available for you to heat up. Please clean up afterwards.
- Special dietary needs: we respect vegetarians and those with special religious or medical dietary needs, and we will attempt to place them in homes that can accommodate them – prices may vary for special dietary needs. Otherwise, please eat what the family eats - no special requests.
- Please be on time for dinner. Otherwise, notify the family at least 2 - 4 hours in advance if you will be late for dinner or not coming home for dinner.
Bed & Breakfast (B&B):
Breakfast: self serve continental: breads, cold cereals, milk, coffee, tea, yogurt, or, fruit
• You are responsible for own lunch, dinner, and snacks - no negotiations.
• Please do not take food from the home.
• You will need to shop for your own food, prepare your own food, and clean-up all materials and surfaces used in cooking.
• Please coordinate your use of the kitchen with your host.
• Your host will provide you with your own area to store your food.
