San Francisco Homestay®

Tel: 415-230-5313

Fax: 360-671-5875

Thank you for contacting San Francisco Homestay about hosting international students!

We have a constant flow of students applying to attend the local universities, colleges and the language schools downtown, so it's great to hear from you. New schools are opening as well and asking for us to provide Homestay services, so we do need hosts! We will be interviewing hosts in their homes the week of April 5-10, 2010, so we need to get your paperwork and pictures in order if you decide your family really does want to host.

Our rates are outlined below, and we are always doing our best to keep up with the cost of living and we adjust rates at the beginning of each year. We are looking for families and individuals interested in being helpful friends to their international visitors, the kind of people who will enjoy including their international visitors in family and ordinary activities such as shopping and sightseeing.

The spring and summer promise to be very busy. We have a new school that we are providing homestay services for, so even in a down economy, we need hosts and prospects for staying busy look really good!

We are looking for families that have the following qualities:

· Good to excellent English skills.
· Safe neighborhoods convenient to schools.
· Prior hosting experience is a plus, but we can help you get started. Prior exchange students often make great hosts!
· Rooms with a private bath for executive stay, these are usually for more mature guests including interns, professionals and graduate students.
· Homes that can share their high speed internet connection with students. Wireless is GREAT! · Students prefer homes that are within 1/2 hour commute of downtown.
· "No pets" homes. (We do use homes with pets too!)
· Homes that like young students and appreciate their needs.
· Homes that would also like to host occasional professional people as well.

If you can send us digital photos of your home, that would be very, very helpful under the circumstances. Polaroid photos are okay too. We would appreciate having a chance to have a “peek" at your home in advance.

We will need for you to tell us a little more about your family's interests than the forms ask, so that we can work up a profile to send to our language school clients. This should say something about what you and anyone who lives with you, likes to do, i.e., hobbies and interests, etc. I will have to find a way to come and visit you in person and we will do my best to coordinate that with visits I am making to other hosts and schools in San Francisco.

The guidelines for both hosts and students are posted here separately, as well as the profile (application), and a certification form.The next step in the process is for you to review the table of compensation for hosts, below, and fill and return the attached application form and certification of acknowledgement. It's best if you can mail the application back to us at

San Francisco Homestay

Re: Host Application

1645 Pebble Beach Trail
Bellingham, WA 98226.

Or, if you can, email to: dr.susanne@sfhomestay.com, or fax to: 360-671-5875.

Homestay Compensation to Hosts
A current schedule of host compensation for Homestay services, net of any fees paid to us will be provided to you upon request. Please note the rates may vary depending upon the level of accommodation, location, and market conditions. We negotiate with agencies overseas on an individual basis and do our best to encourage them through fair pricing and special offers to send their guests to San Francisco. There may also be times when special fees are negotiated between the school, student, host and Homestay. Each time we send a proposed placement to you we will always communicate the rate for the specific guest we are asking you to accept, so that you will always know what to expect.

Note: Some of our agents pay up front, some agents or schools pay at the end of the period of a stay in four-week increments. Rates vary according to the contract we have with our customers. When we suggest a particular guest, we will quote a rate in the email we send to you. We want to make a point of letting you know this so you will be able to manage your cash flow.

The host compensation fee is the net fee hosts receive from us. We charge an upfront placement fee directly to the student, and we deduct a management fee for payment of our collection and marketing services out of the payment we collect from the student.

Host compensation fees are generally for 4-week periods and that the monthly income to you can be as much as the second figure stated below

Shortly after we receive your application and understand where your home is located, we will contact you to give you more information about the program and schedule an appointment to qualify your home as "SafeLodging Certified". This process can take place relatively quickly. I will be arranging interviews in early June. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at dr.susanne@sfhomestay.com.

San Francisco Homestay was started over 24 years ago to provide affordable accommodation for international students and visiting professionals in a friendly home. We have since become the largest and most trusted Homestay organization in the Bay Area. Our students attend UC Berkeley, University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, Golden Gate University, City College of San Francisco, ELS Language Center, EC San Francisco, Berlitz, Brandon College, San Francisco Institute of English, CPLC Language Center and many other universities, colleges, and ESL schools throughout the Bay Area. We also place an increasing number of corporate interns and visiting scholars.

In many cases the guests are referred to us by the schools or companies who rely on the SafeLodging certification and use our services exclusively. In other cases students contact us directly through word-of-mouth or via international student advisors we have established a relationship with overseas.

We also successfully leverage Google and Yahoo to bring guests who make their own arrangements over the web through our secure internet web site. Our service to you, the host, is to bring you a choice of international guests in search of a place to stay at a local resident's home, collect the payments on your behalf, and provide on-going assistance and support to ensure a successful experience to all.

Some of the documents we will send you are in Adobe Acrobat form and you can click on the blue link

Acrobat® Reader® to download a free reader if you need one. Please email to dr.susanne@sfhomestay.com or fax to the number below my signature. I look forward to talking to you soon!

Smiles and appreciation,

Susanne

Dr. Susanne Freeborn
President
San Francisco Homestay