By on April 10th, 2015

Fully Supported Foreign Exchange Student Hosting Is Available

You hear that colleges, universities, schools, and corporations in your area are often seeking people to host some of their frequent foreign exchange students or interns. Though the institutions themselves don’t go out and look for these housing options, they often have entire pages on their websites for students in need of housing when they do arrive.

And though you have an empty bedroom that seems like the ideal spot to welcome someone from abroad, you worry that you cannot handle this sort of thing on your own. Well, you are like many people considering these same options, and you should know that support is available.

Steady Income – No Headaches

While one of the most obvious reasons to open your home to an exchange student is because it will introduce you to another culture or language, and because it can make the world better through deeper understanding, you also know it could help you out financially.

Again, though many people worry that they will have too much responsibility to handle and don’t want to get stuck with a tenant who does not match their personality or life style, there are methods of opening your home to students that in the case that you are not satisfied with the match you have received, an experienced agency can help you to minimize risk of any kind of situation like that happening.

Knowing Your Choices

Now, to begin with, a host family does not have to be a “family” at all. It can be a single person, a retired couple, a family with a few kids, or just about anyone else. The point is that you have the willingness to open your home and work with a firm that ensures the best experiences possible for the student/intern and the host.

One such firm is USH, Universal Student Housing, and for 16 years it has been providing hosts and students with fully supported homestay services that provide everyone with the most benefits and the least hassles.

As an example, a host family can accept students or interns only when it is actually convenient to them. As stated, this can be as little as four weeks or up to the full academic year if needed. Even if they have never hosted a student or foreign exchange worker before, they will be able to create one of the most workable arrangements possible thanks to the advance matching system. The host family simply indicates their preferences in a guest – from gender and ethnicity to languages or background. The student or intern uses the same approach, indicating all of the same things and even being able to indicate if they want a house with pets, and other criteria.

Based on these common factors, a match can be made, and the student or intern can then book their stay. Fortunately, this is not the end of the story because the people who decide to host foreign exchange students receive 24-hour emergency support on a year round basis.

Fees are paid to the firm rather than the host, and that means that no awkward conversations about overdue rental payments will occur, and that all issues of that kind can be dealt with by the booking firm. This leaves the doors open to only the best experiences for everyone involved.