Seventeen years of homestay, opened up to the whole UK

UK Homestays is run by the team behind London Homestays, which has matched international students with London host families since 2009. Over that time we've assessed thousands of homes, arranged tens of thousands of weeks of homestay, and learned, sometimes the hard way, what makes a stay work for both the guest and the host.

UK Homestays exists because the agency model doesn't fit everyone. Some excellent hosts live outside the areas language schools ask for. Some want a different weekly rate than agency price bands allow. Some guests want to browse and choose for themselves rather than be placed. A portal fixes all three: hosts list at the rate they choose, guests see exactly what they're getting, and our team still checks every match personally before money changes hands.

What we kept from the agency world is the part that matters: honest verification (every listing shows exactly what was checked), a real team you can phone, and payment protection that means the host isn't paid until 48 hours after you've arrived.