Trust Homestay welcomes students from across China, Europe, Latin America, and East Asia.

Yes! Trust Homestay is a network of host families that are culturally diverse, come in all shapes and sizes, and come from all walks of life. What they all share in common is their love of the hosting experience and their dedication to providing a home away from home for their students.

Yes. Visit the Become a Host page to learn more.

In most cases, the answer is No, unless the students make a request and pay a premium for having their own washroom.

Yes, host families are compensated for hosting a student. The compensation varies depending on the facilities and conditions of the room.

We are committed to making sure that our students and host families are able to get the most out of this experience. If you encounter challenges, we invite you to discuss them with your Homestay Coordinator. In our experience, there are many opportunities for clearing up miscommunications, mediating small concerns and communicating expectations within the first few days of hosting that will end up leading to a great experience together. There is an experienced team here at Trust Homestay that is ready to guide and support you, whether you are a first-time host or an experienced host family.

It is very important that Trust Homestay has the most up-to-date information on host families who are currently hosting or confirmed to host a student in the near future. It’s the hosts’ responsibility to contact the Homestay Coordinator to provide up-to-date information on any changes to your home and family immediately.

If it is not possible for the student to travel with you and your family for this event, for example in the case of a funeral or for an unexpected work matter, we can arrange to set up a temporary respite family to host your student for a few nights. Please contact your Homestay Coordinator as soon as you know about this change in your schedule and we will be sure to assist as quickly as possible.

As much as we would like to give you a simple answer to this question, we are not accountants and we cannot offer tax advice. Having said that, we can tell you that:

1. Trust Homestay does not issue T4s, T4As, or any other kind of written statement regarding the payments you have received during the year. The only documentation regarding payments is given to you in the form of your direct deposit “payment advice” emails. If you would like Trust Homestay to send you a summary of your payments from the year, please just ask and we would be happy to do so.

2. Even though we don’t issue T-­‐slips, Trust Homestay is obligated to report payments to hosts if the CRA asks. In other words, this information is not considered confidential or private when it comes to the CRA.

3. Any income is considered taxable and should be reported, but in Canada, we only pay taxes on our net income after expenses. This is where your friendly accountant can offer you expert advice about how best to report your income and what sorts of expenses can be considered deductions against that income.

For further information, please call the CRA at 1-­800-­267-­6999 to inquire about your personal tax situation.

Upon welcoming you to our team of host families, we will be providing you with our Host Guide, to outline the hosting relationship. We host several workshops and orientation sessions per year to inform, engage, and get feedback from our hosts.

Once a match is made, our local Homestay Coordinators are there to guide you through the hosting process. From the time you receive the first call about a student, to the pre-arrival orientation session, through to the tearful goodbye, our relationship managers will be available to provide answers, advice, and support.

We also offer an emergency support system, to respond to calls 24 hours per day, seven days per week. You will always be able to get a person on the phone to help.

Trust Homestay maintains a database of diverse host families. They tell us their interests, lifestyles, hobbies, preferred hosting relationships, and even dietary restrictions. When students and visitors apply to our programs, they complete similar profiles. With this information, we are able to match the student to a host family for a mutually enjoyable relationship. In addition:

• Trust Homestay Homestay Coordinators are available to meet with students in person, to discuss their questions or concerns and if necessary, introduce them to one of our cultural and linguistic counselors.

• Trust Homestay invites each student to evaluate their homestay experience and reviews their evaluations with each host. Our successful experience in arranging suitable matches benefits students and hosts:

• We provide students with confidence before their departure and after their arrival. Before their departure, we provide them with a written description of their hosts and their accommodation. After their arrival, we meet with them in person, to help them further adjust to Canadian culture and provide them such support as is necessary to make their homestay experience successful.

• With long-standing relationships with leading independent schools and School Boards, we provide our hosts with access to a wide variety of students. At the same time, our experience over the years helps us to give our hosts the perspective, resources, and support required to make their homestay experience successful. As part of this support, we schedule periodic workshops with hosts, to update homestay program requirements and improve our collective capabilities.

Hosts rarely cancel a reservation and if they do, only for exceptional circumstances, like a sudden illness. As you can imagine, it is unsettling for a student to have changes in their homestay even before they arrive!

In fact, we may be unable to reach them, before they arrive; so, we may need your help for a day or so, until we can find another host.

Because we are so careful to make the best matches possible, it is impossible to predict when you will be matched with a student. After all, there is no way to know when a student who matches your profile will apply. However, there are certain peak times of the year when we receive the greatest number of applications.

• September and January are important intake months for long-term (typically 5-10 months) high school students

• July and August are popular months for short-term group tours of 2 – 8 weeks.