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See below first Every year, I get these requests from Spanish and Italian people. They want accommodation via Airbnb, but they want meals provided (no mention of who is paying for the meals each day and then they want to borrow your children.
Is this a common thing in Europe ?
They want their children to learn English but want to go the cheap route. Most languages colleges would charge large amounts of money for peak season and parents would not stay in the host family home. This one messaged me several times and can’t seem to understand why I would not be interested in this option for me, hanging out with her family all day long.
“I am a teacher at the primary school, and I have two young children who will be 2, 5 and 4,5 years old in August. I have flexible dates. I would like to find a family with children who would sometimes play with mine, and who will be willing to have dinner together. I can help with housekeeping or baby sitting”
Curios about the length of stay they usually request. I mean…the kids are going to need to be immersed in the language on an ongoing basis…not just for a short trip. They will need to continue back home.
When I studied abroad in Spain, I picked up extra income by having conversational English with families’ kids, or the adults. I got paid $10 for one hour - I would walk to their house, and then leave though. Then off to the next house.
After you decline their inquiry you can block them. Go to the message thread and next to their picture you will see a green “report” hyperlink. Click it and you get a menu. Select “something else” and it will let you block them. Then they can’t contact you or reserve with you. Don’t let them keep wasting your time.
That’s a really handy piece of info. Many thanks! I am going to use it now to block a gang of seemingly alpha male English Channel swimmers, and their support team, from pestering me. They also don’t get the fact that no, I won’t have them in my B&B, sleeping extra bodies on air beds in our sitting room, whilst they “sit” (quote) around waiting for a good weather slot, for two weeks. And can we use the kitchen and laundry? This, after I’ve declined them on TA, so they are trying on Air.
And since there are a bunch of them they may make different profiles and keep trying due to being Alpha males. They don’t like to be told no, esp. not by an uppity woman.
Language learning homestays are quite common here in Spain, but usually for older kids and not with parents. It’s not a bad idea, though, but obviously not if the guest family isn’t willing to pay extra for the language immersion.
