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Accommodation: Host Home

Staying with an English host home is a great way to discover the English way of life, and practise the English you learn in your lessons. Our partner accommodation agency, McKenna's Homestay, keeping with LAL's strict quality criteria, offers host homes that have been inspected and chosen according to our usual high standards. They carefully select our host families and try to find a home which is just right for you in either single or shared rooms.

This popular choice of accommodation is ideal for students who are interested in learning about and experiencing life with a typical English host and regularly practicing their English. Our hosts can include retired couples, families with children, a childless couple, a single parent, or a single person.

Member of the Family
Students are invited to take part in their hosts’ everyday life and be treated as a member of the family, therefore they should be prepared to adapt as much as possible to their hosts’ daily routines and habits.

Food preferences
To help both host and student to make the most of their stay, students are encouraged to tell their hosts what kind of food they like or dislike, and to communicate times for dinner or coming home at night, which helps both host and student make the most of their stay. Agreeing times in advance allows for planning as ideally students will have dinner together with the family where they will be able to learn about the “family life” and practise English with their hosts at the same time. Students are not normally expected to use the kitchen or take food from their hosts’ cupboards or fridge without asking.

Keys, linen and laundry
To be independent, students are usually given their own house key. The family will provide bed linen and assistance with laundry can be offered, but reasonably priced local launderettes are also available nearby. Bath and beach towels are not normally provided.

Selecting host families
Many of our host families have been caring for our students for many years, and we are always recruiting new families to add to our register. All our families are inspected regularly by our staff in accordance with the British Council requirements.

Location
Usually less than 45 minutes on foot or by local transport from LAL London.

Matching families to students

Date of birth
Diet requirements
Nationality
Country of birth
First Language
Other languages spoken
Allergies to food/animals/chemicals etc
Flight details
Religion
Smoker/Non-smoker
Sex
English Language Level
Any other needs

Household animals
As keeping household pets is common in the UK, if students have an allergy or fear of a specific animal type, please be as accurate as possible on the registration form; requests such as ‘no animals in house’ are very difficult for us to fulfil, whereas ‘cat allergy’ or ‘fear of dogs’ is straightforward. A request for “no pets” will be treated as a request for no dogs or cats, but this may not be possible unless allergy information is given.

Smoking
Many of our host families have one or more members who smoke, mainly outside or away from students. If you have medical conditions such as asthma please tell us about it. A simple request for a non-smoking family without any reasons given will not be considered as a requirement. If you yourself smoke, please also inform us.

Dietary requirements
Many students will have special requirements, and we will normally be able to accommodate these if we are given sufficient notice. As definitions of dietary type vary, it is important that such requests are clear. If a student wishes to avoid eating certain types of meat, for religious, ethical or other reasons such as health concerns, please state exactly what they do or do not eat. If a student wishes to avoid British beef, for example, please state this specifically, it is much easier to accommodate such a request than it is to arrange a full vegetarian diet and then find it is not what they want.

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