Homestaymanager – which launched last week for UK and Irish schools with an initial 400 families participating – enables educators to manage a personal inventory of homestays, and to document how they are carefully vetted before approval.

Hosts upload a personal profile, details about their home and availability. The school alone then views them through a unique log in, and matches their students to appropriate host families using preference criteria such as diet, age and property location.

“This system, for the first time, starts to professionalise what has been a very successful ‘cottage industry’”

Debbie Flynn, co-founder of Homestaymanager and a programme provider for over 30 years, told The PIE News: “You will be able to tell students with confidence that their preferences will be met. You’ll be able to tell host families the same. And that will inevitably raise standards.”

The system also shows “real-time availability” for homestay rooms, saving users from the labour-intensive task of placing a student using phone or email correspondence. The software will also be free to schools and supported by a nominal annual fee for participating families.

Chris Gould, the head of the charity Child Safe, which has endorsed the system, added that it would help improve safety standards.

“This system, for the first time, starts to professionalise what has been a very successful ‘cottage industry,’” Gould told The PIE News. “Currently, standards of hosting vary considerably from country to country and even within individual countries.”

According to a World Youth Student & Educational (WYSE) Travel Confederation Report released this autumn, 59% of educators and agents say their customers prefer homestays as their accommodation of choice while studying abroad. However, some argue the industry is under recognised for its size.

Another firm working to raise standards in homestay provision is the Australian Homestay Network—a web-based management system for homestay placements across Australia, launched in 2008. It operates according to a set of standards approved by a senate inquiry into international student welfare in 2009, and plans to launch a US equivalent in late 2012.