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What are your responsibilities as a Host Family?

Just like the Au Pair, the Host family is expected to follow certain rules and provide a supportive environment throughout the stay. Fulfilling these obligations is essential to building a respectful and balanced living arrangement.

The Host Family has to:

provide the Au Pair with a private room
offer full board (meals and accommodation)
pay the agreed pocket money
respect the agreed working schedule
ensure the Au Pair has regular free days, holidays, and time off on public holidays
organize the schedule to allow the Au Pair to attend a language course

You can read the full explanation of each point in the article below.

If you have read the requirements for the Host Families and you meet them, it is time to figure out what are the Host Family’s duties are! Below you can find a list of responsibilities a Host Family needs to follow throughout the Au Pair stay:

Free Registration as Candidate Free Registration as Family

Provide a homelike space & full board for the Au Pair

The Host Family should provide a private room as Au Pair accommodation and at least three meals a day. The Au Pair will live with the Host Family and will be considered a family member with the same rights.

Respect weekly limit of working hours

The Au Pair has a maximum number of working hours per week depending on the host country. As a rule, they vary from 25 to 45 hours and must not exceed the maximum limit.

Pay pocket money on time

The Au Pair will get a monthly or weekly amount of pocket money from the Host Family. Make sure the amount of money corresponds to the host country program standards. We do recommend the Au Pair to open a bank account in the host country so that the Host Family can easily transfer the money monthly or weekly.

Give the Au Pair time to attend a language course

Au Pairs need to attend a language course during their stay abroad. Make sure your Au Pair has a schedule that allows them to attend a language course. The Host Family also needs to cover transportation costs necessary to get to the language school. In some countries, the Host Family shares the expenses of the language course. It depends on the program policy in each country.

Respect days off and vacation policy during the stay

The Au Pair has at least 2-5 weeks of paid vacation during a one year stay plus weekly days off. Learn more about holiday standards in different countries of the Au Pair program. If the Host Family decides to invite their Au Pair to join them during their family holidays, both Au Pair and Host Family should agree in advance if that counts as working hours or a holiday.

Other responsibilities

In many countries, the Host Family will need to provide the Au Pair with health insurance or pay for the basic medical expenses in case of illness, injury, pregnancy or birth.

Au Pair insurance
How does it work for an Au Pair? Is the Host Family in charge of the Au Pair's insurance? Usually - no, but better check it! Read more

If you are providing a vehicle for your Au Pair, make sure you have a corresponding insurance so that the Au Pair can use the car without any risk.

We recommend discussing all the important information with your future Au Pair. A timetable or a list of the house rules will help the Au Pair to get to know you better and probably avoid possible misunderstandings and conflicts during the stay. In addition to this, both parties can mention the core conditions of the stay in the Au Pair contract.

As an online matching agency we have also gathered other useful information about the Au Pair experience in the Au Pair Wiki and our Au Pair FAQ.
Free Registration as Family

How can I contact an Au Pair?: You need to visit the Au Pair’s profile and drop a message there. You can also add an Au Pair to your hotlist. In both cases, the Au Pair will get notifications from you instantly. If you have a basic account, you can send standard invitations to Au Pairs. The Premium Membership allows personalized messages as well. Please get more information here.

How long does it take to find an Au Pair?: It depends on several factors. Make sure your profile is full and interesting for other users. Make sure that you meet the Host Family requirements set by the Au Pair program. Be active and contact about 10-15 Au Pairs per day. If you follow the three tips above you can find a suitable match within one to four weeks. Check out our Host Family guide for more advice and ideas on how to find an Au Pair faster.

What are the requirements to host an Au Pair?: There are three most important requirements: the Au Pair accommodation, full board and monthly/weekly sum of pocket money. We recommend to go through the full list of requirements for Host Families. If you meet them, you can register as a Host Family today and find an Au Pair that matches your criteria.

I have a problem with my Host Family/Au Pair.: We always recommend having an honest conversation with your Au Pair/Host Family about the problems occurred and find a solution together. Most of the troubles can be solved through communication and feedback! If you can’t find a way out, you can consider contract termination. We recommend you to respect the notice period that is mentioned in the Au Pair contract. During this time both Au Pair and Host Family can find an alternative solution. Be supportive to each other in any case. AuPair.com can’t help you personally in this case as we are an online matching agency with no external offices in the host countries.

We want to hire an Au Pair. Can you help?

Online matching agencies, like AuPair.com, let you get in touch with Au Pairs from the entire world. Please note that AuPair.com is not a full service agency. This means that we cannot take over the organisation of the stay. With the help of our platform, you can find your ideal candidate on your own. All further information, e.g. about the au pair contract, the amount of pocket money or the requirements for host families, can be found on our website.

How do we work?

On AuPair.com you can:

totally free search through our database and look for a perfect match
choose one of two accounts: either a free Basic Account or a Premium Account, purchased for a certain price, depending on the length of Premium Membership.

More information about AuPair.com's Premium Membership you can find here.

Basic Users can send requests (invitations and standard messages) to other users, expressing their interest, or add other users to their hotlists.

On the other hand, Premium Users can send to the rest of our service free-form messages, containing i.e. contact data, and are always able to receive an answer, also personalized. Premium Members can also see contact data of other users (with the exception of email address) and some extra content, like videos, references or letters written by Au Pairs.

Still, if your prospective match is Premium, you do not need to purchase Premium Membership to send a feedback and get in direct touch! Only one of the pair Host Family - Au Pair needs to be Premium to push the communication beyond our service and arrange the Au Pair stay