Sabbatical year, Gap Year, Long stay: Accommodation

Host families are carefully chosen by our partner schools and are regularly monitored by student feedback. In general, students with the same mother tongue are not accommodated together, unless requested. Specific requests concerning the host family (children, teenagers, animals, special diets, non-smokers, etc.) are taken into account whenever possible. It is very important to let us know if you suffer from any allergies or medical conditions so that we can inform the host family. Your interests and hobbies will also a factor in choosing the most suitable family for you. Host families generally live near the school. There is no doubt that staying with a family is the best type of accommodation for language studies. Daily contact with the family enables you to practise the language regularly, as well as to explore the language, customs and way of life of the country. This great experience is an excellent complement to the courses. Friendships are often forged and many students keep in touch with their host families long after their stay has ended.

Residential accommodation facilities are hotels/hostels that offer very attractive prices because of their links with our partner schools. You will stay with other students as well as tourists and other foreign clients of the school. Residence dining rooms and bars are excellent places to meet people.

Comfort and independence

In a shared student apartment, you will stay with other students and/or locals. You will have a single room to yourself and enjoy complete independence, including use of a kitchen, while living with people sharing a similarly independent outlook. This option is very popular in Germany (WG or Wohngemeinschaft) and England (student house), but is also offered in Australia, Canada, Spain, Ireland, Malta, Italy, Austria and Latin America.

An ideal option for students aiming to enjoy maximum independence, this type of accommodation is the best way to meet other students. You can choose a single or (more commonly) a double room, and you will usually have to share the bathroom and kitchen with other students. The level of comfort in campus accommodation depends on the general standard of living in the country you have selected.

It is also possible to plan a stay in the comfort of a hotel room or a rented apartment. In most cases our partner schools offer a hotel or apartment reservation service. This type of accommodation is obviously more expensive than the other options.

It is possible to enrol with ESL for the courses only and make your own accommodation arrangements. If you have friends abroad or wish to arrange your own accommodation, please let us know. You will only pay the price of the course without any supplement. If you are interested in renting an apartment alone or with other students, the best way is to enrol in one of the accommodation plans for the first week(s), giving you time to make friends and make the necessary arrangements.

Most partner schools require a deposit if you wish to stay in halls of residence or a shared apartment. If that is the case, you will find details of the deposit on our website, in the "options, extras" section of each school’s price list. The deposit is EUR 170 on average, payable on arrival with cash or credit card, just like when you check into a hotel. It will be refunded upon your departure, once it has been confirmed that everything is in order.