Savvy students are saving with a homestay

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With students heading back to university in September the costs around higher education are at the forefront of people’s minds. For many students and their families the cost of third level education is a big expense and knowing how to get value for money is a hard task. Accommodation expenses can be a big headache and increasingly students are looking for alternatives to university halls as a way of saving money. We spoke to two of our guests in the UK who were looking for a way to cut down on their costs.

Christopher, who is an Electrical Engineering student at the University of Westminster is staying with our host Kerry in Harrow, where he can easily commute in for his studies. Christopher told us that “the homestay is infinitely cheaper, honestly I’m saving like £3000 as opposed to going in halls.”

With the standard of accommodation in halls varying wildly in London, Christopher felt that speaking directly to his host, seeing the photos of his room and being able to video call them before his arrival gave him a better sense of his accommodation for that year rather than the online guides for student accommodation.

In Plymouth, first-year physiotherapy student Hannah had secured a place in halls but realised that her placements at the nearby hospital would be too long of a commute for her after a day at work. Hannah booked to stay with our host Andrea and her family who live close to the Devon coast. Their home is only a couple of minutes walk to the closest bus stop.

Hannah spoke highly of her time staying with Andrea saying, “I really enjoyed my time in a Homestay, as a student it fit me perfectly and was affordable. It was nice to be in a family environment with the option of food cooked by the owner and it was good to have locals to give advice about the area.”

Both Christopher and Andrea said they would recommend homestay to their friends during the scramble for student housing as well as for future travel.


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