Keeping Your Homestay Host Profile Updated
Your AHN host profile is one of the most important tools we use to ensure safe, comfortable and successful placements for both hosts and international students. Whether you’re a brand-new host or have been welcoming guests for years, regularly reviewing and updating your profile helps us match guests to the right home environment and ensures you remain compliant with AHN’s hosting requirements.
Below is a guide to help you understand what’s included in your profile, how to maintain it, and why keeping it current is essential.
If you see anything you need to update – log in to your AHN host profile to make changes ASAP.
In this blog post…
Why Preferences Are Important and Why You Should Review Them Regularly
What We Include on Your Public Profile
Listing Residents
Maintaining Valid Clearances
Changes in the Household
Your Availability
Services (Meals)
Pets
Bank Details
Steps to Get Your Profile Live
Training & Recertification
Final Thoughts
Why Preferences Are Important and Why You Should Review Them Regularly
In short, it’s how AHN matches hosts with international students studying in Australia. Your host preferences help AHN match you with guests who will fit well in your household. These include your preferences for:
- age
- gender
- dietary needs
- cultural and lifestyle considerations.
Being flexible with age, gender and culture in particular will give you the most opportunity for placements.
Preferences can naturally change over time. Children grow up, work schedules shift, household routines evolve. Reviewing these settings every few months ensures we only offer you placements that fit your home, lifestyle and hosting goals.
Tip:
We understand some people may be hesitant to host guests under the age of 18, but we encourage you to be open-minded.
Younger students typically thrive with the structure hosted accommodation provides, adapt well to homestay life, and appreciate guidance. They tend to form family-like connections and are more eager and curious to share in their host family’s routines, culture, and everyday life. As with all our homestays, you’ll never feel like you’re doing it alone. We provide clear guidelines, training, and support through your local office and 24/7 cell centre. We’ll step you through every part of the process so you feel confident and supported.
What We Include on Your Public Profile
Your public profile is what guests – and their families, agents and education providers – see. A welcoming, accurate, and up-to-date profile helps set expectations early and builds trust.
Once a homestay is confirmed, we will send you and your guest (or whoever is listed as the main contact) a Placement Report.
The guest’s Placement Report includes:
- The name of the primary host.
- Address, phone number and email address.
- Ages of residents.
- Languages spoken in the home.
- Guest welcome message
- Any info you’ve included in the public profile description
- Type of home
- Number of guest bedrooms
- Pets
- Household occupations
- Host household smoker info (vaping can also be included here)
- Photos of your home and guest room/s
- Local transport info
Guest Welcome Message
This short message appears at the top of your profile and introduces who you are in a warm and friendly way. Think of it as the “first hello.”
Example:
“Welcome to our home! We look forward to supporting you as you settle into Australia and begin your studies. We would love to get to know a little more about you before you arrive. Feel free to send us an email – our family will be happy to reply.”
Profile Description
This is a longer introduction where you can share more about your family, interests, your home environment, pets, the neighbourhood you live in, and what guests can expect. This is your opportunity to make a great first impression.
We recommend that you:
- Share what you enjoy most about hosting.
- Outline your household routine.
- Mention hobbies or activities guests may join.
- Highlight your local area and what makes it special.
A clear, friendly description helps guests feel at ease and prepares them for life in your home.
Tip:
It’s best not to mention specifics in your Profile Description or Guest Welcome Message that could change over time – e.g. “Our son is 6 years old” or “We have a brand new pool”. If that’s not updated and someone reads it three years later, the info will be out of date.
Photos
Having photos of the bedroom/s available for guests as well as shared spaces gives your guests an idea of the environment they’ll be living in.
We ask that you upload 1-2 photos of each of the following:
- your family
- pets
- guest’s bedroom
- the bathroom the guest will use
- family room/lounge room
- kitchen
- any other shared spaces you’d like the guest to see e.g. the backyard, pool area, etc.
You can also upload photos of each individual resident on the Residents page of your host profile.
Listing Residents
One of the most important parts of your host profile is the Residents section. AHN requires accurate information about everyone living in the home and we need to be notified ASAP if things change (refer to section 9 under HOST OBLIGATIONS in the AHN Homestay Policy).
If family members are temporarily away they can be marked as “living outside the home”.
If you’re hosting international students from other homestay providers they should be listed as a resident but marked as an “international guest”. Please contact your local AHN office when other listed students move out so they can be archived from your profile.
If you have any overnight visitors, you must let your local office know so that appropriate action can be taken.
Maintaining Valid Clearances
All hosts and permanent residents who meet the age requirement for their state/territory are required to obtain the relevant Working with Children Check and/or Police Check and ensure these remain valid. This may apply to people in your home younger than 18. To review the requirements for your state or territory, visit:
https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/pre-employment-screening-working-children-checks-and-police-checks/part-overview.
The clearances we request from hosts vary depending on the age of guests you’re hosting. In most cases, we will not require these checks for other international guests in order to finalise a host’s profile but they may be required if you’re accepting placements for younger guests under the age of 18.
Tip:
Add a reminder in your calendar for when your check is due to expire so you can renew early.
Changes in the Household
It’s important that you keep AHN updated about any changes in your household, and that they are reflected on your host profile.
Common changes in households include:
- change of address
- children moving in or out of home
- family members or other residents moving in or out
- when you have new pets in the home or say goodbye to a pet
- renovations.
If you have changes in your household, please ensure you contact your local AHN office or log in update your AHN host profile through our Homestay Management System (HMS).
Your Availability
AHN homestay is designed to fit in with your family and lifestyles. Hosts can update their availability at any time through HMS.
Showing us when you’re available will increase the number of guests we place with you. When we’re searching for suitable hosts, our HMS technology will return results for hosts who have indicated they are available.
If you’re unable to host guests for a while or simply want a break, it’s best to indicate that you’re not available. You can easily change your availability back when you’re ready to host again. Indicating you’re not available will stop AHN from calling and offering you placements when you’re not interested.
Services (Meals)
As an AHN host, you are able to choose the meal packages you’re happy to provide for guests and whether you can cater to dietary requirements. This information will then be picked up by our HMS when we’re placing guests with you.
AHN meal packages:
- Complete Homestay: You provide breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days / week.
- Traditional Homestay: You provide breakfast and dinner Mon-Fri and breakfast, lunch and dinner Sat-Sun.
- Dinner Only: You provide dinner 7 days / week.
- No-Meals: You do not provide any meals.
Dietary requirements that may be requested include halal, vegetarian, vegan, kosher, and gluten free.
Being able to accommodate more services means we’re more likely to be able to offer you more placements. Be sure to check what options you have selected and update them as needed.
Pets
We love all the furry / feathered / scaly AHN family members out there (you can check out some #AHNHomestayPets on Facebook), but placing students who don’t want to live with pets – or have allergies to certain kinds of animals – is one of the biggest challenges we have.
Telling us as much as you can about your pet/s helps ensure your guests will get along with everyone in the home – even the four-legged kind.
Please check your AHN profile so we know:
- what type of pet you have
- if they live inside, outside, or both
- whether your pet/s are hypoallergenic
- other important details like their size and breed.
You can find the Pets section under Lifestyle in your AHN profile.
Bank Details
You don’t have to enter these when you first submit your AHN profile, but we do need them to process homestay host payments to you for any placements you accept.
Once your bank details have been added to your profile, be sure to keep them up to date so your payments are transferred to your preferred account.
Steps to Get Your Profile Live
Here’s how your host application moves through the AHN onboarding process:
Stage 1 — Application Submitted
You complete the online AHN host application and profile.
Stage 2 — Host Training & Assessment
You complete AHN’s training modules.
Stage 3 — Home Inspection & Interview
An AHN representative interviews your family and inspects your home to verify your profile information, answer questions and ensure suitability.
Pending — Compliance
Background checks/clearances can be completed at any stage, but must be finalised before you can receive a placement.
Stage 4 — Profile LIVE
Once all steps are complete, your AHN host profile becomes active and you’re eligible to receive placement offers.
Training & Recertification
AHN hosts are required to undertake periodic recertification and refresher training. This ensures all hosts stay updated on best practices, policies and safe hosting standards, which is especially important for under-18 student care.
Hosts will be notified automatically when recertification is due.
AHN Policies
Our policies have been developed to maintain a quality homestay experience that is safe, well organised, and enriching. They are key to ensuring expectations, responsibilities and support options are not only clear for guests and hosts, but also AHN staff, partners and other stakeholders. All our public policies can be viewed at https://au.homestaynetwork.org/policies.
Key policies for hosts include:
- AHN Homestay Policy
- AHN Host Agreement
- AHN Host Reimbursement Policy
- AHN Sexual Harassment and Abuse Prevention Policy
- AHN Code of Conduct for Under-18s in Homestay
- AHN Room Holding Policy
We encourage all hosts to review these documents regularly.
Final Thoughts
Your AHN host profile is a vital communication tool that helps us match you with the right guests and ensures everyone’s safety and comfort. Updating your information regularly, completing required checks, and staying informed about AHN policies are key to creating a positive hosting experience for you and your guests.
If you’d like help updating your profile, contact your local AHN team. We’re always here to support you.
AHN Connect App
Have you downloaded the AHN Connect app? AHN Connect is designed to be an all-in-one solution to manage your homestay experience. The first release is targeted at hosts and allows you to easily access the core elements of hosting international students with AHN.
Get it now on the Apple Store (for iPhone users) and Google Play (for Android users).
