Feedback from Host Families

We were delighted for all the support and feedback we received as part of our recent survey.

Please see below for some of the testimonials:

“I am extremely impressed both with the service offered and with my au pair. Not only is she fantastic with my children, she is also lots of fun to have around. It feels as if she has always been part of our family. I will miss her when she has to return home.” Clare, Surrey

“
I want to say a big thank you to both of you for finding me good aupairs and supporting me throughout. My experience with both of my aupairs has been great. My current au-pair Gesa is leaving in early April and we are really going to miss her. “ Seema, Longfield

“The smart au pair service has been great throughout. I know four families who have used smart au pairs and none of us have been disappointed!” Name Withheld

“Smartaupairs is a very professional and reliable agency that made me feel secure and confident about taking on an au pair for the first time. I would highly recommend their services to anyone.” Victoria, London

“The service I have received from Smartaupairs has been excellent. The well thought out information and attention to detail has made smartaupairs stand head and shoulders above any other au pair agency I have ever dealt with.” Jenny, Surrey

“We’ve had au pairs for a number of years but this was the first year I’d used Smart Au Pairs, having been let down by my previous agency. We’re delighted with our au pair and I found Smart Au Pairs very efficient and helpful with a broad range of potential au pairs to choose from – I will be using you again. “ Wendy, East Finchley

“I’ve had a lot of au pairs before but this is the first time I’ve used smart aupairs and Alex, our au pair is one of the best au pairs we have had. ” Kate, Salisbury

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All of our customers rated our website and written information excellent or good. Our verbal communications were rated excellent or good by 97% of our customers.

94% of our customers are highly likely to use our service again & recommend us to their friends.*

Feedback from Families:

“I am writing to let you know how much we all love our au pair.
She is super sweet and really fantastic with the boys.
She seems to be settling in very well and has already met some other local aupairs she is becoming
friends with and enrolled at an english school.
I am grateful to find her at short notice, so thank you.” Host family,  Middlesex

“Thanks for all your help in getting our lives organised… Good au-pairs are mother’s saviour!
Denise”  Host Mum in London

“I was anxious, as a lone parent, as to how I would adapt to live-in help. But within weeks of our au-pair joining us friends and family have commented on how much happier we seem as a family. Help with the children and in the house has made such a positive difference to my life and as a result my children’s.” Name Withheld,Host Family

“I wanted to say how delighted we have been with the service provided by SmartAupairs, from the search to the handbook to the welcome pack and other little touches.
“We are also thrilled with the wonderful girl who has joined our family. She is everything we hoped she would be. Thanks so much.” Host Mum Suzie

“Jennie is leaving us tomorrow and I just wanted to say that she has been a HUGE success, thank you very much.
The last 4 weeks would not have been possible without her help as I had very big jobs on and we have been packing to move house. She came into our home when things were upside-down, I was preoccupied with work and was able to give her little guidance, and she took it all in her stride and just got on with everything, mastered public transport and just cracked on with life.
The children loved her immediately and are really sad that she is leaving, and my husband has voted her ‘best au pair ever’ (well, that includes our lovely Polish Aga who has helped us for years!) So thank you, it has been great having her and we are sad that it is not her staying in Sep, but we have high hopes for Elisa and look forward to seeing her” Thanks Beth xxx

“Thank you for the folders which I received yesterday for both myself and Kate. I have to say the professionalism with which this has been dealt is fantastic and I want to thank you all for your hard work and commitment to ensuring that this au pair placement goes well.” Kind Regards Samantha

“This was an extremely quick and effective process, thank you” Lennon Family, Tunbridge Wells

“We are delighted with our au pair and I am pleased to learn she is happy with us. We just need to help her find some dance classes! We have enrolled her on an English course.

I have been very impressed with the agency and it was nice to accompany our au pair to London on Saturday for the induction session (her first visit to the city). We also appreciate the packs you sent out. She was very pleased with the handbook and other information which I think was very well put together.//

She was pleased with the links recommended on the induction session.  Thank you again.” Best wishes Chiquita, Gloucestershire

New Program Manager at Smartaupairs & Program Development

It is with great pleasure that I announce Tuuli’s promotion to Au Pair Program Manager. Tuuli started with Smartaupairs in summer 2008 on a work placement/intern program from Lancaster University, where she was in her 3rd year of a degree in Business Management.

Tuuli is originally from Estonia and grew up in Finland, giving her a head-start in cross cultural understanding. Lancaster University added to the multi-cultural experience as their student community is made up of almost 100 different nationalities.

She was keen to find a work placement in a small yet ambitious company and when we interviewed her for the role we were impressed by her both her skills and her drive to succeed. From the very beginning, she showed a positive and innovative approach and her results driven capabilities have much contributed to the success of Smartaupairs.

As we have many more plans for success and growth for Smartaupairs, we were very keen to offer Tuuli this promotion. She will be fully responsible for the daily placement process, i.e. liaison with host families, au pairs and agencies abroad to ensure we offer consistently high service levels to all stakeholders.  In addition to this, we will work together on developing new ideas, different services and communication campaigns.

With Tuuli in place, we can focus on further strategic development for Smartaupairs. Our Tutor program and the introduction of Native Speakers have seen phenomenal demand from host families requiring with ‘just a little bit more’. My focus will be of bringing host families more options in the ‘gold quality’ bracket and above. I am already talking with agencies in Australia and New Zealand to bring us more native speaking au pairs.

We are also in the final stages of a new agreement with a European Agency network who has traditionally only sent au pairs to the USA and are used to screening for ‘the very best’. We are looking forward to placing their top calibre candidates, who will have significantly better than average language skills due to their national education system and their level of prior education. Many will be skilled drivers and have at least 100 hours of childcare experience and be committed to the au pair program for an academic year. Their au pairs will come predominantly from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands.

And finally, we are working closely with one of our partners in The Netherlands to attract Childcare trainees. These will be young people who will have completed the first part of learning to be a professional child carer with Dutch SPW qualifications similar to the UK NVQ2/BTEC2 level. We want to enable these applicants to continue their learning in the UK during their stay with a host family, allowing them to complete level 3 during their stay with the host family. Their formal training will be limited to one Saturday each month whilst their informal learning will be ongoing with your children!