With reference to the article ‘London Olympics causing host family shortage in Malta’ (The Sunday Times, July 8), I feel compelled to express our personal experiences on the matter.
Julian Cassar Torreggiani’s views on us host families seem to be placing us in a bad light.
We have been hosting students for quite some time now. Sometimes this can be fun and rewarding; at other times, it can be challenging.
Mr Cassar Torreggiani seems not to be very aware of the policies schools enforce on host families, one of which is that we are ‘obliged’ to deal with one school only, and if they get to know we are hosting people from another school, we get ‘struck off’.
We are limited to hosting only four students at a time, and having less than that during the peak season makes the whole enterprise financially unattractive.
If the school you are dealing with is not delivering, you have no option but to move on to another. What’s wrong with that? Why should home owners suffer when it’s the school that is messed up?
Who is going to pay for the empty beds?
Has Mr Cassar Torreggiani noted that a lot of well-established schools have purchased or leased apartments and seem to prefer to place students there?
What’s wrong with having a healthy enterprise that is supervised regularly by government inspectors?
We have had students changing their allocated host family and being placed with us. When asked why they decided to move, the students gave a number of reasons. The room was too hot (washroom), there was no outside window, they had to inhale exhaust fumes (garage/basement) and dinner always consisted of hamburgers and chips.
Why should Malta get a bad name because of the bad behaviour of a few? Why are young (13-year-old) students being placed in hotels when the idea is for them to be in a family environment?
Are the communal apartments some schools use or own being inspected?
What about the number of small hotels which also host students? Are these being monitored?
Rather than claiming that the shortage of host families is due to the London Olympics, one has to ask whether it is still financially worthwhile for families to host students.
Hosting rates have not changed for ages and electricity and water tariffs have risen dramatically.