Turn your exchange, school, or homestay intake into a host family application form with household, home, availability, preference, and reference fields.
Route new family applications to email, Google Sheets, Slack, or Zapier.
Sample prompts for the builder
Choose a starting point, adapt it, and send the prompt to the Makeform builder.
Audience
Families applying to host an international secondary-school student
Format
Detailed application with household roster and references
Prompt size
261 chars
Example form structure
Detailed application with household roster and references
Primary applicant and co-applicant
Who lives in your household?
Describe the student's bedroom
Preferred hosting dates and student profile
Two non-relative references
Suggested routing tags
Ready for review
Reference follow-up
Future availability
Ask for every resident's age and relationship to the applicant, then show follow-up questions when a household has pets, smokers, or accessibility constraints.
Step 1
Apply
family, household, home, and preferences
Step 2
Review
coordinator checks completeness and fit
Step 3
Follow up
references and home conversation
Step 4
Match
approved profiles considered for placements
A complete first conversation
A useful application gives coordinators enough structured context to plan follow-up, compare availability, and discuss a possible student match without repeatedly requesting missing basics.
Capture all residents, ages, relationships, languages, schedules, pets, and smoking information so reviewers understand the student's everyday environment.
Ask about bedroom privacy, bathrooms, study space, internet, transport, accessibility, and optional photos instead of relying on an address alone.
Collect each reference's relationship, contact details, and preferred contact method in consistent fields that a coordinator can act on.
Adapt to the placement model
Choose a placement pattern, then adjust its questions, dates, and follow-up steps.
Detailed family profiles, school commute, student preferences, long-term routines, and multiple references.
Exact dates, spare-room capacity, airport or meeting-point transport, and ideas for shared activities.
Term availability, campus travel, meals, study environment, house expectations, and home-visit scheduling.
Reusable family profiles with blackout dates and matching preferences for future placement outreach.
Application workflow
Create guided applications and organize submissions for coordinator review.
Name the student age range, stay length, housing expectations, and reference count.
Group questions by applicant, household, home, routines, preferences, and references.
Add conditional paths for co-applicants, pets, smoking, prior hosting, and accessibility.
Notify coordinators and organize responses for checks, references, and follow-up.
Form vs document vs email
Structured submissions expose missing details better than scattered files and emails.
Field guide
These six sections create a useful intake record. Adjust the questions to your program's written policies and explain how coordinators use the information.
Applicants and residents
Use repeatable fields for applicants and everyone who normally lives in the home.
Home and student space
Ask about the room and shared spaces; optional uploads add context.
Routines and transport
Ask families to describe meals, travel, schedules, and routines.
Preferences and availability
Structure dates, capacity, and placement length without promising a match.
Motivation and experience
Open questions reveal motivation, expectations, and approaches to unfamiliar situations.
References and follow-up
Define eligible references, capture contacts, and explain the next steps.
Related tools
Connect the family application to reference collection, student registration, accommodation intake, and volunteer workflows using real Makeform tools.
Collect a reference's direct account in a separate, structured form.
Open toolGather student profile and program details for the other side of placement planning.
Open toolCreate an accommodation intake for rooms, stays, and guest details.
Open toolBuild a detailed volunteer intake when hosting sits within a wider volunteer process.
Open toolCapture early interest before a student starts registration or placement steps.
Open toolCollect enrollment information through an established historical tool URL.
Open toolFAQ
Practical answers for exchange coordinators, schools, and homestay teams designing family intake.
It helps an exchange, school, or homestay program learn about a household offering to host a student. It covers residents, the home, routines, transport, availability, preferences, motivation, experience, and references. Submission starts review; it does not confirm acceptance or placement.
Ask for each resident's name, age range, relationship, routine, and languages. Include pets, smoking, and typical schedules. Explain why the information matters and avoid details coordinators do not use.
Collect each reference's name, relationship, email, phone, and contact preference. State how many are needed and whether they must be non-relatives. Ask applicants to confirm that references know the program may contact them.
Yes. Conditional logic can show co-applicant questions, repeat resident fields, ask pet details after a yes answer, and reveal shared-room questions only when relevant. It also works for prior hosting, accessibility, smoking, and transport.
Photos can show the proposed student room and shared areas. Explain which images are requested and how they will be used. Avoid unnecessary personal material and give applicants a contact for questions.
Yes. Branch from placement type to matching date, room, schedule, and preference fields. Short visits emphasize dates and transport; longer placements need school commute, routines, holidays, and household expectations.
Yes. Makeform offers unlimited free forms and responses, so you can generate, edit, publish, and collect host family applications without a response cap. The paid tier removes the Makeform badge.
No. The form organizes information for review. State next steps such as completeness checks, reference contact, a conversation, or home visit, and avoid promising approval or a student match.
Give prospective host families a clear start.
