A homestay puts you in a Maltese family’s home for the length of your course, usually with breakfast and dinner included and a room of your own or shared with another student. It is the accommodation that gives you the most English practice for the least effort, and the one that asks the most adjustment in return. Here is what to expect, and what to check before you book.
How many students choose it
Host families are a large part of the student accommodation market, though not the largest. The NSO release on Teaching English as a Foreign Language for 2025 breaks down the bookings made through licensed schools:
- Hostel, residence or guesthouse: 23,356 students.
- Accommodation not provided by the school: 19,340.
- Host family: 14,154.
- Hotel: 12,656.
- Holiday furnished premises: 6,532.
That is out of 76,063 students in total. Half of them were teenagers: the same release counts 29.2 per cent aged 15 and under and 20.9 per cent aged 16 or 17. If your dates fall in July or August, the two busiest months of the year with 16.5 and 15.8 per cent of attendance, ask for a family early.
What a homestay usually includes
Each school sets its own package, so read the description line by line. The common items:
- A single or twin room, with a bed, wardrobe space and somewhere to study.
- Half board: breakfast and dinner on school days. Lunch is often extra.
- Shared bathroom with the family.
- Bed linen and towels, changed at set intervals.
- Laundry once a week, in some packages.
- Wi-Fi, in most packages, at varying speeds.
Families that host foreign students need a licence. Servizz.gov.mt lists a host family licence scheme regulating foreign students’ accommodation in Maltese homes, under the Travel and Tourism Services Act. Book through your school, which handles the matching and has an accommodation coordinator if anything goes wrong.
The house rules nobody puts in the brochure
The ELT Council’s guidebook for students sums up the expectations, and they match what families say once you ask them:
- Your family is not on holiday. They work, the children go to school, and the household runs on their timetable.
- Tell them where you will be during the day and when you plan to come back.
- Ask before you bring anyone home.
- Say at the start which foods you dislike, or what you do not eat.
- Find out when dinner is served, and warn them if you will be late or eat out.
- Do not use the kitchen, appliances or food without permission.
- Keep your room and the bathroom tidy.
- Respect the curfew if you are on a junior programme.
None of this is unusual. It becomes a problem only when nobody says it out loud on day one. Ask the questions in your first evening and the rest of the stay runs smoothly.
What you gain
- Daily English that is not a lesson. Dinner conversation, the news on in the background, small talk about plans. That volume of listening is hard to get any other way.
- A soft landing. Someone to ask about buses, pharmacies and which beach to avoid on a Sunday.
- Predictable costs. Meals are included, so your food budget stays under control.
- Local knowledge. Families know the village feast dates, the shops that close early and the best pastizzeria. That knowledge saves you from the closed doors described in our guide to public holidays and opening hours.
What you give up
- Freedom over your evenings and your kitchen.
- A location of your choice. Families live in residential areas, and your commute to school may involve a bus.
- Privacy. You share a bathroom and a household rhythm.
If you stay several months, a shared flat after a first stay with a family is the usual next option. Our guides to housing in Malta and renting a flat cover that next step.
Questions to ask before you book
- Is the room single or shared, and with whom?
- How long is the journey to school, and which bus route serves it?
- Which meals are included on weekdays and at weekends?
- Is there air conditioning or a fan in the room? It matters from June to September.
- How is laundry handled?
- Are there other students in the house, and what are their first languages?
- Who do I call at the school if there is a problem?
The sixth question matters more than it looks. Two students who share a first language in the same house tend to speak it together. If English practice is your main goal, ask for a family without another student from your country. It is the single most effective request to put to the school, and it fits with our advice on practising English outside class.
If it does not work out
The ELT Council’s guidance is direct: if difficulties arise with your accommodation provider, tell the accommodation coordinator at your school straight away. Asking to change family is what the coordinator is there for. Waiting three weeks in silence helps nobody, including the family.
