AuPairWorld Reviews 

I suspect alot of the au pair profiles on APW are fake. Spot all the perfect profiles with too-good-to-be-true girls with perfect English and notice they have a 0 response rate.
I wont be wasting any more time on this site.

Expensive for what is just a directory. Many of the Au Pairs who contact you do not have the correct visas or anything, yet they are still able to just keep contacting people. No real prospects as all the au pairs just want central London. The website is ok - but fairly glitchy when scrolling through au pair profile pages. It’s just pricey with no benefits. I wouldn’t bother - seek your au pair some other way.

I was really excited for the job, even tho through videocall they said to me the work was going to be three or four hours five days a week for about 300€, later through text they told me it was going to be 8 hours. I accepted it anyways because the description of the job was pretty good, only take care of the three kids when they were at home, clean the kids room and organize books and later HELP (and this is important) the mom with kitchen, clothes and living room. When I arrived there, the first two days I did exactly what it was said, later, I was doing all the work completely alone, 8 hours a day cleaning, taking care of three kids, and organising the kitchen, cleaning almost all house, organising all clothes and, sometimes, even the parent's bathroom. I kept working anyways because I really loved the kids, they were 2, 5 and 7 so it was an amazing experience playing with them and going to the park with them, and I did too felt in love with the parents, although they never took me with them to any single one family activities. The problem? I didn't have time for myself except weekends. I started work at 1 pm and finished it at 9 pm, sometimes even 10 pm. I kept receiving the same amount of money, and because I lived in Korea there was not too much things I could afford with that amount, anyways I didn't have time either to meet friends or new people. When time passed and I had been with them almost 2 months, the mother started to show her true colours. I don't blame her, I could see she was very stressed, but she even shouted out loud in public at me just because the middle daughter didn't want to go to class with me, just because a misunderstanding between them. She never apologized, but I cried by myself and thought that I must understand her...

The big problem comes now. In the 4th month I received a call from my mom. My best friend had a car accident and she was interned, and the doctors had no hope because the surgery was really complicated and she was really young. I started to panic,I was afraid she was going to die and I could not be by her side, I didn't had money to buy the ticket to come back right away and my mom didn't had the money either, so my Korean friend offered me to pack my things and move to her house until my mom had the money, I was not mentally stable to keep working and living in a house with three kids that couldn't understand my situation. So I started to pack my things and talked with the parents. They at first understood my situation, didn't last a lot.

When I arrived at my friend's house I received a message from the mother, if I could, maybe, later at noon take care of the kids. I said I would try to go and say goodbye properly to the kids. She needed to pay my last month too. I went, I said goodbye and I received my money. I was using a sim card that she was paying so of course she took that money from my pay. Everything normal.

I kept using the sim card later in the airport because wifi was pretty slow and I was having constant vidocalls through WhatsApp with my mom, to know about my friends health.

The suddenly, the mother of the family started to text me that she knew I was in Korea because the sim card was still active, that I was a liar and a lot of hurtful things that I didn't have the energy or strength to answer. I was way more worried about my friend than a person that I just met blaming me.

I arrived in Spain, the doctors had already finished the surgery but my friend was still at UCI, with intensive care. I stayed here until she was stable, almost a month. And when I was ready to answer the mother of the family a girl that I knew contacted me. She said she was talking with a korean family to go as an au pair and that she thought it was the same family that had me. Literal words said by this girl:" they said that they didn't want me because I'm spanish, and that they had a trouble with her last spanish girl and they are currently suing her".

I was speechless, not only I worked way more and did everything they asked me for a miserable pay, I left with all the pain of my heart and that was they way to pay for it?

Awful. Completely awful. Even though I really loved the kids and I even thought about the parents as my onw famiky, that action made obvious that not only I never was for them a member of the family or a nanny, I was only their servant.

I still hope the kids got a good person taking care of them, they deserve it. But, for anyone out there thinking about going as an aupair to Korea, I'm not gonna say the name of the family because I still have respect and humility, but In Suwon, with three kids, if you're searching for a good aupair opportunity and a family like environment, don't go.

Lots of fake accounts set up by aupair world.
The au pairs don’t answer because the don’t exist .
Families pay for the premium of contacting the aupair .

I feel compelled to give some praise to Au Pair World based on the number of negative reviews on here. We are a host family in Canada and were completely happy with the two Au Pairs we hosted by connecting through Au Pair World. You certainly have to put in some time sending messages and communicating with candidates and, yes, there will be many that do not follow through. But, you are saving a significant amount of money as opposed to using a placement agency and my sense is that there were plenty of bright and eager young people on this site just looking for a host family who was going to welcome them into their family and not treat them like a slave. You have to remember these are kids looking for an experience and this is likely their first time away from home. It's a scary thing for anybody to commit to living with a family you don't know for several months. Don't expect them to be 24 hour a day caregivers, cleaners and chefs. Find someone who is going to enrich your children's lives by talking about their own country and who is responsible enough to take care of your kids and get them where they need to go but remember that they want to get something out of this exchange as well. We included our Au Pairs in all of our family activities (trips, Christmas, camping, etc) and it was a rewarding experience for our Au Pair, our family and even our friends who got to know our Au Pair. We will be connected with our Au Pairs for life. I found Au Pair World's platform well set up to match families and Au Pairs based on certain criteria, to see who was serious with their response rate and to be able to communicate to make sure we were looking for the same thing. We could not have asked for better Au Pairs and I know they were happy to be immersed into our family and tag along on our family adventures when they wanted to while having some free time to explore on their own as well.

I have hired 3 AuPairs using this site. 2 out out of the 3 were excellent. Some reviewers are giving low ratings because of their experience as an AuPair or Host, but not rating the site itself.

Aupair world is just a platform for Aupairs and families to meet. You have to do the work to find, research and assess each other. If you want someone else to do the work then you have to pay agency fees which are hundreds of pounds, or pay for your own Aupair security checks.

I had an extremely bad experience with my host family from the UK. Her name is Sophie McLaren. At first, everything seen perfect until I arrived on Thursday, May 2, 2019. We communicated through emails and WhatsApp for more than a month and I was very excited to meet them. My first impression was not good since the house was very dirty. As I stepped into my room, I was told I needed to sleep in a corner of the bed because it was broken. There was no food in the refrigerator and the dishwasher was full of dirty dishes with not even a clean glass to drink water. According to her profile, she had someone to do the main domestic housework and I did not had to do any laundry, folding clothes or ironing. The weekends were supposed to be free. Sunday night, I had to clean the kitchen and wash the dishes. This was only the beginning of my nightmare. Throughout the week, she exploited me working until late at night with no time for me to eat. She made me clean the windows, skirtings, vacuum a two story house, etc. She wanted me to do this everyday. Every time I wanted to express myself she would tell me to shut up, listen, and agree to her high demands . She continued mistreating me. A week later, during my day off, she got upset and terminated our verbal agreement since she never gave me a written agreement like I requested many time. She disconnected the internet, remove shampoo, soap, and toilet paper from bathroom. She also gave a ton of clothes for me to iron and fold. She stated that I didn’t finished my work the day before. Then she told me I needed to clean everything again because according to her it was not done to her standards. I spent all weekend cleaning. Monday morning, she prevented me from leaving even though I had a driver waiting for me. She told me I was not allowed to leave until I had finished cleaning everything and until I signed a paper stating I didn’t want to get paid. As of now, I haven’t receive any payment for the hard work and the discomfort she put me through.I had my parents on WhatsApp and only when they told her they were calling the police is when I was able to leave my nightmare. Please be aware of this host family. She seems very nice, but she is horrible! Stay away from her! I also received an email from her former au pair in which she stated that she was also treated the same way.

Waste of time and money! I nearly fear that some profiles are fake to attract you and having you to pay! Seek your au pair somewhere else. The girls are not motivated! We finally end with a babysitter in our area, from another website, it’s much less hassle, and everybodies are happy!

Awful! Seems to be a huge umber of families seeking a very limited number of au pairs. Most au pairs are very interested in 'whats in it for them' with very few being more interested in the role they will play. So far, a complete waste of money, and a huge time investment - 80 au pairs contacted, over 150 timely messages exchanged - for zero results. Possibly 'ok' if you are in London - and willing to pay much higher fees, offer cars/transport, all sorts of other items which seem to be requested by most au pairs.

I’m a host family... I wasted time and money. I’m still looking for an au pair...

Lied!!! I was miserable. Cried every night. Family let the kids run around hitting me. They were never home. They barely had food. The family fought making me very uncomfortable. Kinda wanted me to be responsible for running their house while they went out! Don’t use them!!
What’s worse when I put in my 2 weeks notice they told me to leave immediately. I was 19 in a foreign country with no one. Horrible experience.

We have used APW for our past 5 au pairs in 4 years. It is very easy platform to use, but we research our candidates first on social media, their posts reveal what they are like at home, we research their towns (some say they come from big towns but they get overwhelmed with British ones) and what people are like from that area, we prepare our family and potential candidates to give everyone a chance to get used to each other. We conduct 1or 2 stages video chat interviews, if short-listed we get our child to chat on the video as well. We get their parents to read the agreement paper and see the room where they will stay. Then 1 month probation with 1 week notice if things don't work out, 2 weeks notice if it fails to work after probation. We did have someone got homesick.

I’m not sure what kind of agency this is. They don’t seem to care about the experience the au pair has. I wouldn’t trust them with finding an au pair with the right experience or education.

I just want to write a review about my awful experience with APW (au pair world). I've been an au pair over 2 years for 5 different families with no problems until family number 5. Family number 5 broke everything in our contract, making me work 7 days a week, working well over my hours, refusing to buy me food, etc. The list could go on. I did try to speak to the family but they then ignored me, didn't buy me any food (we were in a cabin in the middle of the woods with nowhere for me to go to get food) and made me work even more hours. I was exhausted and hungry so I spoke to family back home and we decided it was best for me to get a flight home as soon as possible. I booked a flight home and let the family know I had resigned once I left as I felt unsafe and scared to tell them before as I had just an awful response when I had spoken to them previously. They really didn't like the fact I had left early and the email I had sent them so they reported me on APW making up absolute gobsmacking lies about me. I responded with my point of view and APW said that they couldn't say who was in the wrong but my profile will still have been blocked. I have a good reputation from previous families but that has been total disregarded. Au pairs are the vulnerable ones being in a country they don't know, with people they don't really know and if anything happens they are on their own. APW shouldn't just back the family because they pay to use the website. I know au pairs that have just been thrown onto the street by their host family but yet APW still back these awful family's leaving another au pair to be left into this vulnerable situation. APW need to start backing their au pairs. Money doesn't trump safelty.

I (a US "host mom") have used this site, successfully, five times over the last six years. I would recommend it to anyone. If they're somewhat strict about what families post, it's to protect potential au pairs from getting themselves into a position of involuntary servitude. Given how this type of position is susceptible to abuse, one has to respect that. As for "non-serious candidates," I see that as an advantage. Agencies make candidates appear like something they are not and encourage lying to families to get placed. By contrast, what you see on this site is what you get. I wouldn't go about my au pair search any other way. I'd give 4 stars over the fact that they changed the "do have au pair experience" question to "do you have childcare experience"- which is a LOT less helpful to me (who doesn't have childcare experience?), but I'm giving 5 to balance out what I see as needlessly negative reviews. if you are willing to do some legwork by using this site (instead of having an agency present a false bill of goods), you can find great au pairs!

Aupairworld.com is a dangerous website.

They have no problem with families posting a short ad saying for example that they want a bit of help with two kids as the two parents are (again for example) both full-time as doctors and no mention of cleaning lady etc - this often means that the aupairs will work long hours and have more to do than the just looking after the kids!

I have three kids, but a full-time nanny AND a cleaning lady, and I need an aupair to do schools pick-ups, bringing the kids to some activities and really focus on playing with the kids. Both I and my husband are working full-time, but I have always been reachable and have fantastic references of previous aupairs having had a great time with us and a lot of flexibility and time for english courses. I posted a long ad on aupairworld, with all the details of the kids routines, the tasks of the aupair (which are really about the kids, no cleaning, etc), but they banned me from their website because the job was too detailed "and didn't sound like an aupair job". They just protected themselves in a stupid way. Many aupairs used to contact me because they appreciate that I was so transparent.

Therefore, they implicitly encourage parents to put as little as they can, and let the poor aupairs discovering an inexplicit long list of things to do at their arrival. Future au pairs, use aupair.com, they are much more sensible, and my previous aupairs also tell me it is cheaper. Good luck, you will find a lovely family!

Dear families in serious search for Au Pair,
If you are serious about finding a serious Au Pair, this is may not be the place. The site looks good, has a nice functionality- and a lot of absolutely un-serious candidates you will be spending countless hours writing emails to. I have now tried the site twice, and made the same experience - ended using a Professional Agency in the end-. So consider carefully prior to paying the fee.

I was looking at being an Au Pair, so I signed up to Au Pair World. At first it was okay, then suddenly I get an email saying that my profile hasn't meet their criteria so my account has been deleted. Why I don't know, as I have experience working with children, I was speaking with a couple of families that wanted be to be their Au Pair. Go elsewhere if you want to become an Au Pair!