Last Updated on June 28, 2025
One way to make travel more meaningful is to stay in homestays. A homestay provides an opportunity to do exactly what the name suggests: stay in someone’s home rather than a hotel or hostel.
What makes homestays special is that they are an invitation to experience local life in the place that you’re traveling. By spending time in a local’s home, you’re given a glimpse into the day-to-day life of that person or family, and invited to learn and participate in it.
What is a Homestay?
A homestay is a form of accommodation that provides an opportunity to stay with a local family, for a fee. In a typical homestay, your lodging is a room within a person, or family’s home.
In some homestays, you will sleep in your host’s home, eat with them, spend time in their community, and learn from them. Often, you’ll have the chance to help out with cooking, with housework, errands, and even farmwork.
In others, you’ll be less involved, but living alongside your host. You’ll have the chance to see how they live, which gives you insight into how the locals where you’re traveling live. And, you’ll have the chance to make a personal connection with your host.
Why You Should Stay in a Homestay
The point of a homestay isn’t to check tourist attractions off of a list, or to take advantage of “cheap” accommodation. The point is to spend some time living in the way that people in the community you’re visiting, actually live.
What makes homestays special is that you get to know a local person, family, or community, and spend quality time with them. In homestays, you have the chance to participate in cultural exchange, and build relationships.
Lastly, when you stay in a homestay, you pay for your room and board, which means your tourism dollars directly benefiting the community you visit.
One important thing to remember when you stay in a homestay, however, is that it’s not all about you. When you stay in a homestay, you are not only a guest in someone’s physical home, but you are a guest in their country, and culture. Your homestay hosts are not there to serve you.
While staying in homestays, be respectful. Check your privilege, come to the homestay with an open mind, stick with cultural appropriation and not cultural appropriation, and be willing to listen and learn.
For detailed tips on how to be a responsible tourist while traveling (in homestays and beyond), read my blog, How To Be a Responsible Tourist.
Homestays 101: Everything You Need to Know
Now that you know what a homestay is, let’s dive into some common questions about homestays, and practical information to know for staying in them.
What is the difference between a homestay and hotel?
The difference between a homestay and hotel is mainly in the type of experience you will have in each. Hotels are typically larger, and have a model of service focused on prioritizing a larger quantity of guests. Since homestays are part of a person or family’s home, they typically host only a few guests at a time. This makes the experience much more personal than what a hotel provides.
Another key difference is that hotels provide a range of services that center the guest. In some homestays, guests are not “served.” Instead, the expectation is that guests participate in life. For example, rather than being served breakfast, like you would in a hotel, in a homestay you may be invited to help prepare breakfast and then eat together with your host(s).
How does a homestay work?
Homestays always provide lodging (a room and a bed), and most provide meals. The structure can vary depending on each individual homestay. Some homestays function more like a guesthouse, in which case breakfast may be provided and you have the option to pay extra for lunch and dinner. But in others, all meals are included. Since the structure can range, it’s important to read the details about a homestay before booking.
4 Ways to Find Homestays Abroad
I’ve already answered the question, what is a homestay. Now, let’s dive into how to find them.
You can find homestays through a mixture of resources and search strategies. Below are 4 ways that I’ve found work best for finding homestays abroad. These strategies are how I found a wonderful homestay experience in Bhalil, Morocco, and Barang Village Community Homestay in Nepal.
I haven’t yet found one centralized resource for homestays. If you know of any resources, please let me know via email!
1. Research Through Search Engines
Start your search for a homestay by seeing what comes up in the search results of Google, or whichever search engine you use (I see you, Bing users!).
You’ll want to include in your search query the location you’re searching for a homestay in, and the keyword “homestay.” I find that it’s important to scroll quite far down the results page, and it’s worth sometimes clicking through a couple pages of results.
You’ll also want to experiment with searching broadly as well as more specifically. For example, if you’re searching for a homestay in Sri Lanka, be sure to search “Sri Lanka homestay” as well as more specific locations, like “Colombo homestay.”
2. Search Booking Platforms
If search engines don’t turn up any results for a homestay, try searching on common booking platforms like Booking and Agoda.
Use the search query “homestay,” and check to see if the platform has a filter option for homestays – some do.
It’s important to carefully read the description of homestays you find on booking platforms because some function more as a guesthouse than a full homestay experience.
This isn’t a bad thing – guesthouses are a great choice, too. But if you are looking for an experience where participation in daily life is an option, you’ll
3. Search Homestay Aggregators
There are homestay aggregators like homestay.com. I don’t love them because they tend to show guesthouses. You have to sift through to find the more involved homestay experiences, by looking at reviews. That said, these aggregators are a great option if you need lodging and want to support local.
4. Check Social Media and Forums
You may have luck finding homestays on social media. I typically search the location and the keyword “homestay” in a couple social media apps. I’ve found TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit to be the best social media platforms for this.
You may come across posts by travelers or influencers who have visited specific homestays on Instagram and TikTok. On Reddit, search for forum posts that might include homestay recommendations.
Book a Homestay For Your Next Trip
It can take some legwork to find homestays, but it is worth the time. Homestays are often meaningful experiences that give you the chance to observe and participate in the culture of the place you are visiting. You are able to create relationships and form connections with people local to the country you are in.
And, you can feel good about staying in homestays (and small guesthouses) because your tourism dollars are going directly into the hands of local people, rather than corporately owned hotels. This helps to avoid economic leakage in tourism, and promotes responsible tourism.
To wrap up, I want to mention that homestays are often framed as an “authentic” experience – which is something I know many travelers are looking for when they go abroad.
I think it is true that homestays are “authentic” in the sense that you will witness and participate in the daily life of a family. But, remember that authenticity is hard to define and will vary from community to community.
If you’re interested in having meaningful travel experiences, start researching homestays to see if you can add them to your travel plans!
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