Best Agency?

[Anonymous]

What are the best au pair agencies to use right now?

We have used Cultural Care for many years and were happy with them until this past year or so. We can't even get a decent potential au pair to email us back. I'm not sure if its their new matching process, a lack of au pairs, an overabundance of host families or what. I know 4 other host families who are trying to use CCAP and can't even get a connection -- they are not crazy jobs - most have 2 kids, split schedule, less than 30 hrs a week, in DC area, private room/bathroom, car, phone, etc.

Is it like this with all agencies right now? Or just CCAP?

[Anonymous]

I use au pair care and have never had this kind of problem. I find plenty of great candidates and don't find it very competitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I use au pair care and have never had this kind of problem. I find plenty of great candidates and don't find it very competitive.

Have you matched recently?

[Anonymous]

Just in the process of looking for the next au pair and so far so good. Are you interested in a particular country or language? Happy to take a quick look to see how many AP's are available.

[Anonymous]

I switched from CCAP to APC this year after 6 years.

I matched for an Aug arrival.
Much better matching experience.

[Anonymous]

Also switched to APC and was able to match easily.

[Anonymous]

I'm not any of the PPs (and not with APC!), but with CCAP. Having the same dreadful experience this year. I wonder if we should try switching? We've also used APIA, their LCC in our area is awful.

[Anonymous]

To any of the PP with an agency other that CCAP, what is the matching process like? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I think CHI has amazing au pairs. I have been really happy. It's a small agency.. cheaper, better au pairs and lots of help matching. www.chinet.org

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the best au pair agencies to use right now?

We have used Cultural Care for many years and were happy with them until this past year or so. We can't even get a decent potential au pair to email us back. I'm not sure if its their new matching process, a lack of au pairs, an overabundance of host families or what. I know 4 other host families who are trying to use CCAP and can't even get a connection -- they are not crazy jobs - most have 2 kids, split schedule, less than 30 hrs a week, in DC area, private room/bathroom, car, phone, etc.

Is it like this with all agencies right now? Or just CCAP?

We have had much better luck with Go au pair. Fewer candidates--but ones that I am actually excited about, and they seem excited about the process too. In Cultural Care (we switched last year), we felt like it was forever before someone actually wrote back and then the caliber of candidates was not as strong and did not manage the interview process well.

[Anonymous]

We've been with CCAP since 2014 and switched to APC this year. I was reaching out to candidates with both. Started in February for a June arrival. ALL CCAP candidates declined a connection with a canned response. We matched with a fantastic AP from Colombia with APC within a couple off weeks.

[Anonymous]

We've been with CCAP for years but I've gotten really disgruntled with them this year. I think they care entirely about the bottom line and not the APs/families. (Our LCC sucks which probably contributes to my annoyance).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've been with CCAP for years but I've gotten really disgruntled with them this year. I think they care entirely about the bottom line and not the APs/families. (Our LCC sucks which probably contributes to my annoyance).

When I found out how little they pay their LCCs, I was shocked. No wonder their LCCs aren't any good.

[Anonymous]

We were with CCAP for several years and just switched to APC. We are MUCH happier with APC. Completely different experience with matching (APC was great, CCAP was a nightmare). Area director for APC is fantastic, LCC for CCAP was just wretched. I wish we’d switched years ago!