Anonymous wrote:Why are you paying a house/dogsitter?

I would give her one week off ( your choosing) and have the sitter come. Then all the other weeks she can be in charge of house and dog.
Then she gets a week off of her choosing still.

APs can’t work as dogsitters.

Why are you paying a house/dogsitter?

I would give her one week off ( your choosing) and have the sitter come. Then all the other weeks she can be in charge of house and dog.
Then she gets a week off of her choosing still.

Which country is your AP arriving from? With my European APs, it was harder for the non-summer arrivals to find their social networks and travel partners. Unless your incoming AP is very savvy socially, she will have a hard time forming friendships quickly enough to make travel plans for July/August. Most APs have had the entire year to make friendships, save enough for travel, and plan far enough in advance for summer reservations.
I would recommend letting your AP invite a friend or family member from her home country to either travel with her and/or stay with her in your home. I would also be prepared to re-train her when you return from your month of travel. We made the mistake of taking a family vacation a couple of months after a new AP arrived, and it was a disaster. She forgot almost everything. In hindsight, I would have waited until after the vacation to welcome a new AP.

Anonymous wrote:I think she should still be allowed to get a week of her choosing.

This may be true for some AP, and not for others. Put it in your profile, OP, and take it from there. If a rock star comes along and asks whether she could take another week off, you can decide then, but I would not offer it upfront. 4 weeks of vacation (that she can plan ahead of time) + long weekend seems very generous to me.

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s a bad idea because without even a long weekend to look forward to you’re setting yourself up for a burned out employee.

Whoops sorry see now that you’ve planned around that!

I think it’s a bad idea because without even a long weekend to look forward to you’re setting yourself up for a burned out employee.

You should also make it clear that she is allowed to stay at the house the entire time if she wants. And make sure she is comfortable with the house sitter as this person is essentially a stranger to her.

I think she should still be allowed to get a week of her choosing.

If you disclose at matching I assume that you could consider that her vacation.

However... it's very early in her year. She might not have made any close friends to travel with, yet. It also gives her very little time to save money for extensive travel. It's very unlikely that an AP will have saved up enough for a 4-week trip after less than three months.
You will need to match with an AP who is happy to travel alone, who is extremely outgoing (making friends easily and quickly), who has enough money saved already to support a long-term travel that early in the year (or whose family background allows her parents to pitch in), or who is interested in traveling back home over the summer anyways (because of a wedding, an anniversary or grandma's 80s birthday). Also, not everybody wants to travel four weeks in a row (especially not alone). And you are leaving her behind for a very long time very early in her year with you... that is not really ideal.

Also, this will leave your AP with 3/4 of her year left. Three day weekends are nice but again, not really worth it if you don't have anyone to travel with. With asking her to take all her vacation in the beginning of her year you might be taking away her possibilities to travel with the friends she makes during her time with you. You might want to consider allowing for an extra week of vacation later in the year (what if she wants to extend and wants to travel home to get a new visa instead of extending in the US?). No, most likely you wouldn't have to but it would be a nice thing to do.

Just be clear when matching. That early in with a new a AP having a month off, not being invited to vacation needs to be very clear. Put it in your profile.

Anonymous wrote:As long as you are clear about this in matching, I can’t see this being a problem. Lucky AP, who will get four weeks off!

This! Be upfront about it in th the matching. I am sure many AP would be thrilled to get 4 weeks off in summer.

Anonymous wrote:Is this considered her travel month? If so not okay. By the end of the year all her friends will be travelling. In July I’m sure she won’t have a huge friend circle yet and will be travelling alone.

Travel month happens AFTER the ap year is over. It’s totally different from vacation.

Is this considered her travel month? If so not okay. By the end of the year all her friends will be travelling. In July I’m sure she won’t have a huge friend circle yet and will be travelling alone.

As long as you are clear about this in matching, I can’t see this being a problem. Lucky AP, who will get four weeks off!

We are a 7th time host family who have always allowed APs to choose their vacation weeks (within reason) but with our next AP (May arrival) we will be taking a 4 week family trip the last week of July and first 3 weeks in August. We have a house/dog sitter who will be staying in our guest room those weeks.

Can we ask that those 4 weeks be APs vacation weeks? She can take all 4 to travel or stay home some of the time and be a tourist at home. We could also offer her a handful of 3 day weekends if she wants to go other travel.

What do you all think? Good idea? Bad?