SmartAupairs
reviews and complaints

I was an au pair in Australia through Smart au pairs from July 2018 till September 2018. This was the worst experience ever! Upon arrival, my host family and I got along pretty well and they asked me to extend another 6 months after my first half year was over. A month or so later, without any conversation or reasonable time frame, they told me on a Saturday, that I had till that Monday to pack my bags and leave. Their reason was that we ended up not being a great match for each other. I ended up on the street in a foreign country on the other side of the world, not knowing where to sleep, where to eat and where to work. I contacted Smart Au Pairs and the first couple of days I could not get in touch with anyone. After I finally got in touch with Smart Au Pairs, they did not provide any place to stay and they did not provide any contact person for me to go to. The only option they gave me was to try to find another family to continue my au pair journey with. I ended up going from one place to another through Couchsurf and slept in houses of complete strangers. After a couple of miserable weeks, I got a flight back and left Australia. I never heard anything back from the company, they never checked in to see what happened to me and how I was doing. I do not recommend this agency at all!

I was an au pair in the United states before through Cultural Care Au Pair and this is probably the best agency you can go with! You have your own contact person in your area in case anything happens. Your contact person is available 24/7 and helps you through any problems that may occur.

Smart AuPairs is a "Au Pair dating agency" to avoid. They have agreements with German and other agencies to "match" Au Pairs with Australian families. The Agency in Germany for example charge the Au pair say EUR$900 or more to register and then Smart AuPair in Australia charge the family $1000 or more, for nothing. The German agency (or other in country agency) recommend pocket money of AUD$150-250 maximum, yet Smart AuPairs try to get the family in Australia to pay at least double that. They are corrupting the unregulated industry and profiting from these poor girls and guys who are looking for a cultural exchange. By charging excessive "placement" fees and forcing pocket money into wages territory, they are destroying the program the government set up to provide cultural exchanges. More importantly the DONT MATCH, they just give whomever is available at the time, dodgy, corrupt and due for a government enquiry..Also the awards they say they win are rubbish, setups and fabricated. The owner of the dodgy agency setup BAPAA themselves and the International version is no better as they award each other awards for nothing, its bogus and unregulated ! Do not use this dodgy company.

Last February 2016 we engaged the services of an au pair through Smart Au pairs in Australia, we submitted an application and they rang me next day asking to make a deposit in order to start. I had no other option, then waited 2 weeks to hear from them, they contacted me to present only one candidate and not matching my profile at all, too young and German, they said to have only German girls ages 18-19 yrs old with no driving experience. I did not like the profile of the girl and asked them to refund my deposit, Camilla from their agency denied. Then waited more days and had no other option than to accept the German girl, the German au pair was a disaster, smoker and locked my kid in the garage twice, we asked a replacement and Camilla denied this option as she said we are in the low season. I finished with no au pair and loosing more than 1, 500 AUD but i could not keep the German girl at home caring my kids that way.