Twinn Palms

Worst company I have ever dealt with! Not professional, rude and very inconsistent. I literally was in the process for a whole year allowing three coordinators in my home who each said lost their paperwork. Company was hiring and firing people and not informing the applicants. Met a student finally and I was told I was all set. Changed my schedule, reorganized house and scheduled some activities for the student to find out that I was not approved. Didn’t even get a call from the agency letting me know. I will never deal with them again complete waste of time and money.

We contracted with a subcontractor of Twinn Palms Homestay agency to host 6 international children for 7 days from July 15^th thru July 21^st, 2014. The day before the students arrived, we were informed that the number of students was reduced to 4. This, after making numerous financial and logistical arrangements to house, feed and transport the 6 students. Also, the pickup location on their arrival was a small parking lot at Cal State L.A. and the parking was not adequate to accommodate all the cars, and Parking Enforcement officers were there citing vehicles parked in red zones. Next, as with all the previous students that we have hosted, we provide house rules which include limiting shower time to 5 minutes (due to the severe water drought in California). Shower time has never been an issue in the past, however the youngest student (13 yrs old) made a verbal complaint to an agency official and we were told «It is bad will» to limit shower time since the students are paying to stay in our home. It is ecologically irresponsible to waste our precious water resource, and 5 minute shower times are recommended by state water officials. Second, the agency complained that we dropped the students off in the morning too early. Students were to arrive no later than 8:45, so since we live 40 miles away, and do not drive to downtown Los Angeles in morning rush hour traffic we left the house at 7:00am and arrived at 7:40. We were accused of abandoning minor children. First, there were no time restrictions regarding arriving early in our contract. Second, the school facility was open and the students were brought inside and released to school officials. Lastly, when the 4 children were picked up in our 9 passenger SUV, «somebody» stated seatbelts were not available for all passengers. That claim was totally false! In short, a decision was made by the Mavis Cordero, Director of Twinn Palms Homestay to remove the students from our home after 1 day and placed with another family without having any chance for us to respond these false allegations. My suspicion is that since the number of students arriving was less than the agency anticipated, the agency decided to consolidate the students in to fewer homes to save money. We have hosted international students on many occasions and have never encountered any complaints or issues. Twinn Palms Homestay is very unorganized, and I will never deal with this agency again in the future.