We have designed our site to be straightforward, simple to use and as intuitive as possible. We provide many online help documents for first-time families and au pairs covering most topics of au pairing. We also have a FAQ page that covers most of the Frequently Asked Questions that we get.

If you have an au pairing question or technical issue with the website that is not covered here then please contact us via our support page or call us.

Registering your account

To contact any of the au pairs or families on the website you must first register an account. You must provide a working email address, which is used at the end of registration to send you your account activation code and each time you sign in to your account.

On the first page of registration you are required to acknowledge that you have read our terms and conditions. These are here for a reason so please make sure that you read them.

When you have completed all pages of the registration you will be emailed your activation code. This code is used to verify your email address and activate your account.

If you do not have time to answer all the questions fully during registration you can always make changes to your profile after registering.

After registration all family accounts are verified. An account is verified by a member of our support team who will read through your profile and possibly contact you to make sure that your application for an au pair is genuine. Our verification process is in place to protect au pairs from possible fraudulent families who register and pay to have direct contact with au pairs specifically for criminal purposes. Accounts are verified normally within 12-24 hours of registration.

To find your au pair/family as quickly as possible we strongly advise that you provide as much information about yourself as possible. If you are a family then give lots of information about your family, your home and where you live. If an au pair is going to live with you for upto 2 years then they will want to know as much about you as they can. We also strongly recommend that you upload photos of your family/home. This can be done after you have activated your account by selecting Photos from your Account page.

Managing Your Account

From your account page you are able to make changes to any of the information you provided during registration. Use Edit Email/Password to change your email address or password and Edit Profile to make changes to any of the information.

Messages

Select this to view your InBox or OutBox. Messages sent to you from au pairs (if you are a family) or families (if you are an au pair) will appear in your InBox. Messages you've sent will appear in your OutBox. To open a message in your InBox click on the sender's name. The page will be refreshed and the message will appear above your InBox. To reply to the message click Reply. If you are not a full member you will be taken to the payment page. Only full members can reply to messages in their InBox.

View My Profile

Select this to view your profile. This shows you exactly what other au pairs/families will see when they view your profile. Your photos however, are only ever shown to registered members (only to au pairs if you are a family or only to families if you are an au pair).

Edit Profile

Select this to make changes to your profile.

Feature Me

Select this to feature your profile on the website. A feature is a way of getting more users to view your profile. A feature is a box containing your personal message and thumbnail that automatically appears on the left or right columns of the website.

Features for families cost £15+VAT(GBP); $25(USD); €25+VAT(EUR) for 2 weeks or 25+VAT(GPB); $40(USD); €40+VAT(EUR) for 4 weeks.

Features for au pairs cost £10+VAT(GBP); $10(USD); €10(EUR) for 2 weeks or £15+VAT(GBP); $15(USD); €15(EUR) for 4 weeks.

Photos

Select this to add photos to your profile. You may upload upto 10 photos. We strongly advise all families and au pairs to upload their photos as soon as possible as this improves their chances of finding a suitable au pair/family quicker.

Edit Email/Password

Select this to change your email address or password.

HotList

Select this to view your HotList. Your HotList is a list of profile summaries that you've specifically picked out from the results of a database search. This allows you to return to a profile quickly without having to remember the profile number or repeat a search. To remove a profile summary from your HotList check the tickbox that appears directly above the profile summary and then click the DEL button.

Delete Account

Select this to remove your account and profile details from our database and any photos that you've uploaded. Please make sure that this is really what you want to do before choosing this option because we cannot recover a deleted account.

Sign Out

Select this option to sign out from your account. If you do not sign out each time you use the website then you will not have to re-enter your email address next sign you sign in. You will, however be asked to enter your password each time.

Announcements

This section lists the public messages sent from SunnyAuPairs regarding important issues, events, etc that you should read. Click the title of the announcement to view it. You can use the checkbox and DEL button to remove a message after you have read it.

Your Membership Status

This section shows you whether you are a guest member or full member and when your membership expires if you are a full member.

If you are a guest member and want to upgrade to a full member then click on the link to upgrade. If you are already a full member and want to extend your current full membership then click Extend my membership. The membership period purchased will then be added to the end of your current membership date.

Job Status

Use this section to inform other users if you are actively Looking for an au pair/family; you have now filled your position/been placed; or you are no longer looking for an au pair/family. Your job status appears on your profile.

Your Profile Status

This section shows if your profile will be appear in the results of database searches (Visible) or will not be displayed in the results of database searches (Hidden). Select Hidden if you prefer your profile to be 'invisible' on the site and you want to do the contacting yourself, rather than allowing other au pairs/families to find your profile and contact you.

Your Preferred Methods of Contact

This section allows you to change your preferred methods of contact when au pairs/families want to contact you. Check InBox if you want to allow au pairs/families to send you internal messages to your InBox. Here you have the option to forward internal messages to your own email address. Check Mobile/Home/Work if you want to allow au pairs/families to contact you using the phone.

Searching for your Au Pair/Family

To search our database of au pairs click on the Au Pairs tab on the main navigation menu at the top of the page. This will then show the thumbnails of the last 20 au pairs to have signed in. Click on a thumbnail to view the au pair's profile or select your country in Country of host family and optionally the preferred nationality of the au pair in Nationality of au pair and click GO.

The Au Pairs sub-menu allows you to: view a list of all au pairs in the database sorted by nationality or target country (All); view the latest au pairs to register (Latest); view the au pairs that are featured (Featured); view the au pairs that are using the site now (Online); and to perform an advanced database search using more search criteria (Advanced search).

To search our database of families click on the Families tab on the main navigation menu at the top of the page. This will then show the thumbnails of the last 12 families to have signed in. Click on a thumbnail to view the family's profile or select your preferred host family country in Target country of au pair and your nationality in Nationality of au pair and click GO.

The Families sub-menu allows you to: view a list of all families in the database sorted by country or preferred nationality (All); view the latest families to register (Latest); view the families that are featured (Featured); view the families that are using the site now (Online); and to perform an advanced database search using more search criteria (Advanced search).

Profiles do not contain any contact details. To contact an au pair/family click the Contact button at the foot of the profile or the Contact link in the sub-menu. To contact an au pair/family either you or the au pair/family must be a full member. To add a profile to your HotList click the HotList button at the foot of the profile or the HotList link in the sub-menu.

It is not necessary to register in order to search our database.

Upgrading your membership

Families must upgrade to a paid full membership in order to contact the au pairs in our database. Au pairs can contact families that are full members for free, but a paid full membership is required to contact the families that are guest members.

The full membership fee for family members is £65 (GBP), $130 (USD) or €100 (Euro) for a 6 month membership and £100 (GBP), $200 (USD) or €155 (Euro) for a 12 month membership. We do not charge placement fees.

The full membership fee for au pair members is £5 (GBP), $10 (USD), €8 (Euro) per week. The shortest term is 1 week.

To upgrade your account select either 6 months or 12 months on the upgrade page and click either the WorldPay image to pay using WorldPay or the PayPal image if you have a PayPal account. Both methods of payment use 128-bit SSL encryption, so your credit card details are transmitted across the net using the latest methods of encryption.

Afer submitting your credit card details to WorldPay or PayPal your account should automatically be upgraded to full membership for the required duration. Sometimes the payment notification can take a few minutes so please be patient. If after 5 minutes your account page still shows you as being a guest member please sign out from your account and then sign in again to your account again. If your account still shows you as a guest member then please contact support so we can help you.

Contacting Au Pairs/Families

A full membership is required to contact the au pairs in our database. To contact the families either the family or you (the au pair) must be a full member.

To contact an au pair/family first bring up the profile of the au pair/family and then click the Contact button at the foot of the profile or click the Contact link on the sub-menu. On the Contact page you will see the au pair's/family's preferred methods of contact. This may include the au pair's/family's phone number (mobile/home/work) if they have chosen to be contacted by phone or Internal Message if they have chosen to be contacted by internal message or email.

If you decide to contact the au pair/family by sending a message to their InBox then either select one of the pre-written messages from the drop down list box or select 'Compose own' to compose your own personal message to send. Click the Notify me... check box if you want to be notified by email when the recipient has opened their message. Click Send Message to send the message. A copy of the message you've sent will also be added to your own OutBox.

Sometimes au pairs/families can take several days to reply to messages, so please be patient. If you don't hear from them within a couple of days please try re-sending the message.

Please read and respond to all messages you receive as quickly as possible even if you are no longer looking or have already been; placed with a family; or filled your position. The number of your unread messages appears in your profile status and is visible to other users. Au pair's/families will be discouraged from contacting you if they see a high number of unread messages.