When pupils from two German schools arrived in the UK, they came laden with chocolates and books for their host families.

What the two got in return was meals consisting of cold baked beans and lessons in how to swear.

One girl claimed her English hosts made her sleep every night on a sun lounger.

Lisa Schwetlick, 11, said: "We were given baked beans and sometimes potatoes. When we got back from a trip to London, we were given only crisps.

"The family wasn't interested in talking to us. They spent most of the time repairing three big motorbikes they had outside. I never want to go back again."

Frederick Johannson, 11, who stayed with another family, claimed: "We were given mostly cold baked beans.

"Their 16-year-old son took us for a walk for about three hours and then ran off. He told us, 'See if you can find your way back'."

A total of 44 German children aged ten and 11 from Charles Dickens Primary in Berlin stayed in Hastings and St Leonards for a week last month, paying from £11 to £15 a night.

Nine of them, who had lodged with three families, said they were relieved to return home.

The German teachers and parents have complained to German travel company SET Studienreisen that arranged the trip and are threatening to alert "the Hastings authorities".

Heinz Abeling, managing director of SET, which sends about 4,000 children to East Sussex every year, said only a couple of complaints were made after they had returned to Germany.

He said the overwhelming majority had enjoyed their stay, with both schools writing thank you letters to their hosts in an act of appreciation.

Mr Abeling told The Argus: "It's very, very unfair to put across a negative impression about their stay because the majority was very happy.

"Of course, when you are sending thousands of people to an area every year you are bound to get some complaints.

"But on the other hand how often do the host families have to put up with ill, homesick children? It works the other way round, too.

"Nowhere in the world would people be prepared to put up with so many young people coming into the privacy of their own home. But in England, you do.

"Also, it's not easy. Host families are expected to provide full bed and board, to fetch them from the coach and drop them back. That's a lot of work.

"We have had people coming to Hastings for ten to 12 years. Up to four years ago some comments about the town being rundown would come back. Yet we get that from all towns and cities we send people too, such as Oxford. Now, with all the money that's being spent on improving it, Hastings has improved a lot.

"There are occasionally some complaints which should be dealt with but the big majority were happy with Hastings."

The director of the London branch of Germany's international cultural organisation, the Goethe Institute, condemned the rudeness.

Dr Ulrich Sacker: "It wouldn't happen to English families in Germany.

"My explanation for this would be British ignorance. They have no information about contemporary Germany, while at the same time holding a very negative picture based on the experience of the war and the Holocaust."