*Updated March 2021*
How International Housesitting Works
If you’ve never heard of international house-sitting not to worry, I’ll explain it all to you here!
I didn’t know about this amazing way to travel to new places and live ‘like a local’ by actually living in a local’s home… (free of charge) three or four years ago when I started traveling longer term. But now, I absolutely love it.
Basically, the way that international house-sitting or pet-sitting (I prefer to to take dog sitter house-sitting situations versus just caring for homes without pets actually!)works is that there are websites that connect those who have homes and pets with those who are willing to come and take care of their pets and home while they travel.
No money changes hands on either side-it’s a mutually beneficial relationship since the pet/home-owners don’t have to pay the sitter for their services (remember the old days when you had to pay someone to watch your pets or send them to a kennel?) and the sitter gets to travel somewhere new and stay for free.
Of course, you must love animals for pet-sitting to make sense, but there are some opportunities to do international house-sitting where there are no pets to take care of.
Four International Housesitting Websites You Can Join
What sites exist? More than I can name at this point-but here are four sites I’ve used and that are well known.
Note: Trustedhousesitters is the biggest (and most competitive), Nomador has gotten much bigger but is very France heavy, Housesitters America is only for house-sits in the U.S. and Mindmyhouse is the cheapest but not as user-friendly or secure as others on this list.
Trustedhousesitters.com
Though Trustedhousesitters has the highest fees, it is also the best as far as having the widest selection of properties all over the world and a wide variety of both short and long term housesitting assignments (anything from two days to six months). The membership pays itself back within less than one sit. I’ve been using this site for five years now and have done house-sits all over the world from Europe to Southern Spain, Italy, the Napa Valley, San Francisco, and Oregon.
Nomador.com
Nomador.com features France heavy property listings but this is a great site with a lot of housesit listings. The annual fee is $80/year making it the second most expensive site on this list. Great mix of long term housesitting and shorter term housesitting (anything from a few days to a few weeks)
HousesittersAmerica.com
These guys don’t have very many options compared to the other sites on this list and are, sadly, growing at a snail’s pace. In three years I have not seen their site improve much. That said, if you are in the U.S and looking to start house-sitting and don’t want to compete on these other more popular sites this is a good way to go.
You may have to wait a while until you see a property in the state/region you want to house-sit in, but with a $30/year fee it’s not a huge investment. Being the U.S there are fewer long term housesitting opportunities than the European sites (less vacation, etc) but if you are looking at the right time in the right place, you could still find something good here. I ended up spending two weeks in a gorgeous house in California wine country with an adorable dog-through this site.
Mindmyhouse.com
The cheapest option here. But also, in my opinion these least user-friendly and least organized/structured. There also aren’t as rigid of standards for identification, etc which makes me feel less secure about using the service. That said, you can use the site for free to take a look around at the sits there are on offer so why not take a look? And, for many people this site works great. I think I’d feel more comfortable committing to sits on this site if they were in my own region (and therefore don’t require booking flights).
What kind of people house-sit?
Who are the people who are signing up as house-sitters on these sites and willing to look after other’s pets for free?
In my experience I’ve found that there are a two major types of group that flock to this newly available way to connect with locals and no-cost accommodation around the world.
1) The long term budget traveler
A lot of people who do international housesitting these days are actually using full time long term housesitting as a way to live rent free while traveling the world. This means they aren’t paying rent or a mortgage somewhere (or they are renting their home to others while they travel) and so are free to travel full time and take long term house-sits all over the world for any length of time.
I don’t fit into this category BUT, I know a lot of digital nomads and writers and retirees who are using long term housesitting as a sustainable way to travel affordably long term while also getting to experience a lot of the comforts of home and obviously it’s working for them since they’re still doing it!
Most of these folks look to secure long term housesitting gigs (as many months as possible in many instances) versus shorter stays, because this way they avoid the higher travel costs involved in traveling from place to place more often.
2) Those who simply enjoy traveling and animals and like to travel more for less money and experience places like a local
This is me! These travelers often include retirees, digital nomads or those who work remotely and entrepreneurs or teachers with summers off since these are the groups with the most free time and flexibility to travel. But, there are plenty of ‘regular’ people starting to catch-on to this opportunity as well, as the phenomenon becomes more and more well known.
House-sits can range from two nights to six months-so depending on whether you are looking to house-sit locally, somewhere else in your own country or somewhere abroad you’ll find different options that may suit your needs/abilities better.
How to get started or get your first house-sitting offer
I can’t tell how many times I’ve met people who say ‘oh I tried that site but nobody answered me when I applied for house-sits so it doesn’t work’ or ‘there aren’t any sits in the exact area I want to be in on the exact dates I want to be there’ or something along these lines.
These are opportunities to stay somewhere without paying, not Airbnb apartments! If you are too rigid in your location/dates you will have a tougher time finding something. In addition, if you don’t have any reviews on these sites you are most likely not going to be a homeowner’s first choice.
Most people have to do a few initial house-sits before they get to choose the exact area they want to go. The exception is during peak travel months such as August (everyone in Europe travels in August) and over Christmas (ditto) holidays when people are a bit more desperate to book a house-sitter and lots of home-owners are searching at the same time.
If you don’t have any reviews as a house-sitter it doesn’t make any sense to start applying for the most desirable house-sits such as a penthouse apartment in London with only one small dog to care for or a villa in a popular area of Italy with one outdoor cat.
First, try looking for a house-sit in your own backyard (so you automatically are less of a risk than someone coming from a different state or country who’s travel plans might fall through) and for a shorter time period (shorter house-sits are harder to find house-sitters for because they aren’t really worth doing for free for most people).
Second, look daily (and set up alerts for your location) and keep an eye out for ‘last minute’ listings that pop up. These people really need someone -and without much advance notice it’s harder to find experienced house-sitters who already have their calendars booked up. So, you might get a great house-sit simply by being available and getting in touch at the right time.
Third, if you are looking outside your own region, look at places that aren’t the most desirable locations and also consider seasons/weather.
You are much more likely to get your first house-sitting situation in a not as popular destination in the winter than you are to get a house-sit in London or San Francisco in summer.
Provide Reviews, Proof of Your Identity or Other Social Proofs to Increase the Comfort of Home-owners
Finally, PROVIDE AS MUCH VERIFICATION OF YOUR IDENTITY AS POSSIBLE including social proof. It never hurts to provide additional evidence of who you are and that you exist online in a lot of different places with the same photo and have real friends and connections and a professional work history. Even think about including things like a screen shot of your Airbnb reviews (as a guest) or a link to your LinkedIn profile.
Yes, the house-sitting sites collect your forms of identity when you become a member (passport, government ID etc), but it’s nice to give more of a picture of who you are if you can (especially if you don’t have any reviews).
Remember, these home-owners are entrusting their beloved pet and home to you! On the flip-side-you also need to remember to filter home-owners too. This is a two-way exchange that should be equally beneficial to both parties so keep your eyes open and try to choose home-owners that seem like people you’d want to get to know in regular life. Make sure you see pictures of their home (and your room) and have a video call or phone conversation before committing to a house-sit.
The experience should be relatively low maintenance and also comfortable for you since it is not a paid job- it is supposed to be an equal exchange that benefits both sides!
I’ve met some lovely people (and pets!) through house-sitting over the past four years.
If you are going to try house or pet-sitting for the first time this year-I wish you the best of luck! Feel free to message me with any questions
*Note: Some of my posts may include affiliate links, though most do not. What this means is, that I have added some links to posts I’ve already written, which recommend products or services I have personally used and recommend. If you click on one of my links it costs you nothing extra, but may make me a few cents if your purchase something through that link. 🙂
I’ve never done this myself but one of my friend’s recently signed up for one of these services and it sounds like such a win-win! Except when there was a snowstorm and she had to spend literally 2 hours shovelling their front walkway haha
I like this type of travel with a chance to live like a local and really do more slow travel. Of course it helps to have access to transportation to see some things in the region, but this is definitely a great way to absorb more with this type of stay.
I guess this would not be for me because I don’t have any experience taking care of pets. It’s such a great idea though! Living like a local is the best way to travel.
I have looked at house-sitting but have not yet tried it, it’s still on my list though as I think it’s a great way of travelling. I originally used to think about house-swap as I live in London so a desirable location but the effort of making our house suitable for people to rent put me off, house-sitting doesn’t come with that issue. But as I have no pets of my own I was unsure whether I’d be able to get any gigs, however your tips for starting small and local make a lot of sense as a way of getting one’s rating established.
I have met some Travel Bloggers who do this to experience new countries and lower their travel costs. It’s quite cool.
House-sitting is a great concept and I can see exactly how it works after reading your post. This is one of the unique ways which works equally well for home owners and budget travelers, provided all the possible loopholes are avoided.
Those site addresses are really helpful. Though I haven’t thought of house sitting very seriously yet I am gathering as much info as possible. This may prove helpful in future.
yes-and not only travel bloggers these days-but just regular people who love animals and traveling for longer periods or experiencing other areas for weekends or weeks without paying exorbitant hotel fees and like the experience of meeting people and being ‘locals’ 🙂
Kavita-
Housesitters most often don’t have pets (otherwise they couldn’t leave their own pets to go house-sit). It’s not an exchange-but yes if you are new to it and since it’s gotten so much more popular, starting local and on shorter sits is a GREAT way to do it! 🙂
Carol, sometimes you’ll find properties that don’t have any pets but ask instead for a bit of gardening or watering plants or checking in guests to their vacation apartment or something.
yep… just like home! if you have a snow storm you have to shovel your way out. If the dog gets sick you have to take it to the vet. And so on……..:)
This is a very interesting post. Although I won’t do house sitting anywhen soon, I’d consider it for later when I do nothing but travelling (right now I’m still holding a 9to5). Anyway, I’m planning a post on different means of prolonging and / or financing an extended travel, can I get back to you for this?
Thanks for this overview – house and pet sitting is such a fabulous way to cut down on costs overseas, and we also love it because it allows you to really embrace slow travel, immersing yourself into a community, and you get to stay in some of the most incredible homes sometimes! We’re part of Trustedhousesitters.com though I hadn’t heard of the others, so thanks for the tip – will check them out too!
Quite an interesting post for pet lover travellers. I am not a pet lover so these jobs are not for me. But surely can share this up with a friend. Thanks for writing this up.
Hi Suruchi-there are lots of housesits that don’t have pets actually. Just plants to water, mail to collect and they want a sense of security by having someone there so not just for petsitters! 🙂
Hi Renata,
The best place to start is in your own backyard-since you can do weekend sits to get some reviews and not go out of your way too much-plus those are easier to get when you are a newbie 🙂 AND they still give you free and interesting travel. For instance lots of people in England go do long weekend house-sits in places like Brighton because everyone loves Brighton 🙂
absolutely do feel free to get back to me when you write your post-Cheers!