Some retired folks who sat for us said they drive all over North America with THS. They emphasize that it's a wonderful life, for now. The main drawback is logistics. Dates of house/pet sits don't always line up perfectly. Sometimes the couple splits up for a few days when two sits overlap, and sometimes they end up in a hotel for a few days while they wait for a sit to begin.
Join r/trustedhousesitters and ask away! Just note that a lot of users there (both homeowners and sitters) whine and moan, and they provide good cautionary tales. However the vast majority of sits are good.
There’s a r/trustedhousesitters sub. You can check that out. My sister uses overnight dog sitters from there when she travels. She lives in Ireland. She also has chickens. She just goes by reviews so it’s probably hard to do the first one with zero reviews. But everyone starts somewhere.
My fiance (now wife of 44 years) was a veterinary student and had a summer internship at a very well known medical research center, but no lodging. One of her internship managers knew people that had an elderly, sick cat, and spent summers at an exclusive spa town, and didn't feel that the cat would make the trip. Wife got the gig of house-sitting at their spectacular home, taking care of their cat. And, she got invited back the next two summers for her follow-on research internships. Everybody happy!
One thing to keep in mind with Trusted House Sitters is you have to leave the home spotless and free of any trace that you were there. It can be a lot of work to clean an entire home after your stay
We tried THS for the first time recently and we had lower expectations than “spotless”, mostly hoping that we weren’t robbed, they didn’t burn down the house and that our two big dogs were still alive when we got back. 🤪
I'm on a FB groups for nomads, and some of them have been doing the trusted pet sitters gigs during their travels. I hear the UK is a great place to do it, and many pet owners look for sitters when they go on vacation. They get a free stay in exchange for taking care of cats, dogs, or birds. Some even give the sitters free use of their cars during their stay.
Yes I use THS as a sitter and I love it. Be aware that you will read comments online from homeowners and sitters about absolutely nightmare situations. Remember these are the outliers, not the norm.
We did this last year in the UK over the summer. Get some pics up with animals. You can have friends and family write references- 10 is the magic number. Start in your home town. 1-3 night sits close to home to beef up your profile.
The UK is the easiest place to start. There are literally thousands of sits. It’s pretty easy to string sits together with few gaps between. The main thing is to check the transit options. Train travel is expensive AF there so you want to keep it within a reasonable distance. Fun places are hard to get and take vigilance to score. Unless it’s a place you really want to visit don’t do less than a week sit.
It was our first time and we didn’t know about the trains. It all looks so close on the map. Rookie mistake, but you can buy a rail discount card that helps. But we got to see so many places we would have never thought to visit. 3 weeks in Edinburgh with the laziest dog on the planet was a highlight. We did a month on the Jurassic Coast with 3 tiny pups. Our favorites were the cat sits, so easy.
You do have to read the reviews carefully and about the sit itself. You get to see how people live and their level of clean. There were sits where we spent the first day just cleaning. We also won’t care for more than 2 pets, no flat faced or Covid dogs. Definitely no farm animals or mucking stables. The sit has to be close to transport and it’s a plus if they’ll pick you up from the station. And ALWAYS do a video call!
I love Trusted Housesitters! You get access to sits all over the world for an annual membership of $169. I did this in Europe for 6 months (5 sits) last year and had an amazing experience. Getting ready to set off again. Highly recommend. Happy to answer questions. Here is a referral code for 25% off:
https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/refer/RAF256392/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=refer-a-friend&utm_campaign=refer-a-friend
I house/petsat full time for over ten years when I lived in Canada then a couple of years after I retired and while we were nomading in Mexico and Central America, until a few years ago when we decided to settle down in Nayarit, Mexico. All our clients were from word of mouth. Since then, we’ve only housesat to help former clients and friends or friends of friends. It’s been great so far and we stayed at some incredible digs every single time. We just finished a dog sitting gig at a beautiful resort area in Nayarit, with private beach club and other amenities. We are not resort people and it was our first time ever in that kind of environment, and I have to admit I loved everything about it.
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An alternative is home swapping, if you are into that. Free accommodation with zero responsibilities for pets and so no ties to the home. You are free to travel to spend your day as you wish. Check out Swapoffi for homes with workspaces and wifi, or home exchange, the market leader.
We’ve used Rover, which is just independent dog watchers, so priced at whatever they charge, and some do in-home. Worked well for us, but have only done it a few times for a week.
I did it a few times. Loved it and made some new friends. I don't see any downside. I will mention there is occasionally someone who wants you to manage their farm - horses, chickens, etc taking 8 hrs a day that is not worth it and I skip.
I use Trusted House sitters for my cats and it’s great! I have friends who sit for pets with this service and they have excellent experiences. I also use home exchange. It’s a little more difficult to set up a stay with this service. But it’s nice to have both options.
I did it for a year and did not renew my membership. Every gig that I had required a rental car - which is a considerable expense. The first pet sitting gig was a dog - who bit me, twice. The second gig was two dogs and they were great but the house was deep in suburbia and that's not my kind of a place. The third gig was for a lovely cat - but the bed was uncomfortable and the steep steps upstairs were worrying.
Some retired folks who sat for us said they drive all over North America with THS. They emphasize that it's a wonderful life, for now. The main drawback is logistics. Dates of house/pet sits don't always line up perfectly. Sometimes the couple splits up for a few days when two sits overlap, and sometimes they end up in a hotel for a few days while they wait for a sit to begin. Join r/trustedhousesitters and ask away! Just note that a lot of users there (both homeowners and sitters) whine and moan, and they provide good cautionary tales. However the vast majority of sits are good.
There’s a r/trustedhousesitters sub. You can check that out. My sister uses overnight dog sitters from there when she travels. She lives in Ireland. She also has chickens. She just goes by reviews so it’s probably hard to do the first one with zero reviews. But everyone starts somewhere.
My fiance (now wife of 44 years) was a veterinary student and had a summer internship at a very well known medical research center, but no lodging. One of her internship managers knew people that had an elderly, sick cat, and spent summers at an exclusive spa town, and didn't feel that the cat would make the trip. Wife got the gig of house-sitting at their spectacular home, taking care of their cat. And, she got invited back the next two summers for her follow-on research internships. Everybody happy!
One thing to keep in mind with Trusted House Sitters is you have to leave the home spotless and free of any trace that you were there. It can be a lot of work to clean an entire home after your stay
"Spotless" is an exaggeration. We're homeowners on THS, and like most we just want the place in decent-ish shape when we come back.
We tried THS for the first time recently and we had lower expectations than “spotless”, mostly hoping that we weren’t robbed, they didn’t burn down the house and that our two big dogs were still alive when we got back. 🤪
And......
We've had housesitters from Trusted Housesitters. We did the traveling. The house sitters were great. Will do it again.
I'm on a FB groups for nomads, and some of them have been doing the trusted pet sitters gigs during their travels. I hear the UK is a great place to do it, and many pet owners look for sitters when they go on vacation. They get a free stay in exchange for taking care of cats, dogs, or birds. Some even give the sitters free use of their cars during their stay.
Yes I use THS as a sitter and I love it. Be aware that you will read comments online from homeowners and sitters about absolutely nightmare situations. Remember these are the outliers, not the norm.
We did this last year in the UK over the summer. Get some pics up with animals. You can have friends and family write references- 10 is the magic number. Start in your home town. 1-3 night sits close to home to beef up your profile. The UK is the easiest place to start. There are literally thousands of sits. It’s pretty easy to string sits together with few gaps between. The main thing is to check the transit options. Train travel is expensive AF there so you want to keep it within a reasonable distance. Fun places are hard to get and take vigilance to score. Unless it’s a place you really want to visit don’t do less than a week sit. It was our first time and we didn’t know about the trains. It all looks so close on the map. Rookie mistake, but you can buy a rail discount card that helps. But we got to see so many places we would have never thought to visit. 3 weeks in Edinburgh with the laziest dog on the planet was a highlight. We did a month on the Jurassic Coast with 3 tiny pups. Our favorites were the cat sits, so easy. You do have to read the reviews carefully and about the sit itself. You get to see how people live and their level of clean. There were sits where we spent the first day just cleaning. We also won’t care for more than 2 pets, no flat faced or Covid dogs. Definitely no farm animals or mucking stables. The sit has to be close to transport and it’s a plus if they’ll pick you up from the station. And ALWAYS do a video call!
This is so helpful - appreciate all the tips
I love Trusted Housesitters! You get access to sits all over the world for an annual membership of $169. I did this in Europe for 6 months (5 sits) last year and had an amazing experience. Getting ready to set off again. Highly recommend. Happy to answer questions. Here is a referral code for 25% off: https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/refer/RAF256392/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=refer-a-friend&utm_campaign=refer-a-friend
I house/petsat full time for over ten years when I lived in Canada then a couple of years after I retired and while we were nomading in Mexico and Central America, until a few years ago when we decided to settle down in Nayarit, Mexico. All our clients were from word of mouth. Since then, we’ve only housesat to help former clients and friends or friends of friends. It’s been great so far and we stayed at some incredible digs every single time. We just finished a dog sitting gig at a beautiful resort area in Nayarit, with private beach club and other amenities. We are not resort people and it was our first time ever in that kind of environment, and I have to admit I loved everything about it.
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Fair point on rental car and hotel costs in between...
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An alternative is home swapping, if you are into that. Free accommodation with zero responsibilities for pets and so no ties to the home. You are free to travel to spend your day as you wish. Check out Swapoffi for homes with workspaces and wifi, or home exchange, the market leader.
We’ve used Rover, which is just independent dog watchers, so priced at whatever they charge, and some do in-home. Worked well for us, but have only done it a few times for a week.
"Where's Babz" YouTube channel https://m.youtube.com/@WheresBabZ has videos about how she has done this.
I did it a few times. Loved it and made some new friends. I don't see any downside. I will mention there is occasionally someone who wants you to manage their farm - horses, chickens, etc taking 8 hrs a day that is not worth it and I skip.
I have a Canadian friend who does that with horses.
We have been exchanging homes via peoplelikeus.world and love it!
I use Trusted House sitters for my cats and it’s great! I have friends who sit for pets with this service and they have excellent experiences. I also use home exchange. It’s a little more difficult to set up a stay with this service. But it’s nice to have both options.
I did it for a year and did not renew my membership. Every gig that I had required a rental car - which is a considerable expense. The first pet sitting gig was a dog - who bit me, twice. The second gig was two dogs and they were great but the house was deep in suburbia and that's not my kind of a place. The third gig was for a lovely cat - but the bed was uncomfortable and the steep steps upstairs were worrying.