There is a whole world of options out there beyond renting accommodation, paying for hotels and hostels. In fact, when you take money out of the equation and look into international house sitting, this is one of the most sustainable ways to travel.
There are more and more service exchange websites and platforms popping up online all the time and they are spreading to a wider and wider network.
If you are looking to travel for a price you really didn’t think was possible (free in most cases), keep reading to learn about international house sitting.
Table of Contents
What is International House Sitting
- You can stay somewhere (or multiple places) for free
- Can stay somewhere longer than you normally would with the savings
- You get the experience of living in a home instead of a hotel/hostel
- It is a more eco friendly way to travel
- And, you get to spend time with great pets
Writing this post from a beautiful, cliff-side home in the US Virgin Islands, we are a few weeks into a 3-month housesit.
What this means is, the homeowners have left us their house to live in, rent-free, for three months while they go on vacation. They also left two cars for us to drive, cleaners and gardeners that come once a week. And…dogs! Beautiful, well-trained dogs to walk and play with. While the website/service is called “housesitting” it is really more of a “pet sitting” setup. So in most cases, you are going to have some kind of pet there with you.
This is great for people like us, who love dogs (and other pets) but don’t have any of our own, as we want to keep traveling. So we just get to temporarily hang out with other people’s animals as we go.
Our days are spent waking up to a stunning view, walking the dogs, reading books and snorkeling at the best St John beaches, then socializing at the various events around the island at night.
How can I get into housesitting?
There are a few different online options but our favorite international house sitting website is “Trusted Housesitters”. It is like the “Airbnb” of housesitting (except you don’t pay to stay anywhere just an annual membership fee).
How to set up your international house sitting profile
Like “Airbnb” you create a profile. You can add photos and some info about yourself (we found it’s best if you can add photos of you with a number of different pets, preferably ones that look like you know what you’re doing or at least have a bond with the pet). Add in your previous house sitting assignments experience (if you have any), and request some external references (these can be friends or family that will vouch for you).
Setting up the profile is a pretty quick and easy process though it does ask for various levels of verification, which can seem a little daunting (giving your passport details etc.). We’ve just done the basic – its email, phone number, and 2 external reference emails.
Put in things like your interests, as people really do want to get a sense of who you are. We’ve used a couple of pictures of us doing what we love (sailing, surfing) as well as pictures with animals.
Now that you’re “in the system” you need to get some housesits going in order to get yourself some ratings.
House sitting reviews
Because the whole system is built on trust and no momentary exchange, your ratings are VERY important. Here’s an example of one of our ratings to give you an idea.
How to find house sitting gigs
There are so many international house sitting jobs all around the world, from Australia, to Guatemala, Grenada, and more.
Trusted Housesitters makes it easy to search for international house sits, as you can filter by location. If you are looking to stay in France, you can search for places in general or even a specific city or town.
For example, these are some of the options that came up for “France”.
Or if you’re looking for a place closer to home. Just search for your local city. You’d be surprised how many options there are around the world.
We lived for nearly three months, housesitting, in our hometown while we went to work each day, helping to save as much as we could before we took off to housesit in the Caribbean.
There is flexibility
Most places will have dates set for which they are away (and looking for someone to sit). We’ve found these are not always set and can be flexible. The best way to go is to simply apply for places that interest you.
How to start applying for International house sitting gigs
You might be the only one, or you may be one of fifty people applying for the sit (depending on how great a house/deal someone is offering) but it doesn’t matter. We’ve found the best way to secure a housesit is keeping an eye on a location you are interested in (daily checks in some places) and applying quickly as you will likely be read first as a potential applicant.
Once you get a response from your applied house the procedures that follow are really up to you and the owner to determine. The website is more of a meeting platform. For most of ours, we’ve followed up with Skype calls or just a phone call. A couple of places we’ve gone to the house first to meet the owner.
It will depend on the place, the time and the owners.
What are the house and pet sitting rates
If you become an international house sitter through Trusted Housesitters, this is an exchange platform. In exchange for caring for the pets/house, you can secure free accommodation abroad.
If you want to make house sitting an occupation and do it privately, you can earn between $20-$40 a day on average, or $75-$85 overnight.
You can find paid international house sitting jobs on these websites:
- Indeed.com
- Care.com
International house sitting quick tips
- It may sound simple, but choose some nice pictures of yourself to add to your profile. Preferably one where you are smiling or engaged with a pet.
- State in your profile heading if you are a non-smoker or have experience sitting/or with animals
- Use family or friends who are willing to vouch for you to give a couple of character references
- Try local housesits first. We got our first three in our local town. It was an easy way to meet the owners and the dogs and make sure everyone was comfortable to proceed without having any reviews online
- Keep an eye out (daily check) for an area you are interested in going. Apply quickly to new posts (if you’re interested) to get noticed quickly.
- Do something memorable for the house or owners (get some fresh bread and milk to leave in the fridge when they arrive home for example) it will help!
- Don’t be afraid to give it a go. Most people have pet insurance if something really goes wrong but with phones and emails nowadays it is so easy to keep in touch with the owners (and you should) while they are away if you have any questions or queries.
- Preferably have an actual interest in animals (it’ll make everyone happier and your trip more enjoyable)
- Sign-up using our discount code to receive %20 off the membership fee (this is the link )
- Use these tips to become a 5 Star Housesitter
If this information was helpful, please stay tuned for more updates and ways to travel for free around the world.
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Aaron is one of the co-founders of The Dharma Trails. His background in marine eco tourism and writing have blended together to create the eco travel platform read by users around the world.
