If you want to travel the world and find great accommodation that is completely FREE OF COST, house-sitting is the way to go. However, it can be tough to book your first house-sit if you don’t have a track record in a house-sitting community.
Here are our insider tips for arranging your very first house-sit. For us it was 14 nights in a lovely apartment in central Ottawa, capital of Canada. Where will you go?
My brother, “Abbott Minor” as our junior school housemaster would call him, has been housesitting and pet sitting for years. During this time, he and his wife have enjoyed dozens of amazing “sits,” made many great friends and saved a huge amount of money in the process. After years of bugging us, we finally gave it a try and it’s fantastic.
House and pet sitting has been a big deal in Europe for years but is relatively new on this side of the Atlantic, but it’s about to explode here too.
House sitting is a major responsibility that is built on trust and reputation, so it can be tough to get started. However, you can make it work and these are our 6 TOP TIPS to get started as a house sitter.
Table of Contents
1. Sign-up for a House-Sitting Service
While there are several online pet and house-sitting services available, our recommendation is TrustedHousesitters as it’s the biggest and offers the most sitting opportunities globally.
Now is a particularly good time to sign-up, as after building a huge base in Europe, the company is making a concerted effort to grow their business in North America. When we signed-up we got a special offer that gave us 12-months free membership.
Even if you don’t find a special offer, the normal fee for a Standard Sitter account of USD169 for one year’s membership is a bargain. Our first house-sit was for 14 nights, so you do the math!
You can also sign up for an Owner account, where you get people to come and look after your home or pets. Best of all, if you have your own pets, it is a combined account, which allows you to look for sits and sitters.
In addition to membership in a community, you also get accident & liability protection as a sitter. For Owners, they provide home & contents protection as well as a money back guarantee if you don’t find a sitter within two weeks.
2. Create a Profile that Pops!
As the name suggests, the TrustedHousesitters service is built on trust. Inviting strangers to look after your home and cherished pets is a big deal. This means it can be tough when you are new to the community and don’t have reviews from previous sits. This is why you need to take the time to create the most compelling profile you can.
When we created our TrustedHousesitters account we focused on:
- An engaging Introduction. We want owners to get a feel for us, that we are trustworthy, will look after their home and, most importantly, care for their furry friends.
- Great Photos. We uploaded a series of photos that supported our Introduction and showed us as friendly, well-travelled pet-lovers. Obviously, this included pictures of us with our own doggies: Oscar and Rocky.
- Adding Social Profiles. Currently, TrustedHousesitters allow you to link to your Airbnb and LinkedIn profiles; we used both. If you have a history and good reviews as an Airbnb guest, this link can be especially useful.
- References. While external references aren’t as valuable as reviews from previous house sits, when you are new to the community, these can help build a picture of you as being trustworthy, responsible and likeable. The ideal external reference is somebody for whom you’ve looked after their house or pet in the past. If you don’t have one of those, find someone who knows you well enough to make a useful recommendation.
3. Apply for your First Sit
We were successful with our second application for a sit, less than 48 hours after our TrustedHousesitters account was verified. We looked for a sit that was due to start within less than 2 weeks and for which there weren’t many applications already submitted.
Most importantly, I spent a significant amount of time drafting the write-up supporting our application. I wanted the owners to get a feel for who we are and why we’d be great people to look after their home and pet, in this case a cat.
We also wanted to show that we had read the details of the sit and referred to them in our application. In this case, we highlighted that we would be able to handle all the requirements in the listings. We also mentioned our COVID vaccination status.
Monique then carefully proof-read the application before I submitted it.
4. Arrange to Meet the Owners
There is nothing like building a personal relationship to help you get your application approved. This can be in-person, if you are nearby, or via video conference. In our application we proposed having a video chat and the owners readily agreed.
A couple of hours later we had a lovely chat with the owners of Tyler, the cat we were hoping to look after. As we were in Toronto and they were 550kms away in Ottawa, we chose to do this as a WhatsApp video call.
We spent about 20 minutes talking with Nicole and Gilles, and quickly found that we had lots in common. At the end of the call, we received the great news that they would approve our application and a few minutes later we had our first confirmed house-sit: looking after Tyler in Ottawa.
As in any relationship, it is a two-way thing, so this is your opportunity to find out if the sit and the owners are right for you. In our case, it was a quick and easy YES.
5. Communication, Communication, Communication!
Effective and honest communication is a bedrock of any relationship built on trust, and TrustedHousesitters in no exception. Of course, you don’t want to overdo it, but it’s better to veer on the side of more rather than less communication.
Before our sit started, we sent an initial message thanking our new friends for accepting our application and we responded to messages they sent us. Then a couple of days before we arrived, we confirmed how much we were looking forward to meeting them and Tyler and advised of our plans for arriving in Ottawa.
After our sit started, we sent messages every 3 days, just a quick note to tell them how Tyler was doing, usually including a photo or short video clip. Our aim was to give them on-going peace of mind, and it seemed to have worked.
6. Get a Great Review
Reviews from past sits are the key for getting approved for future sits, and none are as important as your first review. If you’ve followed our advice so far, you should be well on the way to a positive first review. I’ll use the words that my brother shared with me “the owners need to come back to happy, healthy pets and to a home that is at least in the condition they left it, if not better.”
Fortunately, Tyler was a joy to look after and I am married to a “Grade A” neat freak in Monique, so for me this was the easy bit.
House and pet sitting is a great way to travel on a super tight budget as your accommodation will be free, and we highly recommend it. Of course, it does come with responsibilities, after all, you are looking after someone else’s home and animals. If you feel up to the challenge, give it a try. Once you’ve started, it will open up a whole new world of budget friendly travel. Imagine a summer holiday in Switzerland or Spain where you get to stay in a lovely home and it costs you absolutely nothing!
Getting your first sit can be challenging, but if you follow our 6 top tips you will soon be ready to start your very first trusted house sit.
Author
Nick Abbott
Hi, I’m Nick. Visiting foreign countries has been an important part of my life since my parents moved to Kano in Nigeria in 1977. Since then, as both a military officer and in later jobs I have enjoyed the huge privilege of being exposed to many different countries and cultures.
I am delighted to be able to support my wife Monique and Yes2Yolo primarily by contributing travel articles, providing editing and proof-reading services and being a general sounding board.
This is an absolutely brilliant idea to save on cost for accommodation. Thanks for sharing Nick!
Thank you so much Michelle. It’s our pleasure to share!
Love this Nick. These great tips got me thinking I should definitely include house/pet sitting in my travel plans. Thanks for a great read:)
Thanks Cecille. It’s definitely worth a try! We loved every moment of it.