Are you a travel enthusiast but find yourself conflicted between exploring new places and leaving your cherished pets behind? As fellow animal lovers and relatively new pet owners, we understand.
Luckily, there’s a solution called pet sitting or house sitting. This strategy allows you to roam freely while ensuring your furry friends are well taken care of at very little cost to you.
I’m surprised by how many people I talk to in Raleigh – an avid pet-loving town – have never heard of it, which is what prompted me to write this post on housesitting for pet owners.
As a lifelong traveler, I am well aware of the housesitting strategy and have many friends who have saved thousands of dollars traveling the world, taking care of someone’s home and pet while living there for free.
Our experience with house sitting, however, is from the perspective of pet owners, which we have fully embraced over the past year as we’ve become newbie pet parents to cats.
Our membership with Trusted House Sitters gives us peace of mind knowing our beloved cats are well cared for while we travel and create wonderful memories with our family.
Beyond the initial membership fee, it doesn’t cost us anything extra!
In this post, we’ll outline the benefits of using a pet sitter, share our experience with Trusted House Sitters, and provide tips on ensuring your pets are well looked after while you explore the world.
This post is in partnership with Trusted Housesitters. We used their services for over a year and raved about them even before entering this partnership.
What is Trusted House Sitters?
Trusted House Sitters is a membership platform that connects pet owners with trustworthy individuals who look after homes and pets while the owners are away.
TrustedHousesitters was founded in Brighton, UK in 2010 and now has over 210,000 members in more than 140 countries worldwide. They’ve facilitated over 10 million nights of pet sitting and have more 5* reviews than any other house-sitting website.
Their solid reputation is the reason we chose to use Trusted Housesitters over any other service.
Our Experience with Trusted House Sitters as Pet Owners
When planning our one-month Europe trip last year, we became members of Trusted House Sitters so that we could have a pet sitter to stay in our home and care for our kittens.
I could not believe how easy the whole process was and what a relief it was to have an experienced sitter and animal lover take care of our cats and home.
Our sitter was experienced with cats and house sitting, and we returned to a well-looked-after home and happy kittens! After Ivy sadly passed away earlier this year, we adopted another kitten, Peach, to keep Mavis company.
Our house-sitting journey continues with both Mavis and Peach. Last month we booked another sitter for a six-day trip to Wyoming. Despite my initial doubts about finding someone for a short six-day stay in a non-tourist city, we received an application within 30-minutes of listing the job.
Having this kind of in-house care for your pets for the cost of almost free is unbelievable!
Let’s look more at the benefits for pet parents and then dive deeper into how pet sitting for pet owners works with Trusted Housesitters. (we also have a special discount for our readers so keep reading!)
Benefits of House Sitting for Pet Owners
1. Peace of Mind
Say goodbye to the stress of leaving your pets in unfamiliar environments or burdening neighbors with their care.
With Trusted House Sitters, your pets stay in their familiar surroundings, receiving round-the-clock attention from a dedicated animal lover. You can even receive daily updates and photos of your pets, which both of our sitters have now done!
2. Best At Home Care for Your Pet
Leaving your cat for a vacation can cause them extreme amounts of anxiety. Taking them away from their home comforts only doubles that for them!
With pet sitting, they can stay with their creature comforts and feel just that little bit better.
A pet sitter provides consistent care, feeds them, gives them treats, plays with them, and ensures their routines are maintained. If something should go wrong, someone is there to deal with it immediately and knows how to get in contact with you quickly. As they’ll also have all your pet care details, i.e. vet etc., they can also reach out to them if needed.
This works for all types of pets, regardless of their age, personality, or specific needs. You will find a perfect pet sitter to match.
3. Cost-Effective Pet Care
Traditional pet boarding services, or hourly-paid pet sitters can be expensive, especially for extended trips. Trusted House Sitters offers an affordable alternative.
After the initial membership fee, there are no additional costs, making it a budget-friendly option. Yes, and that means, you DO NOT have to pay the pet sitter any money for their service looking after your pet or home!
Why would someone want to mind your pet without payment? Pet sitters through Trusted Housesitters are avid travelers. They use this as a strategy to travel the world without paying for accommodation, which can cost hundreds of dollars a night. And your home, with all its amenities, is much more comfortable than a hotel or hostel room.
These are travelers who like to travel slowly and immerse themselves in a local community. You are helping them to do that at no cost, only in exchange for a small amount of pet care duties each day. For our cats – twenty minutes if that. It is a very fair value exchange!
4. Home Security
Having a house sitter also adds a layer of security to your home, deterring potential burglars and ensuring your property is maintained.
They can water plants, collect mail, take out the trash for collection, and handle any unexpected issues that may arise.
5. Cultural Exchange & Helping a Traveler
Hosting a house sitter can be a rewarding cultural exchange experience. Many sitters are travelers eager to explore new destinations while caring for pets and homes. This creates a collaborative ecosystem where both parties benefit.
As a travel professional (and addict) I love that I can help another person have an easier travel lifestyle by giving them a comfortable home to stay in for a while – one that has all the amenities they crave as a long-term traveler, while getting to experience the local lifestyle in a way they’ll love. I just wish this strategy was around when I traveled pre-kids.
You might think that travelers won’t want to come to Raleigh and stay in your home. It’s not really a touristy city! As mentioned, the persona of a house sitter is one who likes to travel off-the-beaten-path, stay awhile, and live like a local. Raleigh is a fantastic place to live.
Our two housesitters came to Raleigh to see if it was a place they’d eventually want to move to. Others may want to come to Raleigh as they have friends in the area, (my good Aussie friends want to do this later in the year) or they have kids in college or have a short-term work opportunity.
(And after using Trusted House Sitters as a pet owner, I’m sure you’ll be ready to become a pet sitter for them and travel the world with free accommodation!)
How Trusted House Sitting Works
1. Choose Your Membership Plan & Create a Profile
Trusted House Sitters offers various membership plans to suit all pet owners from basic – help me find a pet sitter – to more premium that includes insurance, cancellation protection and airport lounge passes.
Membership prices range from US$129 for sitters and US$149 for pet parents. See membership plans here.
Use our exclusive code YTRAVEL25 for a 25% discount off your membership fee.
IMPORTANT: There is a free browsing membership with no credit cards required. This gives sitters or pet parents the chance to browser sitters or house-sitting opportunities before signing up. That’s an extra layer of protection for you to be able to ascertain if you’ll get enough value from it.
Is a Trusted House sitter Membership plan worth it?
Let’s use numbers to show how the membership more than pays for itself, even if you are at the top Premium level.
On a previous trip, a 4-day trip to Ocracoke, we used a Rover to have someone (who was excellent) pop into our home for 30-minutes each day to feed our two kittens and change their litter. That cost us $80.
We had an issue with our AC while we were gone and our kitties were distressed, which was only noticed when the sitter popped in for those 30-minutes in the afternoon and took our total cost to $110 with her extra time and care.
That’s almost the cost of a yearly membership with Trusted House sitters and we would have had someone pick up the issue earlier.
I don’t know what boarding in a kennel or vet boarding house would be, but I know it’s more than $20 a day – and I fear restricted spaces for your pet there.
Imagine if we paid that $20 a day (some sitters are more) for our month-long trip in Europe. Our pet sitting costs would have been around $600, just to have someone pop in for 20 minutes a day.
What if you had several animals from fish to dogs to horses? With one membership, and one sitter, all your pets from fish to chickens, dogs, and horses will be cared for. As well as your plants and gardens and house security!
It’s clear that a Trusted Housesitters membership will probably pay for itself with your first vacation. Then you can take as many as you like for the rest of the year – no more fees. That’s what I call the cat’s pajamas!
Want an even better deal? And we have a discount code for you, making your pet care costs while you travel even lower!
Use our exclusive code YTRAVEL25 for a 25% discount off your membership fee. Click here to join Trusted Housesitters.
2. List Your Pet Sitting Opportunity
Create a detailed listing with your travel dates, location, and pet care needs. The more detailed, the better to attract suitable applicants. Try to do it as far in advance as possible to give time for several applicants.
3. Vet & Interview Applicants
Review applicants’ profiles and reviews from within the membership site. Then interview potential sitters – either by phone or Zoom – to ensure they are a good fit.
Ascertain their experience as a house sitter and pet care and get a good feel for why they want to come to your area and what their personality is like.
Discuss house rules, pet care routines, and other expectations. You want to make sure they understand all expectations on your end, so they can also make the best decision for them.
4. Confirm Your Ideal Sitter
Once you’ve found the perfect match, confirm the arrangement, and finalize details such as key exchange and emergency contacts.
Trusted House Sitters helps you create an online welcome guide for your sitter, with all important information about your home, pet care (including vets), neighborhood, and area (you can share all your favorites!).
You can easily communicate with each other through their membership site messaging system.
5. Prepare Your Home and Pets
Prepare your home by cleaning, providing fresh bedding and towels, and stocking up on pet supplies. You are responsible for providing everything your pet needs. If your sitter has to purchase any supplies for your pets, make sure you reimburse them.
You don’t have to provide food – although you may want to leave some basics behind. Both my sitters preferred to take care of their own food.
Inform your neighbors about the sitter’s presence and ensure your pets’ needs are well documented.
You may want to meet with your sitter before you leave. This can be a good idea to show them around and go over routine, security systems etc. But most house sitters are very experienced and are intuitive about getting around a home and looking after a pet.
We have met our sitters on both occasions. Our first sitter stayed the night once we returned from Europe as we had a late flight.
She wanted to stay in case flights were delayed, and the cats needed her. But she left early in the morning. Our second sitter had to leave a few hours before we got home. Arrange all these details with the sitter before you leave.
If not, make sure they know how to access your house and what to do with keys etc. once they leave.
6. Enjoy Your Trip
With your pets in capable hands, you can travel with peace of mind. Stay connected with your sitter via regular updates and enjoy your adventures knowing your pets are well cared for.
We’ve found text messaging if we’re traveling in the USA works well. Or if we’re abroad What’s App is perfect (we do not use international roaming nor have that with AT&T for free).
You may want to bring something back for your sitter, although I don’t think they expect it (you also do not need to tip).
We bought back a bottle of wine from the Loire Valley for ours, but we knew we were going to see her. For our second sitter we didn’t worry as she was leaving before we could see her again.
Trusted House Sitters is The Bee’s Knees
For pet owners who love to travel, Trusted House Sitters is a fantastic solution. It provides the best care for your pets while offering peace of mind and cost savings.
We can’t rave about it enough and will be members for as long as we have pets. And then, we’ll probably become the pet sitters to continue traveling the world at that slow, relaxed pace we love.
Use our exclusive discount code YTRAVEL25 for a 25% discount on your membership and start your worry-free travel adventures today!
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