Save Money on Accommodation through House Sitting and Pet Sitting
House sitting has taken off in a big way in the last few years, offering the opportunity for travel minded animal lovers to save money on their accommodation by looking after homes and pets.
You might wonder why someone would entrust their home or pet baby to a stranger but homeowners benefit from having someone around to keep an eye on their place and save a fortune in kennel fees when they themselves want to travel, take a holiday or, in the case of expats, visit their families back home.
While it is possible to find and arrange your own house sits, most people use the services of one of the websites below that each list house sits either globally or focus their activity on a specific region or country.
Most sites allow free browsing through their listings but ask a small yearly fee for those all important contact details, and to use membership extras such as writing a profile to attract the interest of homeowers or use an internal messaging system.
Trusted Housesitters
Membership: £99/$129 per year to access the full service.
Around since 2010, Trusted Housesitters has established itself as the largest and most well known house sitting network. Though most popular in the Anglosphere – with member representation in each country – plus France, searching for a house sit in most corners of the world will usually turn up something. There’s also an app.
HouseSit Match
Membership: £69 per year, with a premium option for £89.
Managed from the UK, HouseSit Match opened its online doors in 2013 and currently matches house sitters, home and pet owners in Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Ukraine, the USA, and the UK.
HouseCarers
Membership: $50 per year.
We found plenty of sits listed through this Australia based organisation that have been matching sitters and homeowners since 2000. Since then they have honed their site into a pleasurable browsing experience with full details of sits up to but not including contact details available to be viewed for free. Australia is, of course, well represented but their reach is international.
MindMyHouse
Membership: $20 per year.
Provides the online tools for home owners and house sitters to find each other from around the globe, or just around the corner. A couple of hundred sites were listed when we dropped by for a look.
Nomador
Membership: €65 per year for full membership but there is a free option limited to three applications.
Nomador was launched in Sydney in 2014 by the founders of ilidor, a French language house sitting website and now counts over 50,000 members on its books. Reflecting its roots many of the sits we found were in French but there is a free discovery membership option allowing three house sitting applications.
Mindahome Australia
Membership: A$59 per year.
Founded in 2008 by Mel and Sue, who have been both house sitters and on the other side of the equation, Mindahome had hundreds of homeowners across the country looking for sitters when we dropped by.
Mindahome UK
Membership: £15 per year.
The newer UK version doesn’t yet have the same scope as its Australian sister site but they still had around 150 homeowners listed on their easy to use website, each looking for sitters in the coming months.
Luxury House Sitting
Membership: $25 per year.
Active opportunities are available to browse from the front page, with each assignment registering the number of applicants – a handy feature for assessing the competition. More homeowners can be found through the search facility by country or US state, where most members live, and many of which rely more on their messaging system to hire sitters.
House Sitters UK
Membership: £29 per year.
There were 200 adverts from homeowners looking for people to indulge in a “little bit of dog walking and cat patting” when we took a look at this family owned business that dedicates its efforts to the UK. Sister sites in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada are also available (see below).
Aussie House Sitters
Membership: A$84 per year.
The largest and oldest of five related websites. Active since 2004, over a thousand Aussie households were in need of someone to water the plants and exercise Fido when we investigated.
Kiwi House Sitters
Membership: NZ$84 per year.
Details of the 250+ house sits listed here are free to browse through, with the tidy layout matching the other websites in this small group.
House Sitters America
Membership: $30 per year.
This site had less than a hundred listings when we dropped in, but with experienced ownership in this business we expect this site to grow in the coming years.
House Sitters Canada
Membership: C$59 per year..
The latest of the five related national house sitting websites (see above) launched by a family in Melbourne.
Happy House Sitters
Membership: A$59 per year. Shorter and longer term membership is also available.
We found around a hundred ads for house sitters in Australia through HHS, who have been connecting sitters and owners since 1999. If you don’t find the right sit they will extend your membership and give you some of your cash back.
HouseSit Mexico
Membership: US$79 per year.
Six months from their relaunch HouseSit Mexico had filled over a hundred house sitting assignments. They had a dozen current assignments when we checked them out, though membership is required for anything beyond the most cursory browse.
House Sitting Tasmania
Membership: $69 per year. Shorter term memberships also available.
Australia has numerous house sitting websites but this one zeros in on Tasmania.
The Caretaker Gazette
Membership: Subscription begins at $30 per year.
The Caretaker Gazette has been doing its thing for over 35 years, though it must be said the website has long gone past showing its age. Nonetheless this functional bi monthly newsletter has an unrivalled amount of paid gigs in each issue, and even makes us a little nostalgic for when our own Jobs Abroad Bulletin followed a similar format. Most vacancies are in the US but there are some in other countries. Several subscription options for up to three years are available, including via postal delivery.
Some of the links above are affiliate links. While there is no extra cost to you, joining one of the sites above through an affiliate link will make us a little money to keep this site going.
Prices are correct at the time of writing but may change.