Travel Hack House Sitting – Save Money on Accommodation!

During my first Nomad Cruise, I went to a workshop with the title „Travel the world by house and pet sitting“. It turned out that the speaker was a mother of a 10 year old girl and they are traveling with house sitting only. I was excited to learn about this new possibility to get around and live like a local.

What Exactly is House Sitting?

It’s actually a simple concept: Imagine you have a house, even pets, and plants that need to get taken care of. And then you can’t be at home for a certain period of time. You go on vacation, or on a business trip, or whatever reason you have to leave your home for a while. But you can’t take care of your pets, the plants, and the mail yourself… Nobody would be staying in your home which is raising the possibility for burglars. Wouldn’t you as well try to find an easy solution for all these problems?

This solution is called house sitting! A house sitter stays at your place – just like you normally do. Meaning they take care of pets, plants, snail mail and are simply there. Actually, I’ve seen house sits without animals and plants. The house owners just don’t want their home to be empty.

And What’s in it For You?

One big thing is that you can stay in your house sitting place for free. Accommodation is one of the big expenses and you get rid of it very easily by house sitting. And more: you have a whole apartment or house for yourself. Additionally, you can do what you as a nomad probably love most anyways: live like a local. Plus most of the house sitting places are definitely above average when it comes to luxurious living. Most of the times you will have a pool, sometimes a gym. And a well-equipped kitchen is really nice to have. Even a cleaning lady was included in my two sits.

There Are Downsides, too,…

…but I think it’s still more than worth it! One is that most of the apartments are rather far away from the center. Both of my house sits were 40 to 60 minutes from the city center by public transport. In addition, the dates are almost never flexible. The house owners have a booked trip and, in the best case, you can decide whether you arrive one day earlier and stay another night afterward. But if you already have a planned trip to a place, it is very unlikely that you will find the appropriate house sit. In the best case, you will find a sit for a part of the stay.

In general, however, it is a win-win situation!

Which Platforms Are There?

There are different platforms, which bring house sitters and house owners together. The yearly costs are between 20 and 100 Euros. Normally, however, a single house sit should be enough to make up for the annual fee. I have had two house sits (one in Dubai and one in Singapore) and would definitely have paid a lot for accommodation in the two cities. So now, I have paid around 2.50 Euro per night. And that in spacious apartments with pools around the corner in two of the most expensive cities in the world… Not bad at all, I would say.

The platforms are:

• Trusted Housesitters*
• Mind My House
• House Carers
• Nomador
• House Sitting World
• Luxury House Sitting
• Housesit Match

After hearing that Trusted Housesitters is the largest platform, I have created an account there without hesitation. The account itself is free! However, you can only apply to house sits and create your profile correctly when you are a paying member. So you can follow the newsletter and check out the house sits. As soon as there are a few that look interesting, you can pay and create your profile.

Check out this page if you want to learn more about the platforms: Which House Sitting Site is Best?

Who Should do House Sitting?

House sitting is a perfect opportunity for nomads who do not have fixed travel plans. Also, it is ideal if you are animal-loving and maybe even miss the possibility to have a pet while traveling. This is how I feel when I am on the road: I am always happy when there is a cat in my accommodation. And even more when I can look after it.

So once again, house sitting is just for you if:

• You like to travel, but you are flexible and can adapt to the dates of the house owners!
• You would like to live like a local!
• You love animals, know how to deal with them and can also deal with problems (eg when they get sick)!
• You like to live alone and you do not need much going on around you to feel good!
• You have no problem to stay outside of the city!

Click here if you want to read about my 8 best tips to get your first house sit! Or read about 8 travel blogger’s experiences who tried house sitting!