housesitting through Airbnb

[uniwelder]

My wife and I signed up for TrustedHouseSitters.com and got our first housesitting arrangement to take care of someone's dogs in Quebec, where we've been wanting to visit again.  However, we were having trouble finding someone to stay at our house to care for our dogs during that period. 

Since we occasionally host with Airbnb (we live in a college town that loves football), I thought maybe I could create another listing and advertise for free (found out the lowest Airbnb would allow is $10 per night, plus a 20% discount for new listing) with the caveat that they need to pet sit.  Our dogs are easy since they have a doggy door, fenced yard, no medications, etc.  Airbnb gets so much more traffic than TrustedHouseSitters, we hoped the extra web traffic would help.

The ad got a lot of interest, but most weren't compatible, and instead of 'inquiring' about the place, half the people 'requested' a booking first, which meant I had to decline more times than Airbnb was happy with.  Luckily, a good candidate pulled through before Airbnb removed the listing due to excessive rejections.  He'll be arriving tomorrow, we'll leave the following day, and he'll stay for the next 12 days. Its a win-win.  He needed to come to the area for a work trip and this saved him at least $1,000 compared to the alternatives, plus he has his own dogs at home, so there's good compatibility there.  We avoided paying $500 for a pet sitter and will actually pocket $100 from this, though we might end up spending that on food/meals/gift card for him, plus the dogs will get more attention than they would if we went the traditional pet sitter route.

This is currently in progress, so I'll update when we come back home in two weeks to hopefully find our dogs alive and happy, and my house looking similar to how we left it.  We have an outside camera that has a view of their feeding area, so we can at least check in that way, plus whatever updates/communication there is between us.  If anyone has any tips on navigating Airbnb to force people to 'inquire' before 'requesting', please let me know.  I have 'instant book' turned off, but can't find info online about delaying the 'request' part.

[ak907]

Very interesting idea, I am eager to see the results.

[uniwelder]

Update- We’re back home from the trip and all worked out very well. Dogs were happy and healthy, house was in good condition, and everyone involved seemed happy with the arrangement.

[leevs11]

Glad to hear the airbnb option worked out well. Just curious, where do you live that trustedhousesitters was not working? I'm a regular sitter and have found that most sits usually have many requests.

[uniwelder]

Glad to hear the airbnb option worked out well. Just curious, where do you live that trustedhousesitters was not working? I'm a regular sitter and have found that most sits usually have many requests.

From what I've understood, the ratio of # of active sits vs sitters has recently become very lopsided.  Tons of people going on vacation (sits) while people that were doing work from home (sitters) have gone back to the office.  I think this has been an issue in the last few months.  Reading the trustedhousesitters forum, there is lots of anecdotal evidence--- people talking about how locations (sits) that normally would have a dozen inquiries within the first day of listing, now get maybe one or two before the people need to head out for vacation.  In our case, I think we were the only people that applied for the house sit we got in Quebec City.

Our location is in a college town in Appalachian Virginia.  Super popular during certain times of the year, but not summer, unless you're looking for a quiet place with outdoor hiking and river activity.  We did have two people inquire, but they ultimately didn't work out.  One decided against coming and the other was too flaky and unresponsive so we rejected them.  We advertised another trustedhousesitters listing for 2 months from now and have a sitter that is booked, so it should end up working out for that case.

When was the last time you house sat with trustedhousesitters?  If you have any experience within the last few months, I'd be curious to know how that compared to the prior 2 years, as well as more than 2 years ago.

[leevs11]

Our last sit was in May. We've had a few over the past 6 months and all have been good. We we're doing it 2 years ago so I don't really have a good idea of how it was before.

We're doing one next week for 3 weeks.

[uniwelder]

Our last sit was in May. We've had a few over the past 6 months and all have been good. We we're doing it 2 years ago so I don't really have a good idea of how it was before.

We're doing one next week for 3 weeks.

For your May sit and the one coming up, do you remember how many other people applied?

[JupiterGreen]

Airbnb is an interesting way to do it. Are there any fees that you have to pay to list with Airbnb? Thanks for the tip.

The value of trusted trustedhousesitters is questionable since they have those membership fees. Example from our last trip:

Our pet sitter (college aged) charged us $500 to come to our house every day to feed/water our pets, water plants, bring in the mail, refilled a small bird feeder, and mowed our lawn every other week. They did not stay at the house, but they texted us periodically and are always easy to get a hold of. For instance, when we were running low on food they let us know and I only needed to reorder online and they dealt with the package (bringing it inside etc..) We were gone for a little over a month. Let's say I paid the lowest fee from trustedpetsitters of $129, to access their database (which doesn't include any of the protections the site provides at the $199 & $259 tiers). That sounds okay but I'd still need to wade through applicant to find someone I trusted who could stay for the duration of our trip, figure out lawn mowing etc. But let's say I did it anyway and saved $371. They'd be staying at our house. We save on utilities when we leave (utilities are very high because red state =monopoly). I'll estimate we save $50 by turning off/turning down. So that brings my $500 cost down to a savings of $321. But there are also non-monetary issues.

Let's consider these non-monetary costs of "free" vs. paying someone. We clean our house thoroughly before we leave so when we come back it is how we left it. The person who does our pets is local and we've developed a trusting relationship with them and they know our vet. We could easily find our pet sitter after we return home if we had questions. Our paid help alerts us if something is off with our pets or in our home (because it's their job). We trust them and never worry that they've treated our pets poorly, misused anything in the house, stolen etc. Our pets know them. We don't need to share our wireless password. This year we decided to return a little early and it only took a text, no problem with our pet sitter.

When all is said and done I'm happy to pay $500 (or not save $321) for peace of mind. To get that peace of mind with trustedhousesitter, you'd be paying their top tier fee of $259. In my example that would be a be a savings of only $62.

If you use trustedhousesitters a lot the hassle and fees might be worth it. But I wonder where trustedhousesitters falls from a mustachian point of view and how people feel about it especially when it involves their pets.

[uniwelder]

Airbnb is an interesting way to do it. Are there any fees that you have to pay to list with Airbnb? Thanks for the tip.

The value of trusted trustedhousesitters is questionable since they have those membership fees. Example from our last trip:

Our pet sitter (college aged) charged us $500 to come to our house every day to feed/water our pets, water plants, bring in the mail, refilled a small bird feeder, and mowed our lawn every other week. They did not stay at the house, but they texted us periodically and are always easy to get a hold of. For instance, when we were running low on food they let us know and I only needed to reorder online and they dealt with the package (bringing it inside etc..) We were gone for a little over a month. Let's say I paid the lowest fee from trustedpetsitters of $129, to access their database (which doesn't include any of the protections the site provides at the $199 & $259 tiers). That sounds okay but I'd still need to wade through applicant to find someone I trusted who could stay for the duration of our trip, figure out lawn mowing etc. But let's say I did it anyway and saved $371. They'd be staying at our house. We save on utilities when we leave (utilities are very high because red state =monopoly). I'll estimate we save $50 by turning off/turning down. So that brings my $500 cost down to a savings of $321. But there are also non-monetary issues.

Let's consider these non-monetary costs of "free" vs. paying someone. We clean our house thoroughly before we leave so when we come back it is how we left it. The person who does our pets is local and we've developed a trusting relationship with them and they know our vet. We could easily find our pet sitter after we return home if we had questions. Our paid help alerts us if something is off with our pets or in our home (because it's their job). We trust them and never worry that they've treated our pets poorly, misused anything in the house, stolen etc. Our pets know them. We don't need to share our wireless password. This year we decided to return a little early and it only took a text, no problem with our pet sitter.

When all is said and done I'm happy to pay $500 (or not save $321) for peace of mind. To get that peace of mind with trustedhousesitter, you'd be paying their top tier fee of $259. In my example that would be a be a savings of only $62.

If you use trustedhousesitters a lot the hassle and fees might be worth it. But I wonder where trustedhousesitters falls from a mustachian point of view and how people feel about it especially when it involves their pets.

I guess it all depends on your particular situation.  In your case, you might have a cat or fish and the neighbor comes once a day?  You're paying about $15 per day, so that might make sense.  Let me know if I'm wrong.  Leaving them for a month might be ok with no socialization if they don't need it, like fish, but I can't imagine doing that with a cat, and certainly not dogs.  With my two dogs, I want someone that will be home with them overnight.  I feel ok going a couple of days with just a 2x daily feeding, but longer than that seems cruel.

TrustedHouseSitter fees are annual, so considering we plan to be gone for multiple trips across the year, that $259 ends up being less than $50 each trip.  Sitters are expected to do whatever is needed around the house--- bringing in mail, walking dogs, watering plants, and also cutting the grass if specified ahead of time.  The site doesn't set the rules about what the exchange will entail.  That is left to the person with the house and the sitter to determine ahead of time.  From what I understand, most people have the sitter arrive a day before they leave so they can be shown everything and become acquainted. The sitter would also know which vet to bring the pet to in case of emergency and a lot of sitters I've seen profiles for have a decent amount of previous animal experience.  Usually, its also specified or expected that the house be as clean as when the sitter arrives.  Sitters want to make sure they get a good review, otherwise, the next person may not be willing to allow them to stay at their house.

There aren't any annual Airbnb fees, but they do take a cut of the payout and might pay local taxes/fees automatically as well.  I didn't intend to make any money from the deal, as I was just listing the house for the minimum Airbnb would allow from their site--- $8/day is what it ended up at.

[JupiterGreen]

Airbnb is an interesting way to do it. Are there any fees that you have to pay to list with Airbnb? Thanks for the tip.

The value of trusted trustedhousesitters is questionable since they have those membership fees. Example from our last trip:

Our pet sitter (college aged) charged us $500 to come to our house every day to feed/water our pets, water plants, bring in the mail, refilled a small bird feeder, and mowed our lawn every other week. They did not stay at the house, but they texted us periodically and are always easy to get a hold of. For instance, when we were running low on food they let us know and I only needed to reorder online and they dealt with the package (bringing it inside etc..) We were gone for a little over a month. Let's say I paid the lowest fee from trustedpetsitters of $129, to access their database (which doesn't include any of the protections the site provides at the $199 & $259 tiers). That sounds okay but I'd still need to wade through applicant to find someone I trusted who could stay for the duration of our trip, figure out lawn mowing etc. But let's say I did it anyway and saved $371. They'd be staying at our house. We save on utilities when we leave (utilities are very high because red state =monopoly). I'll estimate we save $50 by turning off/turning down. So that brings my $500 cost down to a savings of $321. But there are also non-monetary issues.

Let's consider these non-monetary costs of "free" vs. paying someone. We clean our house thoroughly before we leave so when we come back it is how we left it. The person who does our pets is local and we've developed a trusting relationship with them and they know our vet. We could easily find our pet sitter after we return home if we had questions. Our paid help alerts us if something is off with our pets or in our home (because it's their job). We trust them and never worry that they've treated our pets poorly, misused anything in the house, stolen etc. Our pets know them. We don't need to share our wireless password. This year we decided to return a little early and it only took a text, no problem with our pet sitter.

When all is said and done I'm happy to pay $500 (or not save $321) for peace of mind. To get that peace of mind with trustedhousesitter, you'd be paying their top tier fee of $259. In my example that would be a be a savings of only $62.

If you use trustedhousesitters a lot the hassle and fees might be worth it. But I wonder where trustedhousesitters falls from a mustachian point of view and how people feel about it especially when it involves their pets.

I guess it all depends on your particular situation.  In your case, you might have a cat or fish and the neighbor comes once a day?  You're paying about $15 per day, so that might make sense.  Let me know if I'm wrong.  Leaving them for a month might be ok with no socialization if they don't need it, like fish, but I can't imagine doing that with a cat, and certainly not dogs.  With my two dogs, I want someone that will be home with them overnight.  I feel ok going a couple of days with just a 2x daily feeding, but longer than that seems cruel.

TrustedHouseSitter fees are annual, so considering we plan to be gone for multiple trips across the year, that $259 ends up being less than $50 each trip.  Sitters are expected to do whatever is needed around the house--- bringing in mail, walking dogs, watering plants, and also cutting the grass if specified ahead of time.  The site doesn't set the rules about what the exchange will entail.  That is left to the person with the house and the sitter to determine ahead of time.  From what I understand, most people have the sitter arrive a day before they leave so they can be shown everything and become acquainted. The sitter would also know which vet to bring the pet to in case of emergency and a lot of sitters I've seen profiles for have a decent amount of previous animal experience.  Usually, its also specified or expected that the house be as clean as when the sitter arrives.  Sitters want to make sure they get a good review, otherwise, the next person may not be willing to allow them to stay at their house.

There aren't any annual Airbnb fees, but they do take a cut of the payout and might pay local taxes/fees automatically as well.  I didn't intend to make any money from the deal, as I was just listing the house for the minimum Airbnb would allow from their site--- $8/day is what it ended up at.

Interesting. I didn't know that the person would do those other things. I can also see your point about socializing/playing with your animals, our sitter does that but it's only once a day. That is the only thing I wish they could get more of. But it only takes 1/2 a day for ours to get back into the swing of socializing once we return and they don't seem to hold it against us.

Trustedhousesitters might be worth it if we went away a lot, but I also wonder if there are people on there looking to stay in our area (not sure why anyone would want to come here). I wish there was a way to see this without signing up. It sounds like you live in an area that people want to visit. So that may be another factor for people to consider.

But you've given me some things to think about. I thank you for this post and appreciate that you have shared your experiences/knowledge about the service.

[uniwelder]

Interesting. I didn't know that the person would do those other things. I can also see your point about socializing/playing with your animals, our sitter does that but it's only once a day. That is the only thing I wish they could get more of. But it only takes 1/2 a day for ours to get back into the swing of socializing once we return and they don't seem to hold it against us.

Trustedhousesitters might be worth it if we went away a lot, but I also wonder if there are people on there looking to stay in our area (not sure why anyone would want to come here). I wish there was a way to see this without signing up. It sounds like you live in an area that people want to visit. So that may be another factor for people to consider.

But you've given me some things to think about. I thank you for this post and appreciate that you have shared your experiences/knowledge about the service.

I'm not sure everyone would be willing to cut the grass, but if your house is in a nice enough location (maybe yours isn't), there might be a good number of people that want to stay.  There's also some oddballs out there that enjoy cutting grass, so who knows.  People thought we were crazy for wanting to stay at someone's house and take care of their dogs while on vacation, but my wife and I both think it made for a much nicer experience.  Hotels don't provide furry creatures for snuggling with you on the bed.

I don't have any recommendations about how to see ahead of time whether your house is a 'good' location or not.  You can search the site to see if there are other houses available in your area, but you won't know if people are requesting them.  We took a gamble when we signed up and decided the membership cost would more than pay for itself the first sit we did, so even if no one wanted to come to our house, we'd still be ahead.  Our time in Quebec would have been at least $500-1,000 more expensive with a hotel or Airbnb, and as a bonus the $500 we ended up saving additionally with someone at our home.

[uniwelder]

...Let's consider these non-monetary costs of "free" vs. paying someone. We clean our house thoroughly before we leave so when we come back it is how we left it. The person who does our pets is local and we've developed a trusting relationship with them and they know our vet. We could easily find our pet sitter after we return home if we had questions. Our paid help alerts us if something is off with our pets or in our home (because it's their job). We trust them and never worry that they've treated our pets poorly, misused anything in the house, stolen etc. Our pets know them. We don't need to share our wireless password. This year we decided to return a little early and it only took a text, no problem with our pet sitter.

When all is said and done I'm happy to pay $500 (or not save $321) for peace of mind...

I didn't address the bolded part and you have a very good point.  I guess it just depends on how much trust you want to place in other people.  I've never locked the door to my house in the last 17 years.  The doggy doors have been big enough for someone to crawl through anyway.  Plus it helps that we don't have much valuable stuff, but we do lock away the important things.  Hopefully my trust in others won't come back to haunt me.

I felt good about this most recent person because we chatted a bit before agreeing on the deal.  He is in the military and will be moving to the area.  The reason he needed a place to stay is that their house closing was to be 2 weeks after his new post started.  His wife (not staying at the house) has a business that was easy to find online, so I had some confidence she existed.  They could have created fake identities, but probably not.

The person that will be staying at our house 2 months from now is also from the area originally.  She's looking for a place to live while she visits her mom, with whom she can't stay with where she's at.  She has a decent number of good reviews from other people on TrustedHouseSitters that she has house sat for.  Its certainly a gamble, but I felt equally worried about my pets when known friends/acquaintances have taken care of them in the past.

[yachi]

This post peaked my interest.  Thinking it could be fun to housesit since I'm early retired and haven't developed my pastimes yet.  I just looked at TrustedHouseSitters, and I'm quite shocked at how much it would cost me to do it!  Since we have young kids in school, it would only be one one parent at a time staying at the housesitting house, but paying to take care of someone's house and pets seems really odd.

If it took the place of vacation houses I guess it could save us some money, but I'd be too worried about the places we're interested being available to gamble on the site fee.

[PacificaFog]

We used TrustedHousesitters for the first time this summer to take care of our cat when we were on vacation for 10 days.  In the past we’ve used local young people or family friends, but no one was available these dates and hiring a cat-sitter was going to be $25-$30/day and they only came 1x/day.  TrustedHousesitters worked seamlessly for us, and we are planning on using it again for a trip we’re taking this fall, so I feel like it will have more than paid for itself at that point.

We do live in a place that people want to visit, although I’d say most of the applicants this summer were remote workers just looking for a change of scenery.  The young woman we selected was lovely, she checked in with us regularly and left the house cleaner than when she arrived.  My DH set up a guest Wi-Fi account so we did not have to share our passwords.

I had never thought to try and use AirBNB for this though!  For now, we’ll just keep with TrustedHousesitters since it worked so well the first time, but good to know there might be other options as well.  I could easily imagine us using this site to travel once we’re retired.  Seems like an amazing way to see a variety of places on the cheap.  That said, I did a lot of couchsurfing in my 20s and 30s, so I’m not a person who worries about having people in my space or staying in the home of people I don’t know.

[tj]

This post peaked my interest.  Thinking it could be fun to housesit since I'm early retired and haven't developed my pastimes yet.  I just looked at TrustedHouseSitters, and I'm quite shocked at how much it would cost me to do it!  Since we have young kids in school, it would only be one one parent at a time staying at the housesitting house, but paying to take care of someone's house and pets seems really odd.

If it took the place of vacation houses I guess it could save us some money, but I'd be too worried about the places we're interested being available to gamble on the site fee.

I thought they pay you for you to housesit their place? You pay them to house sit their house?

[leevs11]

This post peaked my interest.  Thinking it could be fun to housesit since I'm early retired and haven't developed my pastimes yet.  I just looked at TrustedHouseSitters, and I'm quite shocked at how much it would cost me to do it!  Since we have young kids in school, it would only be one one parent at a time staying at the housesitting house, but paying to take care of someone's house and pets seems really odd.

If it took the place of vacation houses I guess it could save us some money, but I'd be too worried about the places we're interested being available to gamble on the site fee.

The only thing you pay is a fee to use the website. It's basically the cost for them to operate the site and do your background check. You do not pay the host.

I thought they pay you for you to housesit their place? You pay them to house sit their house?

[Heckler]

it takes some effort and advance planning, but we've had several housesitters for a few weeks or a few months by just putting the word out to family and friends.  You'd be surprised how many people you know once they contact their family and friends!  (Kevin Bacon's law)

example situations of people who would loved to stay in our place when we went away:

-going through tough times with their spouse
-just lost their mother and needed quiet space to think (who also just cat-sat at our friend's house on my suggestion, and I hope comes back to us in December)
-fire in the building next door to them (that one didn't pan out, but seemed like a no-brainer to us)
-too many roommates, would love some quiet time
-visiting family from across the country, but not enough space to stay with them.

We stay at an Airbnb paid by my company during the house sits  (thus I feel justified to post)  :)

[sui generis]

I thought it would be super fun to petsit when I FIREd, but so far I haven't gotten into it and just ended up being the one needing a pet sitter instead.  It worked out great for a couple of years (I used sites other than TrustedHousesitters that do not charge the pet/homeowner a fee, so it was completely free).  Then I decided to try TH just to see what it was like.  On the lesser-known sites, we usually only got 2 apps +/- even though we are in a "popular" location (cool neighborhood across the bay from SF).  We had one sit through TH that worked out great, though we still only got like 3 or 4 apps.

Then we planned a longer trip.  The feedback I had gotten on both TH and the other sites was that so many housesitters like to stay at least 3 weeks or more, they don't like short sits.  So we planned a month long trip, got dozens of applications when we listed the sit about 4-5 months in advance, booked a sitter and were really excited.  This was at least the 5th time we had used this method.  About 3 weeks before the trip she cancelled on us.  I'm sure it would be hard to find someone to come stay at your house for a month with just a few weeks notice, and probably even more so in this post-pandemic high travel environment.  Of course all the previous applicants were booked and all my inquiries on TH were fruitless.  We ended up having to book a standard 1 visit/per day pet sitter and paid about $1200 for it, in order to go on the trip.  It was obviously super upsetting in a lot of ways, and although TH says they have various ways to help in instances like that in an emergency, I thought their assistance was pretty lackluster.

I was sad my cats didn't have more frequent socialization, but happily they did seem fine when we came home.  I never would have planned a month long trip if I had known they would spend so much time alone and I would pay $1200 for it.  So it's ironic, in a very unhappy way, that we purposely planned that long trip to be convenient for house sitters.

I definitely won't be paying the fee for TH again.  As a pet owner, I don't find I get any benefit out of TH that I can't get out of any of the other sites that don't charge me. 

However, I'm also not sure I can do a housesitter again through another site.  I think I'll be too worried the cancellation will happen again and throw us into a panic right before our trip.  I know it could happen any time and you need back-up plans all the time.  Even a local pet sitter can have an emergency and have to go out of town or something, though it would be easier to find a replacement for a 1 visit/day situation. 

One other reason I'd be happy not to do it again is seeing all the complaints on some of the social media forums by house sitters showing up at a house and finding it not to their liking.  While we are very neat and clean I know everyone has different expectations, so before trips I'd find myself with a month-long to-do list of cleaning and also buying new sheets and towels so as not to find myself being complained about for having an appalling home.  It was exhausting, even though I guess it is good to have something to force you to wash the outsides of windows, scrub baseboards and touch up paint here and there once per year.

[couponvan]

This is very interesting reading. So on trusted housesitters you could sit as a couple at someone’s house and get the cats and dogs too? Do both sides? We have used an awesome MMM house sitter one trip, an also awesome recent grad (but $50/day) on another trip, or I fly my mother out to cover doggie.

 @sui generis, my mom loves animals and is in the North Bay, so remember to tag me if you are ever in a pinch. She just likes animals, but mostly petsits for all her neighbors (and us). She doesn’t charge-just enjoys having pet company without the responsibility.

@uniwelder for whichever college you live near, is there a parent page you could advertise on? For my child’s college in CA, there are house sitting opportunities posted occasionally that work out well for parents to visit their kids. I’m in the VA Richmond area, and there are LOTS of my friend parents that visit all their kids at the popular colleges out there.

[ysette9]

I don’t have pets myself, but while on HomeExchange.com setting up our summer travels I saw several houses that said a cat or other pet stayed with the house and would need to be cared for as part of the exchange. I’ve seen people offer their house up for a 0 points exchange if someone is willing to take care of Fido. In the second house we stayed at we cared for their pet rabbit, which was pretty easy and brought great joy to my kids. So that is another avenue to consider if the others don’t pan out.

[tj]

I thought it would be super fun to petsit when I FIREd, but so far I haven't gotten into it and just ended up being the one needing a pet sitter instead.  It worked out great for a couple of years (I used sites other than TrustedHousesitters that do not charge the pet/homeowner a fee, so it was completely free).  Then I decided to try TH just to see what it was like.  On the lesser-known sites, we usually only got 2 apps +/- even though we are in a "popular" location (cool neighborhood across the bay from SF).  We had one sit through TH that worked out great, though we still only got like 3 or 4 apps.

Then we planned a longer trip.  The feedback I had gotten on both TH and the other sites was that so many housesitters like to stay at least 3 weeks or more, they don't like short sits.  So we planned a month long trip, got dozens of applications when we listed the sit about 4-5 months in advance, booked a sitter and were really excited.  This was at least the 5th time we had used this method.  About 3 weeks before the trip she cancelled on us.  I'm sure it would be hard to find someone to come stay at your house for a month with just a few weeks notice, and probably even more so in this post-pandemic high travel environment.  Of course all the previous applicants were booked and all my inquiries on TH were fruitless.  We ended up having to book a standard 1 visit/per day pet sitter and paid about $1200 for it, in order to go on the trip.  It was obviously super upsetting in a lot of ways, and although TH says they have various ways to help in instances like that in an emergency, I thought their assistance was pretty lackluster.

I was sad my cats didn't have more frequent socialization, but happily they did seem fine when we came home.  I never would have planned a month long trip if I had known they would spend so much time alone and I would pay $1200 for it.  So it's ironic, in a very unhappy way, that we purposely planned that long trip to be convenient for house sitters.

I definitely won't be paying the fee for TH again.  As a pet owner, I don't find I get any benefit out of TH that I can't get out of any of the other sites that don't charge me. 

However, I'm also not sure I can do a housesitter again through another site.  I think I'll be too worried the cancellation will happen again and throw us into a panic right before our trip.  I know it could happen any time and you need back-up plans all the time.  Even a local pet sitter can have an emergency and have to go out of town or something, though it would be easier to find a replacement for a 1 visit/day situation. 

One other reason I'd be happy not to do it again is seeing all the complaints on some of the social media forums by house sitters showing up at a house and finding it not to their liking.  While we are very neat and clean I know everyone has different expectations, so before trips I'd find myself with a month-long to-do list of cleaning and also buying new sheets and towels so as not to find myself being complained about for having an appalling home.  It was exhausting, even though I guess it is good to have something to force you to wash the outsides of windows, scrub baseboards and touch up paint here and there once per year.

What are the smaller sites?

[uniwelder]

@uniwelder for whichever college you live near, is there a parent page you could advertise on? For my child’s college in CA, there are house sitting opportunities posted occasionally that work out well for parents to visit their kids. I’m in the VA Richmond area, and there are LOTS of my friend parents that visit all their kids at the popular colleges out there.

There is a parent Facebook page, but it’s a private group and to join, there are some screening questions. It asks whether you are a parent of a student at the university, and a disclaimer that only parents are allowed in the group. Maybe it’s poorly moderated, and there are people advertising toward parents, but I’m clearly not supposed to be there. I’ll send you a private message, as I’m sure you know people at the university here.

[sui generis]

I thought it would be super fun to petsit when I FIREd, but so far I haven't gotten into it and just ended up being the one needing a pet sitter instead.  It worked out great for a couple of years (I used sites other than TrustedHousesitters that do not charge the pet/homeowner a fee, so it was completely free).  Then I decided to try TH just to see what it was like.  On the lesser-known sites, we usually only got 2 apps +/- even though we are in a "popular" location (cool neighborhood across the bay from SF).  We had one sit through TH that worked out great, though we still only got like 3 or 4 apps.

Then we planned a longer trip.  The feedback I had gotten on both TH and the other sites was that so many housesitters like to stay at least 3 weeks or more, they don't like short sits.  So we planned a month long trip, got dozens of applications when we listed the sit about 4-5 months in advance, booked a sitter and were really excited.  This was at least the 5th time we had used this method.  About 3 weeks before the trip she cancelled on us.  I'm sure it would be hard to find someone to come stay at your house for a month with just a few weeks notice, and probably even more so in this post-pandemic high travel environment.  Of course all the previous applicants were booked and all my inquiries on TH were fruitless.  We ended up having to book a standard 1 visit/per day pet sitter and paid about $1200 for it, in order to go on the trip.  It was obviously super upsetting in a lot of ways, and although TH says they have various ways to help in instances like that in an emergency, I thought their assistance was pretty lackluster.

I was sad my cats didn't have more frequent socialization, but happily they did seem fine when we came home.  I never would have planned a month long trip if I had known they would spend so much time alone and I would pay $1200 for it.  So it's ironic, in a very unhappy way, that we purposely planned that long trip to be convenient for house sitters.

I definitely won't be paying the fee for TH again.  As a pet owner, I don't find I get any benefit out of TH that I can't get out of any of the other sites that don't charge me. 

However, I'm also not sure I can do a housesitter again through another site.  I think I'll be too worried the cancellation will happen again and throw us into a panic right before our trip.  I know it could happen any time and you need back-up plans all the time.  Even a local pet sitter can have an emergency and have to go out of town or something, though it would be easier to find a replacement for a 1 visit/day situation. 

One other reason I'd be happy not to do it again is seeing all the complaints on some of the social media forums by house sitters showing up at a house and finding it not to their liking.  While we are very neat and clean I know everyone has different expectations, so before trips I'd find myself with a month-long to-do list of cleaning and also buying new sheets and towels so as not to find myself being complained about for having an appalling home.  It was exhausting, even though I guess it is good to have something to force you to wash the outsides of windows, scrub baseboards and touch up paint here and there once per year.

What are the smaller sites?

I've used Mind My House and House Carers successfully, and I've heard of a bunch of others, some that seem to be more popular in certain countries.  Nomador, House Sit Match are a couple of other names I hear.

I'm pretty sure all of them charge a fee to the House Sitter.  Although I believe TH is the most expensive (perhaps by far) of any.  I think it's pretty unusual for any to charge the owner, but TH started doing it and trying to make it worth it with things like insurance, a vet hotline, on-call customer service, etc.

I believe I had heard that TH was purchased in the last couple of years by some private equity firm or something so there's some feel like it's been gussied up with lots of bells and whistles, but it's really just trying to wring the last drops of blood out of a turnip instead of being owned and run by people that care about the house sitting community and exchange economy, consistent with the members' ideals for decades.  So we'll see how they do with this new-ish model.


@couponvan thanks I will keep that in mind!

[chowdan]

This is interesting, my wife and I live aboard a 42foot sailboat and while we love it, winter time we are always looking to house sit - mainly because its these times where I can really bust out projects for the boat upgrades.

I have a side hustle(more like a full time job) that is yacht care taking and maintenance. My partner and I split the work, but in general we are looking after $500k+ yachts on a full time basis. I've personally started branching out into the house sitting as a side hustle now - while we do live in some of the houses(mainly just friends & family who ask us to care take), a lot of them I do constant drive/walk throughs for a weekly fee. One house recently I had noticed their grass was soupy - informed the owners and they said "yeah its our drainage". Turned out i was there while it was raining and noticed the gutters on the entire front of the house was overflowing and all of it was flowing to their front yard - 15 minutes later gutters cleaned and all things are draining well now. Owners are happy to hear, and honestly doesn't take much effort from me. Maybe my $100/week is too cheap to actually do any work other than "walk through the house checking for signs of water intrusion, heat is running and general state of condition hasn't change".

We haven't signed up for any house sitting websites, i'm curious if anyone has "good" vs "bad" sites they recommend?

[uniwelder]

We haven't signed up for any house sitting websites, i'm curious if anyone has "good" vs "bad" sites they recommend?

Trustedhousesitters.com is the only one I have experience with.  I think its the largest in the US and would cost about $100 annually or so if you're just housesitting.  Most people have pets and expect you'll be around to care for them.  There is no money exchange between individuals.  The site would run a background check on you, you'd create a profile, and your reputation is based on reviews from people you have housesat for.