When I let myself into the air conditioned Valencia flat, Fifi led me straight to the designer bathroom. I knew just what she wanted.
Because I was pet sitting for free lodging, I had promised to turn on the shower wand and hold it for her to drink from at least twice a day.
Yes, this big floofy cat was spoiled with a capital S.
But I was being spoiled too. I spent a week in a gorgeous apartment with a balcony overlooking the Jardín del Turia, the city’s signature river-turned-park. Catering to Fifi’s desire to get her water straight from the shower was a small price to pay for these sweet digs.
In exchange for caring for cats, I’ve stayed free in Valencia and Barcelona in Europe. In the United States, I’ve stayed in Monterey, the San Francisco Bay Area, Colorado’s Summit County, and other desirable locations.
You can pet sit and stay for free too!
Pet sitting for free lodging
For me, getting a free place to stay in exchange for pet care is an ideal sitation. I love to save money while traveling, and I love animals. In this post I’ll share how you, too, can get free places to stay all over the world.
Where to find pet sitting situations
- HomeExchange.com. I’ve been pet sitting for free lodging for more than 10 years, mostly through HomeExchange.com. This platform isn’t exclusively for pet care situations. In general, you host people in your home, earn points for it, and use those points to stay in other peoples’ homes. However, I have gotten better deals on home exchanges because of my willingness to care for animals. For my recent Valencia stay, I paid a fraction of the usual points the 3-bedroom flat. (I’ve also received free cat care through HomeExchange while I traveled.)
- TrustedHousesitters.com. I just signed up for TrustedHousesitters this year and have now completed four sits! I think this will be even better for me than HomeExchange, since I don’t have to host anyone at my house in order to stay free. I just need to apply for a sit, get chosen, and carry out the agreed-upon responsibilities.
- Other pet sitting groups. I belong to a couple of Facebook groups where people post in search of housesitters and pet sitters. There are also other paid sites out there, like Nomador.
What you have to do when pet sitting in exchange for lodging
When looking for a place to stay for free in exchange for pet care, the listings will describe your responsibilities. Typical expectations of a pet sitter in a free lodging situation include feeding and watering the pets, of course. But the duties can go beyond that.
With my first TrustedHousesitters stay, I was expected to open the cat door every morning and close it again in the evening. The homeowner hoped that I could get the cats back inside her house every night. Unfortunately, the cats were afraid of having a stranger in the house, so one of them hid and never came inside. I spent a little time each evening trying to lure the errant cat in with wet food, to no avail. Of course, I played with the cat who wasn’t hiding, and scooped the litter. Still, this work was minimal compared with the value of staying in a San Francisco Bay Area home for three nights.
Even with my Valencia stay, with Fifi the shower drinker, cat care took me no more than 15 minutes per day. A very good deal for a 3-bedroom apartment in the middle of a lovely city during high season.
Caring for dogs tends to be more time intensive than pet sitting cats. When petsitting dogs in exchange for free lodging, I have spent more than an hour each day walking them. For my most recent sit, in Colorado, I was expected to walk the two dogs for an hour each morning, take them out for a brief break in the afternoon, then give them a shorter walk in the evening. I also needed to feed the dogs, as well as put medication in their food. Since I love dogs, these duties felt more like fun than work — except when the dogs got really dirty paws that I had to clean.
On HomeExchange, few home owners ask travelers to care for dogs or other animals. But on TrustedHousesitters, there are lots of dog sits offered. You can even find gigs caring for other animals, like horses, chickens and other livestock. And there are homes with no pets available, where all you have to do is water plants or other light home care.
What if something goes wrong while pet sitting?
The only SNAFU I have personally had to deal with was the cats staying out all night. And the owner already expected that to happen. But what if something seriously terrible happens? What if a pet you’re caring for becomes injured or ill, or runs away? What if the dog bites someone?
Ask the pet owner for an action plan for worst-case scenarios. They should provide the number of an emergency vet you could take their pet to if necessary. (TrustedHousesitters’ more expensive membership plans include video calls with a vet.) And make sure you have the owner’s cell phone number so you can contact them any time of day or night.
The worst thing that has ever happened to me while pet sitting for a friend: A pet chicken passed away while I was caring for the flock. I felt terrible! When I informed my friend of the sad news, they let me know that the chicken was older. They understood it wasn’t my fault.
Tips for successful pet sitting in exchange for lodging
- Read the listing carefully. This is the most important thing you can do to ensure a good pet sitting situation. Personally, I avoid sits that list time-consuming expectations. I don’t mind taking dogs for a long walk, but I recently skipped a listing that said I had to play with kittens for at least three hours a day. Another time, I applied to sit for two dogs in an area with ski resorts — but when I read more closely, I noticed that the dogs could only be left alone for three hours at a time. Since that wouldn’t be enough time for a ski day, I withdrew my application.
- Communicate throughout your stay. As a pet owner myself, I appreciate a daily update to reassure us that our pet is doing fine. Send photos!
- Go above and beyond. Yes, you may be in Istanbul to enjoy a vacation. But if you agreed to bathe the homeowner’s lizard every day, make time in your schedule to do it! Not only do you have a responsibility to the animal, you’ll also be getting reviewed by the homeowner. If you don’t have good reviews, you might have trouble being accepted for future situations.
- Make sure you and the homeowner are in agreement on how much time you will spend with their pets. If you need to leave early or plan on staying out late, this might not be an issue — but it might! Communicate!
- Leave the home in pristine condition. Just as with home exchanging, your reputation as a pet sitter relies on your reviews. Earn five stars every time by leaving a clean kitchen, washed linens (or what you agreed upon), and a back yard free of dog poop. Personally, I like to leave the place even cleaner than I found it, if possible.
How to get started pet sitting with no reviews
When I first signed up for TrustedHousesitters, of course I didn’t have any reviews on the site. I knew that pet owners would not likely invite someone with no pet sitting references to care for their beloved animals.
The first thing I did after joining the site: I contacted every friend whose pets I had ever cared for. I asked all of them to write reviews for me on TrustedHousesitters. Fortunately, you don’t need a subscription to the site to post a review.
Next, I took on a couple of local sits where I live. This way, I could build up more reviews without taking time off to travel. For the first local sit, the homeowner actually preferred that I stay at home and visit her cats twice a day. For the second sit, I stayed in the dog owner’s studio apartment, but drove home every evening to cook dinner for my family. It was kind of a nice mom getaway, to be honest.
With a few reviews posted on my page, I have gotten positive responses from pet owners I’ve contacted. Once I did these local sits, I applied for a sit about a three-hour drive from my home, in Truckee, California. For that sit, I stayed in an adorable cabin and was able to go skiing every day.
Finally, I felt ready to try pet sitting for a longer stretch, farther from home. I was accepted for a sit in Keystone, Colorado, near Breckenridge and Vail ski resorts. I booked a bargain flight on Southwest Airlines, rented an AWD car, and spent ten days caring for two sweet dogs as well as skiing.
Frequently asked questions about pet sitting for free lodging
I’ve seen pet sitting situations advertised on TrustedHousesitters that are as short as one night. I’ve also seen situations listed that last for more than a month! After my son graduates from high school next year, I plan to try a longer-term pet sitting situation, maybe overseas.
Generally, no. At least on TrustedHousesitters, the deal is basically a barter of a place to stay in exchange for pet care. For my most recent sit, I covered my airfare from California to Colorado with miles and paid cash to rent a vehicle for the 10-day stay.
That said, I have been treated with extras such as ski passes as a thank-you from hosts. And hosts generally tell me to help myself to anything I want from their refrigerator or pantry.
TrustedHousesitters’ terms and conditions do not allow pet sitters to charge for their services on the platform.
On Trusted Housesitters, hosts will note their guest policy under the “Sit Essentials” section. Of course, you should discuss with hosts in advance who would be staying with you in their home! So far, every host that I have asked has allowed me to bring one or more guests along. My most recent sit was in a four-bedroom house, and the hosts generously made three of those bedrooms available to me and guests. (They were actually glad I brought someone to help me walk the dogs!)
Personally, I prefer to sleep in a guest room, if available, rather than in the host’s bed. However, one of my sits was in a studio apartment, so of course I had to use the host’s bed. In another sit, the hosts asked me to sleep in their bedroom with their dogs because that’s what the dogs are used to. Of course I complied (and it was a nice, comfy master suite, so no huge burden there!).
That depends on your travel schedule and the host’s wishes. Most often, I have arrived after the hosts departed and left before they returned home. However, in my local sits, I came over before the host left for their trip to meet the pets, get briefed on duties, etc.
For my Colorado sit, my guest and I arrived the night before the hosts left. This gave them plenty of time to show us everything from the pets’ feeding routine to their walk routes, as well as showing us how everything in the house worked. I also left their home the morning after they returned, because of my flight schedule.
When you’re truly on vacation, your time is your own. You are free to take a 6-hour hike if you want, or stay out all night clubbing. But with pet sitting, you generally have some obligations.
When caring for dogs, my hosts have asked me to limit my absence from the house to a set number of hours. I will be honest and say that there were times when I wanted to spend more time out and about, but I had to rush back to be with the dogs. Even when caring for cats, there are times when the pet’s needs have taken precedence over what I wanted or needed to do. But of course, my commitment to the animals came first!
Beyond pet care, one thing that I don’t love about pet sitting for travel is having to clean the home before the hosts return. I’d love it if there were an option to pay for a housecleaner instead, but I haven’t seen that.
This is an interesting question! During all my pet sits, I put in lots of tender loving care for the animals — administering medication, catering to quirky needs, and of course providing love and scritches. When I go out of town myself, I pay someone $50 a day to care for my own pets!
I signed up for Trusted Housesitters to get the opportunity to travel more without paying for housing. So far, I’m happy providing pet care through this site without compensation beyond lodging. However, since my hosts have been so satisfied with the care I’ve provided their pets, I have thought about starting a separate pet sitting business! Maybe I’ll set up a profile on Rover.com to do just that.
For me, so far, the sits I have done have been worth my time. Yes, I am providing pet owners with a service that would otherwise cost them hundreds of dollars. But at the same time, I’ve had the privilege of staying in gorgeous homes in beautiful areas. These are homes I would have paid hundreds of dollars a night to stay in through Airbnb.
That said, in the Trusted Housesitters forum, I’ve read about problems sitters face, from dog bites to overwhelming duties to rude hosts. For those sitters, those sits were obviously not worth it! I think it’s key to carefully read any reviews of the host and ask all the questions before agreeing to a house sit.
Belonging to TrustedHousesitters as a sitter costs from $129 to $259 per year, depending on the plan. The company recently started charging a $12 additional fee per sit.
A HomeExchange membership costs $235 a year.
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