As we travel around the world as a nomad couple, we balance our overnight lodging among Housesitting, Airbnb, Hotels, and other opportunities. Lots of our friends have asked about the Housesitting part, why we do it, and what it means. Housesitting is a great strategy to include in your Nomad Life.
Why Should You Housesit During Nomad Life
We housesit for three reasons:
- To reduce our monthly lodging expenses
- To get puppy and kitty snuggles
- To stay in places where we might not think of staying
Notice we didn’t say to make money or get cash.
What Is Housesitting?
We use a website called Trusted Housesitters (use our Trusted Housesitters Referral Code EATWALK25 to get 25% off.) It’s the largest website for an equal exchange of services between pet/home owners and pet/ house sitters. On this website, homeowners describe their homes and pets and what types of services they need. Generally, they want someone to stay in their house, take care of their pets, water plants, and get mail.
Housesitters, on the other hand, describe their skill sets, their availability, and their experience. The website attempts to match up needs and wants. No money is exchanged and both homeowner and pet sitter are equally happy. Reviews are the magic juice that keeps things accurate.
Please use my Trusted Housesitters referral code so we both get a bonus when you sign up. Get it here.
How Do You Get Started with Housesitting?
When putting together your profile as a housesitter, there are some guidelines to follow. Be honest and genuine, state your experience with pets, make a note about what you will and won’t do, and be sure to include good pictures of you with pets. You can see our Housesitting profile by clicking here.
When Will You Housesit in Nomad Life
As we travel the world, we budgeted $2000 monthly for accommodation. In some countries, $2000 can go quickly. Other countries, it can buy you several months of heavenly living. We don’t want to limit our nomading to the “cheap” countries, so when we’re in more expensive countries, we’ll strategize our stay by housesitting most of the time.
We’d like to housesit and slow travel at the same time, so we look for housesits that last a month or more. Sometimes, we’ll have to string together a few of them to make a month combined. The good news is that the expensive countries have lots of housesitting. A quick search for housesits in the UK, Australia, Spain, France, and New Zealand shows hundreds of housesits.
How Will You Plan Your Travel and Housesitting Together?
As we try to work through our monthly logistics, we try to anchor a few accommodations and then work our way around those anchors. So, for example, if we really want to be in Paris on a particular date for a festival, we’ll “anchor” with either a housesit or an Airbnb.
If a housesit doesn’t show up, we’ll book an Airbnb that has a refundable cancellation policy. If a housesit shows up and we can cancel our Airbnb without penalty, we’ll take the housesit. Otherwise, we’ll enjoy the Airbnb. We can also book a hotel and pay either with cash or with points accumulated through credit card reward programs.
In the least expensive countries, we’ll anchor with an Airbnb. Finding housesits in the more affordable countries can be challenging. For example, a quick search on Trusted Housesitters for Thailand, Bangkok, China, or the Philippines brings up only a handful of housesits. Airbnb is a fabulous way to find great accommodations exactly where we want them; within communities!
How Long Do You Stay in Housesits During Nomad Life
In the US, many of the housesits last from a short weekend to ten days, at the most. Sadly, in the US, people’s vacations are limited, thus, the housesits are relatively short. Longer ones do show up, but they are hard to find and very competitive to get.
As we travel through the US, we housesit one week at a time. Since we clean the house to better condition than when we found it and leave home made cookies when we leave, moving every week gets tedious quickly.
In Europe, housesit opportunities generally are longer. They range from one week to one month. Europeans get longer vacations and this culture of longer vacations shows up in the housesit opportunities. As we jump the pond, we look forward to settling in to longer housesits, getting to know the local towns, and getting to know the pets better.
Isn’t Taking Care of Someone Else’s Pets a Bit Tedious While You Housesit?
Yes. But it’s also rewarding and interesting. Cats are easier, generally, than dogs, and cats afford you more flexibility if you want to visit the local area. But dogs are great if you want to get to know the locals in the area. There’s nothing like meeting people when you’re walking dogs, and walking around neighborhoods opens up all types of opportunities. Dog parks are great places to meet locals and to learn about local restaurants and hang out.
What If Something Bad Happens While Housesitting?
Fortunately, nothing “bad” has happened yet on a housesit. But through the Trusted Housesitters website, there’s a 24/7 vet hotline. In addition, we always make sure we have the vet info for the pet, we know emergency numbers, and we make sure we can reach the homeowners.
We did have a situation where we cracked the windshield on the car they let us use, and we also broke the cover on a hot tub. In the case of the car, they had just replaced the windshield and a replacement to the replacement was still under warranty. In the case of the hot tub, they had already planned to replace the cover and weren’t even phased by us breaking it. In both cases, though, we were prepared to pay for repairs.
Ask Us Questions
Please feel free to ask us questions about housesitting. We’ll answer and add them to this post.
See you soon!
Chris Englert, the Walking Traveler, believes walking is the platform for life. Wanderlusting since the age of 5, she’s since traveled all 50 US states and 62 countries. Chris shares her love of walking while traveling via blogs, books, and presentations. A natural storyteller, she invites you along as she explores the world, one walk at a time.
Currently, Chris and her husband, Steve, travel the world, full-time as nomads, with just their two carry-ons. They’ve been traveling since May, 2021.