Over the summer we stayed for two weeks in a three bedroom, three bath luxury condo on the water in Florida with a private ferry to a private island. These accommodations were entirely free by house sitting. Learn how we do this when we travel!
House Sitting for Free Accommodations
A few years ago, I stumbled across the idea of house sitting as a way to save money on travel costs associated with accommodations. It’s simple, really. We stay in people’s homes, taking care of their pets and plants and in exchange the host gives us a free place to stay. Now we regularly housesit in Florida and Nashville, often bringing my teenage kids along. And it’s all free!
Why does house sitting work?
There are many families who do not want to board their pets while they are on vacation. This may be due to cost, but more-often, families just want their pets to be cared for in their home environment when they are away. There are services like Rover where pet owners can pay to have someone stay at their home, but there are also plenty of people who would happily watch a dog without pay for the chance at a free vacation. In essence, this is a barter exchange. The pet owner gets someone to take care of their pets for free. The house-sitter forgoes any payment for watching the pets in exchange for stay for a free stay at the pet owner’s home.
Benefits of House Sitting for Free Accommodation
Besides the obvious benefit of getting a free place to stay, there are some other things we love about house sitting.
Larger Accommodations with House Sitting
One of the best benefits of house sitting is that instead of spending our vacation in a small hotel room, we get to stay in homes with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms. This works out great when we want my teenage kids to stay with us. Everyone gets their own room and has plenty of space to spread out.
A Full Kitchen
Having access to a complete kitchen, full-size appliances, and a pantry full of food staples cannot be overrated! This saves us a ton of money by not having to eat out and makes it so much easier to maintain our plant-based lifestyle. Even when we stay at hotels, we choose rooms with a kitchenette, but we often end up having to buy entire bottles of things that we only need for a few days like cinnamon or olive oil. When house sitting, most hosts tell us to use whatever we want in the kitchen. We take full advantage of this, but then also leave a treat for the host in the fridge for when they return home.
Access to Reliable Wifi and Office Space
I work from home and often continue to do at least some work when on vacation. In traditional hotel rooms, it’s a gamble if the wifi is going to work, and finding the right lighting for video calls without a bed in the background can be a challenge. Most of the house sits we choose have dedicated office spaces and all have high speed, reliable wifi. This makes working while on vacation a much less stressful situation.
Comforts of Home
We love having multiple spaces to spread out at our house sits. We can lounge on couches and watch a movie, have dinner outside on the lanai, or find a quiet spot for morning yoga. Also, if we forgot something, it’s likely we can find something in the house to borrow, like an extra water bottle, bandaids, or an umbrella. These are all expenses that would add up if we were staying in hotel rooms. We also enjoy finding the owner’s stash of board games for family game night!
Free Transportation (Sometimes)
Occasionally, hosts will throw in their personal car with the house sit. This can really save us money if we are flying to a house sit. If a car is not offered, we rent a Turo for much less than a traditional car rental.
Cultural Immersion Through House Sitting
We have not had the opportunity to house sit internationally yet, but even within the United States, when we stay in someone’s house, we really get a sense of what it is like to live there. When you walk a dog, you get to meet neighbors and find out about the off-the-beaten-path things to do in the area. We’ve had great recommendations from people we meet while house sitting and enjoy the authentic local experiences we find. House sitting is also a fantastic way to discover what we really want in a place to live and gives us ideas for where we might want to live in the future.
Slow Travel
If you’ve ever experienced the phenomenon of “needing a vacation from your vacation,” then you understand the benefits of slow travel. I definitely have the tendency to over-plan my vacations. If I have a week in a country, I want to see the whole thing. This results in constant moving from one place to another, very little sleep, and a frantic feeling to my trip. Luckily, my husband has a more laid-back approach that has grown on me. The movement towards slow travel means staying in one place long enough to really experience it and not having every moment planned. This leads to some very serendipitous moments, like being out for a short walk after dinner and seeing dolphins jumping in the harbor at sunset. The slower pace also gives us the time to keep up with our workout regimens, cook dinner, and just chill (which is a skill I desperately need to cultivate!)
Access to Amenities
Sometimes our house sits have access to luxury amenities that we could never afford otherwise. The condo we regularly stay at in Florida is in a resort community. It has a private ferry that goes to a private island several times a day. It also has two pools, a hot tub, tennis courts, and a basic gym. If you rented these condos as a vacation rental, they would be upwards of $600/night. We sometimes just can’t believe our good fortune to get to stay there for free regularly!
Part-Time Pets
My husband and I had dogs most of our lives and enjoyed them . . . most of the time! But because we want to be able to drop everything and travel, we no longer have pets of our own. So it can be fun to spend our vacations with a dog! Taking a puppy to the beach is such a joy to watch! We love our time with our part-time pets, and we also enjoy that we can leave them at the end of our stay. Kind of like being a grandparent!
House Sitting Considerations
Sometimes house sitting can have its challenges, though. We have to plan our vacations around the dates we are needed, sometimes a dog can be a bit of a handful, and not all house sits put us in the lap of luxury. Still, we’ve always had overall positive experiences with house sits. Communication is key. I always ask if it’s okay to bring my kids (sometimes it’s not). And I make sure I understand their expectations for the pets and home, including how much communication they would like during our stay. Pet owners sometimes want a photo of their pet sent to them every day, and others only want to hear from us if there is an emergency.
How to Become a House Sitter
We use a website called Trusted House Sitters to book our house sits. This site is kind of like Tinder for house sitting. We joined the Premium version and submitted background checks, then uploaded our profile. Pet owners also join the site and upload their listings. We can search for house sits that match the dates and location of where we want to go. We can also filter our searches for things like “car included” or “family friendly.” There are always thousands of house sits listed all over the world. When we find one we like, we apply. The pet owner reviews our profile and then reaches out if they want to learn more about us. Sometimes pet owners want a video call prior to the stay. If the pet owner chooses us, we get an invite to sit. At that point we can accept or deny it.
One benefit of going through a service like this are the protections, like background checks. There are also policies that protect house sitters. For example, pet owners cannot have indoor cameras on during the stay. And if a host cancels the sit at the last minute, the site will provide some assistance with other accommodations.
Final Thoughts
We highly recommend house sitting as a way to get free accommodations. We are big users of the “trust economy” and this is one of the best tools we’ve found to experience the kind of travel we most enjoy.
