There is a new way of saving money on accommodation costs, while living like a local in exciting countries all over the world! It’s called “house sitting”, and joining this growing craze was the best thing we’ve done since we started this travel blog. We’re currently pet-sitting in Grenada, a picture perfect Caribbean island in the West Indies. We take care of an adorable dog named Spare and we live in a beautiful seafront cottage just steps from the beach. We have two vehicles at our disposal and an entire island to explore.
The average accommodation cost in Grenada is around $150 / night and we get to live here for 6 months. That adds up to an astonishing $24,000! Of course, we normally wouldn’t stay in a place that costs us $150 / night, but even at our usual room rate of around $50 / night, we’re still saving $8,000 in 6 months.
Plus, we get to enjoy the company of a furry friend and we get to experience living like a local instead of just passing through. The money saved in accommodation costs over the next few months will go towards our future travels…sounds great to us!
Note: The owners rent the cottage we’re staying in now for $235 / night in the high season.
Sounds Too Good To Be True, Right? It’s Not!
We joined a website called Trusted House Sitters and we’re very happy we did. There are literally thousands of beautiful homes and loving pets all around the world just waiting for the perfect sitter. We get offers almost every week and we’ve been asked to stay in everything from vineyards in France to eco-lodges in Australia!
How Do You Get Started?
All you have to do is sign up for Trusted House Sitters, the #1 most popular site for sitters and home owners. You pay a yearly fee of $119 USD, or $9.92 / month, create your profile and that’s it. You’re ready to start accepting job offers from all over the globe. If you don’t want to wait around for home owners to contact you, you can search through hundreds of listings and apply for a sitting job that interests you.
How Much Money Can You Save?
The possibilities are literally endless on TrustedHouseSitters.com. You could go from one sit to the next and never pay for accommodation. Of course you’d need to have a pretty good profile to be consistently accepted by homeowners, but it’s possible. The site has already saved travellers millions of dollars in accommodation costs and it has saved pet and home owners millions in kennel and property management fees! It’s really a win-win for everyone.
What Are You Waiting For?
This is the ideal job for someone who works remotely, is retired, is on a gap year, has vacation time, is on sabbatical, or is unemployed! If you’re looking to stay somewhere exotic and experience living like a local in a new city/country, you should definitely consider house / pet sitting. You can find sits ranging from as short as a weekend, upwards to a year in duration.
To date, we’ve house / pet sat in Barbados, Grenada and Costa Rica. Plus, we’ve been offered jobs in Spain, France, the USA, Australia, Canada and Mexico!
Anyone can join this fantastic network, no matter your age or relationship status. Many homeowners want young couples or single males, while others are interested in retirees or single females. Basically, all they’re looking for is someone to treat their home and pet as if it were their own. If you’re considerate, responsible, honest and reliable, you’ll have no problems.
For less than $10.00 / month, you can live in a beautiful paradise like the picture above. What are you waiting for? Click Here to get started now!
For more information, check out these articles:
House Sitting: How To Find The Temporary Home Of Your Dreams
House Sitting: Frequently Asked Questions
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I haven’t yet done the house/pet-sitting thing but we will be signing up shortly – it seems like an amazing thing to do!
I’d love to try this out sometime soon; perhaps after I return from Southeast Asia when I expect to be seriously strapped for cash!
What a gorgeous place to house sit! Great info, too. We’re been house sitting now for almost 2 years…Fiji, NZ, Australia, Singapore, Italy, Ireland and it’s been the best way travel – meeting new friends all over the world and living locally is such treat. Loving the pets is really nice, too! 😉
Is using TrustedHousesitters the only way you guys have found house sits? We’ve actually had much more luck not using house sitting websites and just taking a proactive approach searching out opportunities. It really is an awesome way to save money though, you’re totally right 🙂
LOVE housesitting! My husband and I have been housesitting all around Costa Rica for the past year and are loving it. It really just makes sense for both the homeowner and (flexible) traveler. And getting to stay in places like Grenada for next to nothing is insane. Can’t believe they’re letting you use 2 cars by the way!
We are doing our first ever housesit right now in Stockholm, Sweden. It’s such a nice way to get to know a part of town tourists rarely see. Having a car to use must be great! Hope you’re enjoying Grenada – Zab and I would love to go there together at some point, as his grandfather was from there and he still has family living there.
It’s such a great program! We love it and have had a great experience. We will be using it again in the future. If you do sign up, we would be so grateful if you used our link 😉 Thanks Emily!
Yep, it’s a great way to save some money!
wow, you guys have been to some awesome places with house sitting! You’re right, meeting new people and making new friends is a definite highlight 🙂 Where are you now?
Cheers!
We’re planning on doing some house sitting when we go back to Costa Rica, I’ve been hearing so many people just rave about it and it seems like such a wonderful way to travel. Will be signing up soon, thanks guys! 🙂
Hi Charlie,
So far, that’s the only way we’ve found sits. It’s such a reputable site and the people on there seem legit! We have had emails directly to us though to sit, but it just didn’t pan out.
Thanks for commenting 🙂
Hey Jenn!
House sitting in Costa Rica sounds pretty fabulous too 🙂 Ya, we lucked out with this sit in that we have an awesome dog, a great home and vehicle use! Bonus.
thanks for commenting.
Wow, housesitting in Sweden would be fabulous! Since its such an expensive country, I’m thinking house sitting is a must? Living like a local is always nice 🙂
Enjoy!
Great! Glad to hear it 🙂 There are many house sits in Costa Rica as well.
Cheers!
We ave been learning more and more about petsitting each and every day and as someone whose husband is allergic it will be a challenge to find a place without a shedding dog. Are there many of these that don’t have animals involved in the home? Do you think someone would consider us even with the allergy.? Thank you.
Hi Heather,
Many homes don’t have a cat or a dog. Some might have chickens or a fish, while some don’t have any pets at all. You can search through the listings by doing an advanced search to choose homes without pets. I think homeowners would consider you, but it’s just a matter of whether or not it would be a good environment for your husband.
I hope you find a place that works for you! House sitting is a great way to live like a local and save some money too 🙂
I’m on my second house sitting gig as a full time, location independent traveler, and I love this post! I had not heard of trustedhousesitters.com, so thanks for the tip! (My two gigs were word-of-mouth).
I really recommend Trusted House Sitters because that way you can see more offers that are out there!! It’s a great system 🙂
I love Housesitting and it really does help out those looking to travel a little longer. Great to hear you guys saved so much by trying it.
Thanks so much for your informative house sitting articles! Definitely the most informative and helpful so far out of all that I have read online. I’m planning to start traveling next year and House sitting seems like a great idea considering how accommodation can be a main expense!
Thanks Carl 🙂 House sitting is a great way to travel for sure.
Any tips on getting responses on trusted house sitters? Nobody has ever contacted me and I have not heard back from any I applied for. Wonder if it’s already got too many sitters?
Hi Sean,
There are always more and more homeowners adding to the site as well. Have an appealing profile picture, catchy title, lots of photos, maybe a video and references. Keep on trying!