Recently we discovered an amazing concept: housesitting! Housesitting means taking care of someone’s house, and often their pet(s) while the homeowner is away on, for example, a business trip or vacation. For them, it is a better solution than to pay for expensive kennels. Their house is being maintained and their pets stay in their natural environment. Housesitting is not only a win situation for the house owner; it is a win for housesitters as well! As a housesitter, you get to stay in a house for free, anywhere in the world! While travelling this means having time to take a rest, and perfect when you are (thinking about becoming) a digital nomad!
When we are writing this blog, we are housesitting on Penang, Malaysia, for five weeks. We look after the cutest dog named Tiger. In the meanwhile, we have plenty of time to fully explore this beautiful island. We have a car and motorbike at our disposal and we have a real home for a while, on the other side of the world! Housesitting is the perfect solution for us: a combination of traveling, blogging having a home and taking care of pets! Plus it is great for traveling on a budget.
Enthusiast already? Read the following reasons why you should housesit. We challenge you to NOT want to housesit afterward!
Having a home away from home
Traveling place-to-place all of the time, packing your bags multiple times a week, it can be tiring. No matter how homey your hotel, hostel or Couchsurfing place is, it will never feel like your own home or your own space. It allows you to slow the pace and to reload. In addition, this is a great option for digital nomads: housesitting allows you to have time and an office to work from. Right now, we have a home on the other side of the world; we have an entire house to ourselves! We can do our laundry whenever we want, cook for ourselves and have a pet that is cuddling us so much. In addition, we have the time to blog, edit photos and videos!
Excited to start yet? Learn how to become the perfect housesitter!
Caring for a pet
Often housesitting means taking care of a pet as well as the house. Sometimes even multiple animals! We love pets and we really miss our cat, Elsa. A pet is not usually the best travel buddy, but with housesitting you have your own pet! And pets are so much fun. Our housesit-dog Tiger is the cutest. For us, a pet is what makes the ultimate home! And when we take him to the beach he is so excited and that makes us his most favorite humans.
Discovering new areas
When you stay in one place for a while you can explore so many things. Way more than when you visit as a tourist! In addition, you see places you would never have visited otherwise. Right now we housesit in the South of Penang: an area that would’ve bypassed if we were just travelling! Not only can you explore one place to the fullest, but you can also revisit the places you like so much. We love to come back to that one coffee shop!
Living like a local
We like to take our time while travelling and to really take in the culture. While housesitting you actually live IN the culture. Living somewhere gives you the best opportunity to live and feel like a local. And to meet other locals! Since we have arrived in Penang we go to this Saturday night market every week, and now people actually recognise us. We go to the same vegetable stall, we get the most delicious Malaysian pancakes with the same guy and we have a small chat!
Fitting YOUR travel!
There is a housesit for everyone! Offers include a housesit for a few days, weeks, or months! For short-term travellers, a few days is a great option to see a new destination for a bit, and for long-term travellers or digital nomads, a longer period of time suits their schedule. And it is not only for backpackers; it is a great option for a family holiday, a retirement travel or simply as an alternative vacation!
Becoming a housesitter
There are many different housesitting websites; it can be difficult to choose one. Naturally, we started looking for the cheapest option. But as we continued our research, it became clear TrustedHousesitters was the best fit for us. Many other housesitters recommend this platform and it is the largest housesitting platform worldwide. With more opportunities in parts of the world like Asia, this is the best fit for us. It is also the fastest growing platform!
To join TrustedHousesitters you need to pay a membership fee. Before subscribing we thought it’s expensive: $119 a year! We are on a budget! And look at Couchsurfing: it is free! But we thought about it, it is not expensive at all. We have a FREE house for five weeks. How much rent would you normally pay for five weeks? Or how much would you pay for hostels? With only our five weeks of housesitting it is already worth the money. And this will not be our only housesit this year! In addition: if you are serious about this, paying this fee also shows dedication and shows a house owner you are really going for it!
Get 20% off on a TrustedHousesitters membership! Click this link or use code: RAF89683
Have we made you enthusiast about housesitting as well? In that case, you might want to check our article on how to become a housesitter!
I would love to try this out sometime! Absolutely love pups! Quick qn tho, how easy is it to get your first sit without recommendations from others? Are there anything about housesitting that you don’t like too?
You can get recommendations from friends and family for a character description, or from employers, which helps a lot also! So far we haven’t had any dislikes!
We keep meaning to join Trusted House sitters to help us get around Australia. It’s a win win in our eyes, free accommodation AND free furry cuddles… Why wouldn’t you?!
Yes totally agree with that!!
Girls, this is great! Ik ga zeker eens even kijken, want dit klinkt voor ons ook echt ideaal. En.. love dogs!
Jaa zeker doen! Wij zijn eigenlijk meer katten mensen maar sinds onze housesit zijn we nog meer van honden gaan houden!
House sitten is zo chill! Zou het zeker weer willen doen :). Geweldige foto’s ook meiden, zoals altijd!
Lief, dankjewel Lisanne! Hebben jullie het op de planning staan voor binnenkort? Of druk met andere projecten?
This is such a great way to expand your travels. I am allergic to pets, I need that golden house sitting job where you only watch the house. Haha
Oh that’s a pity! So far we’ve only seen housesits with taking care of pets as well. Hopefully you find a perfect one!
Wow! I’ve never considered house-sitting before, but now I’m intrigued! Sounds like an excellent opportunity to discover a city.
Yes totally agree with that! We love it!
Great post! I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while but your blog makes it sound great! That dog is super cute as well! Thankyou for sharing, and beautiful pictures!
Thanks a lot! Yeah he was super cute, miss him already. Hope you will find some wonderful housesits as well!
I love the style of your photos!! Also, I’m now convinced that I really want to try this.
Thanks a lot! If you do, let us know, would love to exchange experiences!
Ik ken mensen die dit ook doen, zelfs in Nederland. Ik heb het zelf nog nooit gedaan, maar het is wel ideaal voor een budget vakantie. Zo bespaar je geld en met een beetje geluk heb je een mooi huis voor jezelf.
Ja precies! Wij zien inderdaad ook weleens Nederland voorbij komen. Zelfs families passen daarop hun vakantie aan, ze kiezen geen land maar kijken gewoon waar ze terecht kunnen met een housesit!
Great post! I’ve been meaning to sign up for this website but just haven’t done it yet!
Thank you Jess! If you do, let us know! Curious about your housesit stories. It’s definitely a great opportunity while travelling.
This seems like a great opportunity. Have you had any luck in other countries as well, aside from Asia?
Only in The Netherlands, but not through this website. There are more housesit offers in Europe, USA, Australia and New-Zealand if you compare it with Asia. So you have a bigger chance there. It’s definitely a great opportunity!
This is so clever! I’d heard of it before but didn’t know it was that easy, I’m going to sign up right now!
Awesome! Let us know when you have your first housesit. Would love to hear your stories!
Interessant! Toevallig heb ik hier een paar jaar geleden ook eens naar gekeken. Uiteindelijk niet gedaan omdat ik vanwege werk niet zo flexibel qua data ben maar wellicht dat ik het in de toekomst wel eens ga doen 🙂
Ja wij vinden het echt super tijdens het reizen. Kan me voorstellen dat als je niet zo flexibel bent dat het dan lastiger is om de ‘perfecte’ housesit te vinden. Maar er zijn altijd heel veel offers! Als je het gaat doen, laat het ons weten! Benieuwd naar je verhalen.
Would love to try this! Maybe next year in Spain.
We loved our housesit, hope you will find a perfect one as well!
Wij waren al van plan om ons hier in te verdiepen en zijn na het lezen van jullie blog alleen maar enthousiaster geworden! We hebben net jullie linkje gebruikt voor die 5 dagen met informatie. 😉 We zijn eigenlijk ook wel benieuwd of jullie gemakkelijk aan een adres zijn gekomen.
Wij zijn verrassend snel aan een adres gekomen ja! We stonden er verbaasd van haha. De truc is (denken we): snel reageren en je profiel uitgebreid invullen!
What a great article! It is always a pleasure to read about fellow house sitters that are living the dream and sharing the adventure with others! What has been your favorite location to house sit in?
Hi Rach and Chris!! We only have done two housesit so far actually! We’re looking forward to our third in Mexico in April. But housesitting on Penang was AMAZING!