HOW WE TRAVEL
House Sitting
Travel more. Pay for fewer hotel nights.
We’ve used house sitting to stay longer, spend less on lodging, and experience places from neighborhoods instead of only hotels.
And no, you do not have to sell everything you own, pack your life into a hatchback, and disappear for eight months to make it useful. House sitting can work for a normal vacation too. A week. A long weekend. A few extra days somewhere you already wanted to go.
So what is house sitting?
House sitting is basically an exchange. A homeowner needs someone to care for their home and, often, their pets while they’re away. You agree on the responsibilities, you take care of what needs taking care of, and you get a place to stay.
That can mean feeding pets, walking dogs, watering plants, collecting mail, keeping an eye on the house, or just making sure everything is still standing when the owners come home. Every sit is different, which is why the details matter.
How we got started with house sitting
We didn’t start by flying across the world and hoping strangers would hand us their house keys.
We started closer to home, with a couple of test sits to see whether this strange little arrangement actually worked for us before we built bigger trips around it.
It did.
Those early sits taught us what to ask, what mattered to us, and what house sitting was actually like when you were the one responsible for the home and pets.
From there, house sitting became part of longer trips around the U.S., the Caribbean, Hawaii, and eventually Europe.
Why house sitting can change the math of a trip.
Lodging is often one of the biggest costs of travel. House sitting can reduce or remove that nightly expense, which can make a longer trip, a better destination, or simply more trips during the year feel possible.
For us, the bigger surprise was that it also changed how we traveled. We could stay longer. Buy groceries. Learn the neighborhood. Have days where we did absolutely nothing touristy. Then explore without feeling like we had to squeeze an entire place into three or four days.
And that is the point we want people to see: house sitting is not just for people trying to live on the road full-time. It can be a practical way to make an ordinary vacation more affordable or give yourself a few extra days somewhere you already want to go.
Start here if you’re curious about house sitting
We’ll keep building this section from our own house sits. Start with House Sitting 101 and our first sit in Washington, DC. Our Pittsburgh story is coming soon, with the experience that changed how we evaluate every house sit afterward.
House Sitting 101: How It Actually Works (Without the Instagram Lies)
The practical version. What the exchange really is, what sitters are responsible for, what costs still remain, and why “free lodging” is only part of the story.
Our First House Sit Was Fantastic. And Also Kinda Creepy.
Our first sit gave us Washington, DC during cherry blossom season, free lodging, and a very useful lesson about asking who else might be living in the house.
Our Worst House Sit: Pittsburgh
(COMING SOON)
Great city. Terrible sit.
One giant dog, one overly affectionate bird, and one experience that completely changed how we vet house sits.
What house sitting still costs
House sitting can remove the hotel bill, but it does not make the trip free. You may still have flights, fuel, rental cars, groceries, activities, nights between sits, and the cost of joining a house-sitting platform.
The useful question is not, “Can I travel for free?” It is, “Does removing lodging make this trip possible, longer, or more comfortable?”
That distinction matters, and it fits the way we want to talk about house sitting: useful, practical, and grounded in what it actually costs.
Is house sitting right for you?
House sitting works best when you’re comfortable trading a little responsibility for a lot of lodging value. You are staying in someone else’s home, following their routines, and taking care of the things they trusted you with.
It can be a great fit if you like animals, don’t mind living more like a local than a hotel guest, and are willing to plan your sightseeing around whatever responsibilities come with the sit.
If what you really want is room service, housekeeping, and the freedom to disappear from breakfast until midnight, that particular house sit may not be the bargain it first appeared to be.
The house-sitting platform we use
We use TrustedHousesitters to find house sits. It’s where homeowners and sitters create profiles, connect, talk through the responsibilities, and decide whether a sit feels like a good match.
It has opened the door to some incredible travel for us. It has also taught us that a nice listing and a few cute pet photos do not tell you everything you need to know. We’ve gotten much better at asking questions before we say yes.
If you’re curious about trying house sitting yourself, this is the platform we know from actually using it.
Referral disclosure: We’re TrustedHousesitters members. If you join through our referral link, you’ll receive 25% off your joining membership and we’ll receive two free months added to ours.
Want to try house sitting?
Start with the basics before you start applying for sits. Learn how the exchange works, what responsibilities you’re comfortable with, what questions to ask, and what costs you’ll still have even when the lodging is covered.
We’ll keep adding what we’ve learned from our own sits, including how we choose them, what has surprised us, mistakes we’ve made, and how house sitting can fit into a normal vacation instead of becoming your entire lifestyle.