Housesitting gives people the opportunity to travel the world
Start out with family and friends
For nine years, Kelly HayesRaitt has been walking strangers’ dogs. And brushing her teeth each night in those same strangers’ bathrooms. And sleeping in their beds.
She is not some kind of weird contemporary elf. Ms. HayesRaitt is a housesitter — a job that has allowed her to see the world. “I’ve been in rural villages in China; I’ve housesat in Mozambique. You can do this all over the world,” she told me by phone from Mexico, her current “posting.”
For Hayes-Raitt, this is a lifestyle.
Housesitting gives her free accommodations, and she is able to make enough money for her other needs by renting out her own home in California and working as a freelance journalist.
But it’s a way to save big money for regular vacationers, too.
Ms. Hayes-Raitt, who is the author of the book “How to Become a HouseSitter: Insider Tips from a HouseSit Diva,” told me that opportunities for these types of stays can be as short as a weekend or a week.
And thanks to a burgeoning number of matchmaking websites, and Facebook groups, the number of opportunities is growing daily.
According to Hayes-Raitt, five years ago there were just five major companies that acted as marketplaces for people looking for housesitters. Today, there are more than 50, from multinational organizations to ones that are just for a single country or community. Of those she recommends: TrustedHousesitters.com (“It’s the most expensive, but it also is the largest, so you have the most opportunities with it,” she says.
“It used to have better customer service than it does currently, so it’s not a great site anymore when things go wrong.”); HouseSitMatch.com — slightly smaller but with excellent customer service; and Nomador.com (a French site — it’s the only bilingual site out there. Excellent if you’re hoping to head to France).
For beginning housesitters, Hayes-Raitt suggests starting with family and friends. That way, the newbie will be able to build up a few good reviews on his or her profile, an important asset to the folks who are looking for temporary caretakers of their homes.
Once one graduates to housesitting in stranger’s homes, Hayes-Raitt says it is very important to ask a lot of questions before accepting a new home.
A housesitter’s duties can vary greatly: You’re always expected to make sure the home is OK (so if a pipe bursts, you’ll have to get the plumber), but some housesitters are charged with looking after pets; overseeing gardeners and maids; and even, on some farms, taking care of livestock.
As a single woman, HayesRaitt also asks that her hosts meet her the night before her stay begins, and that they introduce her to some of their neighbours and friends. She does that for both safety and companionship.
“It’s common for a housesit to begin with the host family taking the housesitter out to dinner,” she says.
“I always ask that they invite along a girlfriend, so I’ll know someone in the destination from the get-go.”
What’s the most difficult part of house-sitting?
“I hate to say goodbye to the pets that I’ve grown to love,” says Hayes-Raitt.
“But other than that, I can’t imagine a better way to spend my life.”
Note to the reader: Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip. The information in this column was accurate when it was released, but prices are competitive, sometimes limited and can always change without notice. Pauline Frommer is the Editorial Director for the Frommer Travel Guides and Frommers.com. She co-hosts the radio program The Travel Show with her father, Arthur Frommer and is the author of the best-selling Frommer’s EasyGuide
to New York City.