Housesitting
How we've stayed in eight countries for free.
Care for someone’s home and pets, stay for free, and live like a local while you do it. We’ve been doing it since 2018, and this is how it actually works.
Care for someone’s home and pets, stay for free, and live like a local while you do it. We’ve been doing it since 2018, and this is how it actually works.
Housesitting is a simple trade. Owners go away and need someone they trust to look after their home and their pets. You do that, and you stay for free.
We’ve been at it since 2018, and it’s the engine behind our slow-travel life. Eight countries, more than two years of free stays, and roughly six summers based in Spain. Mairin is a cat whisperer, so the animals are half the appeal.
No money changes hands in either direction. You’re not paying rent, and you’re not getting paid. You trade your reliability for a real home in a real neighborhood, often for weeks at a time. That’s what makes staying longer affordable, and it’s why we keep coming back to it.
The system is straightforward. Getting chosen comes down to trust, and trust is built in order.
Real photos, a warm bio, and any pet experience you have. Owners are handing over their home, so show them a couple they’d feel safe saying yes to.
The good sits go fast. Apply the day a listing posts, write a personal note that mentions their pets by name, and don’t get discouraged by a no.
Always meet over video before you commit. It settles their nerves and yours, and it’s how you learn what the pets and the house actually need.
Arrive when you said, send a few photos while they’re away, and leave the place better than you found it. Reliability is what earns the five-star review.
Free stays are real, and so is the responsibility that comes with them. You’re caring for a living animal and someone’s home. There are early-morning walks, a litter box, a garden to water, and the occasional vet run or burst pipe to handle calmly.
It suits some people and not others. If you’re flexible on where and when you go, you genuinely like animals, and you take other people’s things seriously, you’ll love it. If you need a fixed schedule or a place to call entirely your own, it’s probably not your thing.
For us it’s an easy yes. We get a home base, a pet to fuss over, and the slow pace we travel for, all for the price of being dependable.
The trade pays off in more than just saved rent.
No rent and no hotel bills. Years of accommodation, traded for your time and care.
A real home in a real neighborhood, not a room you pass through for a night.
Cats on the couch, dogs on the trail. The animals are half the reason we keep doing this.
Sits run for weeks, so you settle in, find a routine, and actually get to know a place.
Our short, practical guide to planning a slower trip: how to pick a base, how long to stay, and how to travel deeper without the overwhelm.
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