House sitting is growing in popularity and that should be no surprise to savvy travellers who seek an authentic holiday that doesn’t break the bank.
House sitting means just that.
All over the world home owners need someone to look after their property while they’re away. Many of them have beloved pets which their owners prefer to have stay in their own home, gardens that need tending or it can just be for the security of knowing someone trusted is staying in their home.
For house sitters, this is a chance to live rent free and experience life in a foreign country like a local. The most memorable holidays are those which offer more than a run-of-the-mill vacation venue – a break with a difference, one that offers a truly authentic taste of local life and culture.
House sitting not only makes a holiday less expensive but allow you to live in the home of a local. Says one house sit loving friend: “Housesitting offers affordable travel, home and pet care to anyone willing to collaborate and work a little at a working relationship. It shrinks the world and brings people together”.
That outlook is mirrored by Karen Dobson from Australia who has been house sitting for over a year in France for two long term sits. One of them was in the south of France and involved looking after two cats while the owner was away working. The other was in the north and included looking after the owner’s gites (this house sit also paid an income as well as rent free). Karen says it’s an “excellent way to take a long or short term break rent free and to experience life as a local, something you just don’t get when you take an ordinary holiday”.
Mark Allen, a copywriter who loves to travel says that house sitting in Paris “saved me a small fortune in rent. It also meant I was quickly integrated into the local community because I was a ‘neighbour'”.
Why House Sit?
House sitting offers freedom, privacy, flexibility and space. It’s a chance to live life in a foreign country like a local, such as buying baguettes at the best boulangerie in town (which the home owner is bound to tell you about). You’ll learn where the best place to buy cheese is, what’s on when and you’ll find the people who live in the town will treat you like a surrogate local! You can shop at the local store and cook your own meals in your own kitchen. You can have friends round to visit and don’t have to get up, or come home, at ‘hotel hours’.
Most house sits require you to maintain the garden, look after their pets and make sure their home is safe and secure in their absence.
