These are the locations where we’ve been lucky enough to house and cat sit. Can you help us add another pin to the map?
Frequently Asked Questions
Please have a read of the following FAQs before you email us, as we get a lot of messages asking us the same things and you’ll often find the answer below (quicker than waiting for us to respond!).
Great news! In the past, due to time zone restrictions imposed by work commitments, we were limited to Europe/Asia/Australia, but we are now available to house sit WORLDWIDE!
Our preference would be to start visiting countries we’ve never been to before (see map above!), but of course nothing’s set in stone. Drop us a line, wherever in the world you are, and let us know why we should visit yours!
We are always interested in hearing about house sitting opportunities in Spain.
When we started house sitting in early 2014, we were 100% nomadic, living out of our suitcases and house sitting full time (except for some breaks here and there).
In late 2016 we set up a little home base, with the intention to house sit for (approximately) 6 months of the year, in winter and summer. Primarily, we seek out house sitting opportunities between June-August and December-February, but it is not a ‘hard and fast’ rule.
If something catches our eye at other times of the year, we are definitely more than happy to consider it, so feel free to drop us a line at any time!
This very much depends on where we would be coming from and how much it would cost us to get there.
– On average, we prefer house sits of 3+ weeks, to make up for the cost of travel and give us enough time to enjoy the experience of being in that particular place.
– However, we have accepted sits as short as 3-5 nights, because we happened to be a short distance away and the dates fitted in nicely with our plans before and after those dates.
– The longest sit we have done is 3.5 months. We could possibly consider sits longer than 3 months, but we would have to evaluate the situation carefully. In some cases, it might not be possible due to visa issues.
Not exclusively, no.
We have also cared for 4 cows, 3 rabbits, 2 chinchillas, 2 chickens, a fishpond and a tropical fish tank. We are open to caring for other pets as well. Maria LOVES anything “small and furry”. She grew up with hamsters and later in life had a couple of mice and fancy rats.
However please note that usually we would not accept assignments that require dog or horse care, unless:
- It is one single, small, very well behaved dog. This is for the sake of the dog as much as ours, as we have very limited experience with dogs and Maria is scared of anything bigger than a small poodle. Having said that, she loves pretty much anything ending in -oodle or -poo, so if you have one of these she’ll find it hard to say no!
- The horses don’t require anything other than hay and water (unfortunately we had a bad experience when we started house sitting, when the level of care we were expected to provide to 2 horses was greatly misrepresented)
Thank you for your understanding!
This is certainly not an easy subject to approach, as it can easily cause offence. We understand that everyone is different, and it is not our place to judge other people’s standards in their own home.
Having said that, if we leave our own home to spend time in someone else’s, it is understandable that we wish to find hosts whose standards match ours as closely as possible, so that we can feel comfortable during our stay.
We don’t mind a bit of dust here and there or some specks on the windows, but several weeks’ worth of accumulated dust starts to present a health problem. As for the rest, this is what ‘high standards of hygiene’ mean to us.
- in the kitchen: surfaces and cooker cleaned daily after each use, fridge kept fresh with shelves wiped, and oven kept free of old, burnt food residue.
- in the bathroom: fresh towels for personal use; sink, shower and toilet freshly scrubbed and kept free of soap scum and hairs.
- in the bedroom: freshly laundered sheets on the bed, dirty laundry put away.
- house in general: floors regularly hoovered and mopped, and the house kept free of mould and pest infestations.
If this list makes you think we’re stating the obvious, then it’s safe to say we are more than likely on the same page!
We love travelling and discovering new places and cultures as much as we like being at home, so our current arrangement allows us to have the best of both worlds.
Of course we’re not going to deny that having a free roof over our heads whilst travelling is part of the appeal of house sitting – but for us, it is so much more than that. We can perfectly afford to pay for holiday accommodation, but this rarely feels like a home!
Also, house sitting has allowed us to discover places that we may not have considered visiting otherwise, and has enabled to make connections with people we would have never met. Plus, as cliché as this may sound, we love giving home owners the peace of mind they seek whilst they’re away and… we really, really enjoy the cats’ company!
No, sorry, we would not. Remember that we are not entering into a rental agreement, but into one based on mutual trust. You are trusting us to care for your home and pets responsibly, and we are trusting you not to cancel on us after travel arrangements have been made and other offers turned down.
We could reason that we should be entitled to a security deposit from you, in case you change your mind and leave us out of pocket with non-refundable plane tickets, for example. But we believe that any one party asking the other for money to cover these eventualities starts the relationship off on the wrong foot.
If you feel very strongly about this, then we would not be a good match for each other.
We would have to find the location (and duration) completely irresistible, and even so, the truth is that we get more offers to house sit (with 100% free accommodation) than we can accept, so for that reason, and the reasons mentioned in the question above, the answer will most likely be no.
This falls outside the scope of the services we offer, as it would come with an entirely different set of responsibilities and potential complications, so the answer would have to be no.
Unfortunately it would not make economical sense to rent a car in our case. Keep in mind we are neither retired, nor on full time holiday when we house sit, so we don’t spend our days sightseeing, but rather spend most of our time working at home and spending time with the pets.
If we do any sightseeing it would only happen at weekends, so to pay for a vehicle when it would mostly just sit on the drive 5 days a week, and get minimal use at weekends, would just be throwing money away.
If our hosts want to show their appreciation by offering a gratuity we do gratefully accept them.
- In some cases, we have received a cash contribution towards our travelling costs, either in cash or via Paypal (direct link).
- Amazon.co.uk vouchers is another neat gift, as we use the service from time to time.
- Some hosts have left us a fridge stocked with food that we were instructed not to replace.
- Others feel more comfortable gifting us supermarket vouchers that we can use to buy what we like.
- Other times we have received a nice bottle of red wine, or a box of tasty chocolates.
For booking inquiries
If you haven’t yet done so, please first check our How it Works page to learn about our simple but important requests in order to achieve a win-win situation for all, and then go to our Bookings page to send us your inquiry.
For any other inquiries
If you have any questions about our service that have not been answered in these pages, or simply want to say hello, feel free use the form below to drop us a line. And don’t worry, we value your privacy and hate spam as much as you do, so we will never misuse your email address in any way.