What is House Sitting?
Being able to get free accommodation all around the world, sounds too good to be true right? It does… but that is exactly what TrustedHousesitters is offering travelers.
If you've arrived here with no idea about house sitting, then let us explain. Simply put, house sitting involves a home owner leaving their property, possessions and pets while they go off on their own travels.
To ensure their home and pets are safe and protected, they find responsible people to live in the home rent free. This creates peace of mind for homeowners, and amazing travel experiences for house sitters. Trustedhousesitters provides a platform for home owners to safely connect with house sitters that they can trust in their homes.
For homeowners, there are the added benefits of saving on pet boarding and the reassurance of knowing their pets are being cared for by other pet lovers in their own home, while following their familiar routines.
House sitting is a great way for travelers to get free accommodation around the world, while being able to live in beautiful houses and look after cute pets. Sometimes you can get paid to house sit, on top of the free accommodation. So, it can be a great way to help you make money while you travel.
It is a win-win situation for everyone involved and the ultimate way to live like a local. Below is my trusted house sitters review. I will talk about the pros and cons of being a house sitter and the best way to find house sitting jobs if you are a newbie to TrustedHouseSitters.
How Trusted House Sitters Works
TrustedHousesitters.com is an online marketplace and hub of connection between people who are looking for house and/or pet sitters, and those who want to house and/or pet sit. This website is run as a professional business with a team of 70+ people including a 24/7 customer care team and vet advice line.
TrustedHousesitters is the largest and one of the most well known international house sitting websites. They are a site that operates globally but are particularly strong in the US, UK and Australia. Out of all the house sitting websites online, TrustedHousesitters has the highest number of house sitting jobs available around the world. Trusted house sitters upgraded their platform in 2019 and it is much more user friendly now. Their site has an interactive map which makes searching for house sits around the world much easier. TrustedHousesitters also created an app for smart devices last year, this makes it much easier for homeowners and housesitters to get in contact with each other. It also has the ability to save searches by date, and view past sitter reviews (including those who haven’t chosen to comment).
The site is also a generous resource of information for homeowners and sitters to help them get started, know what to expect, be successful, and share their experiences. Try the Blog, Help Center, Code of Conduct, Member Guidelines and Agreements, and Welcome Guide for more details.
The Cost
Trusted house sitters costs $119 for an Annual Membership Although not all house sitting sites will charge you a fee, there is a cost for trusted house sitters. Their annual membership costs $119 per year, but in my opinion it is definitely worth it. The membership gets you access to more opportunities to live rent free around the world, plus the housesitting opportunities are more reliable and higher quality than competitors of Trusted House Sitters. Although it's more expensive some other house sitting websites, like housecarers.com, the huge choice of housesits will increase your chances of selection, even as a first time house sitter. Homeowners are charged the same rate as house sitters for membership - we think this demonstrates that homeowners are committed to the assignments they list. They are less likely to be "testing" the water, as can sometimes happen on sites free to homeowners. If you are looking for a trusted house sitters discount. There is a “refer a friend” scheme which enables you to get free months by referring friends to the service making your membership more cost effective. So if you have people around you that you know would want to travel the world rent free, tell them to sign up too, and you’ll save more money!
Setting up your profile and applying for your first house sits!
Once you have completed the sign up and become a Trusted House Sitters member. You will need to create your profile page, this allows you to share all the relevant details about yourself that will be shown to home and pet owners when you apply for housesits. Trusted house sitters reviews all homeowners and house sitters through multiple verification levels. This ensures a higher level of safety and security for their members. There are three levels you can attain which adds additional legitimacy to your profile. This helps owners feel more safe and secure because you’re going the extra mile to prove who you are, and that you can be trusted.
Basic you just need confirm your phone number and email address, this is usually one when you create your account.
Standard is the identity and document check.
Enhanced is a criminal background check that costs $20 (they only do one person if you’re a couple).
Tips to making your profile stand out so that you land the best House sits
Your dashboard on the site includes a nice welcome and getting started video when you first join, quick links to your inbox and verifications, a collection of your guidelines and forms, info on your upcoming sits (with a countdown, tips, and Welcome Guide request), list of your previous sits, thumbnail of your profile (with edit link and completion progress bar), your offer to Refer-a-Friend and earn free months, link to the 24/hr Vet Advice Line, and offers to pet care and travel services.
Create a warm and friendly welcoming descriptive tagline.
Upload up to 13 photos, and one video, plus set a feature image. Look to add some pictures of you with animals if you have any. Home owners love to see these.
Fill out all your basic details so Home owners get a better idea bout who you are: name/s, age/s, occupation/s, location, indicate if you’re traveling solo or as a couple, whether you have previous house sitting experience, the month you joined as a member, and if you have connected to their 24/7 Vet Advice Line.
A bio that’s divided into three sections: a short description about yourself, why you want to house sit, and your experience as a house or pet sitter.
Indicate if you have any experience with animals and list the different types of animals you have experience with.
Set your availability which will display on a calendar.
A list of your preferred countries.
A list of any external references you received. There are three types: house/pet sitting, character, and landlord. (Once you’ve received feedback from a sit you completed it will display above your references as an actual referral.)
Your verification status — Basic, Standard, or Enhanced.
Once you have completed a few house sits, a timeline and map of your past sits will be listed on your profile. Showing when and where you sat, who you sat for, and your feedback/rating.
Applying for a house sit
It can be a little harder landing a job as a first time house sitter with no reviews on their profile. But don’t worry, we have tips to ensure you land a great house sit in no time. The very best openings are often quite competitive and tend to be filled by veteran house sitters with hundreds of reviews on their profile. Don't let this put you off. Set up mail alerts so that you will be notified every time a housesitting opportunity within your selected parameters gets listed on trustedhousesitters.com. When you get notified for a new house sit, apply to house sits as soon as you can with a personalized message to the homeowner. Talk about why you wanted to apply to their housesitting job and what would make you right for the job. If you spend time creating a stand out profile and apply to sits with fewer applicants (a nice feature is that you can see how many people have applied) in less popular destinations. Then you’ll find it much easier to get accepted to sits early on. References are important and we suggest you start by offering your services to friends and family to get a few reviews under your belt. You can load character references as well to help at the beginning.
What information you will see about the housesitting jobs when they are listed:
Name and location of homeowner
Up to 14 photos of the home, homeowners, and their pets
Dates of available sit/s (with number of applicants for each set of dates)
About you section (divided into: introduction, our home and location, responsibilities and pets)
Tags such as: high-speed wifi, city, house, etc.highlight of animal names, breed, and age
A timeline of previous and upcoming sitters with rating and reviews (where applicable)
An explorable map with their city marked
A button for sitters to apply and/or save to favorites
A button to for sitters to compare flights to the location of the sit
My trusted housesitters review summary:
If you are unsure about whether house sitting is a good fit for you. Here is what I recommend, head the Trustedhousesitters.com and browse all of their incredible house sitting options. It’s completely free to browse through the house sitting assignments. You only have to pay if you want to be able to view the details and apply for the job. If you buy the membership for $120, you will only need to complete one house sit a year to be saving money on accommodation costs. We love how well-designed and helpful the TrustedHousesitters site is. Especially after they upgraded their site and included a mobile app. It can take a little time to learn your way around and take advantage of all the information provided. But once you get the hang of it, it is really easy. I hope this Trusted Housesitters review helped you understand more about house sitting in general, and why trustedhousesitters.com is a great site for landing sitter jobs. If you follow my tips on creating your profile and applying for jobs, then you shouldn’t have any trouble getting picked to house sit in amazing places around the world.
If you want more information about house sitting jobs:
Here is an article which we compare trusted house sitters reviews and housecarers reviews.
Here is an article which we show ways to find free accommodation while you travel
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