Pet sitting as a free and fun alternative to hotels/Airbnb

Sharing a true gem we discovered in 2022, hoping it will inspire more people to consider alternative travel accommodations. #personal #travel

There is a saying: "If you find yourself repeatedly telling something, it's probably a good idea to write it down and share it." So that's what I'm doing with this post.

Last year, my fiancée Kate and I discovered pet sitting, which has become a great alternative for our travel accommodation planning. I’ve already told so many people about it! Have I mentioned how tired I am of Airbnb and hotels? Maybe next time.

But first, let me give you a bit of context:

I was never much of an "animals" person. While I did have a hamster at some point in my childhood, I got bored with it pretty quickly. Although I always wanted a dog, it never happened.

Kate, on the other hand, had a cat (RIP) and enjoyed spending time with him while growing up.

For years now, we've been pondering the idea of getting a dog together — but the freedom of movement and travel was always winning, and we were only able to smirkingly pet animals (mostly dogs) at parties.

Until around the same time last year, Kate saw a random TikTok video — someone shared their fun experience of pet sitting as an alternative to Airbnbs/hotels. They used the TrustedHousesitters app and seemed to enjoy it (this is not sponsored BTW — even after deliberate googling, I haven't found any viable alternatives, so I guess we're lucky there is at least one).

Since at the time we were planning to "nomad" for a few months, we decided to give it a shot and see what options are available — we didn't really care where to go unless it's in the EU. And that's how it began.

Last year, we went on a total of 3 pet sits and can now safely say that they are so much more fun than Airbnb/hotels! 🙂

I know you want pics and cool stories, here they are:

1. Tuscany rural house for ~3 weeks with 3 domesticated street (yet very sweet) dogs

We would have never ever found such an interesting Airbnb in the middle of nowhere. Turns out the house is from the 19th century, and the villagers are actually of communist views (what 🤨).

Fun story: the orange doggie was very shy and loved to jump out the fence when she saw the deer (yes, there were plenty walking around). One day we returned home from the Rome trip, found out that she escaped and needed to search for her with flashlights - in the middle of the field at night. For 2 hours. And using a special trick - taking two other dogs on a walk to make her jealous.

2. Barcelona's apartment for ~3 weeks with 3 funny cats (my first time around a cat for more than an hour!)

We escaped the grey Warsaw and had so much sun! We lived right at the footsteps of the Barcelona's mountain grid, and I went for a hike (200 meters up and down) as the daily routine.

3. Berlin's apartment for ~5 days with 1 Bernese puppy (he was just the perfect size at the time)

Super fun dog, and we walked all over Berlin with him (I think we've visited more places than he's ever been in his prior entire life).

These are all very unique experiences, and pet sitting made them possible.

And if you're curious, here are my brief thoughts on how the platform works:

• Usually, there are a bunch of applicants for each sit, and you need to write nice personalized messages to get approved. Kate has a distinct "sales" pitch draft. Ping me in the comments if you'd like her to share it! One of her friends has already secured and completed her first sit in Copenhagen and has thoroughly enjoyed it.

• What I like about the platform is that they take verifications pretty seriously. We haven't had or heard of an unpleasant experience around the platform — but I guess this is all about the scale. Airbnb is famous for having a few public scandals on the topic as well as the “Alpha team”.

• BTW, this is to give you a perspective about how your profile would look like.

  

• There's only one catch: since the platform needs to make money to stay afloat, it charges both sides of the marketplace. Owners are charged around $190, and sitters around $130. However, considering the savings compared to hotel or Airbnb alternatives, this is a small amount. We've probably saved over $4,800 after just three trips (assuming an average of $100 per night in the cities we've stayed in, which is likely even on the low end).

If you're interested, here's the referral link which will give both of you 25% off your membership and us 2 months of membership for free: https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/refer/RAF532438.

Also, we are currently planning our trips for 2023 (and beyond). If anyone from my network would like to invite us to an interesting place and is willing to host us, please send me a private message (you can use my Telegram if you have it).