TrustedHousesitters Review: 4 Years, 35 Sits, $65K+ Saved

We're Ryan and Fabio, a couple who generally travels full-time, and we've been house sitting through TrustedHousesitters since 2022. That's 35 reviews on the site, from Rome to Durango, Colorado. We first estimated our savings at about $50,000 in 2024, and this time we went through every sit in our app history to work it out properly (the full breakdown is below).

This review comes strictly from the sitter side. We've never listed our own home or hired a sitter, so what you're getting is what it's like to turn up at a stranger's front door and be handed a leash.

The short version: the saved-search alerts are the feature we'd miss most, and we pay for Premium because of a new booking fee and a cancellation claim that actually paid out.

What Is TrustedHousesitters?

TrustedHousesitters is a membership platform that matches pet owners who are traveling with sitters who'll look after their home and animals. No money changes hands for the stay itself. You look after the pets and the house, and you live in an actual home instead of paying for a hotel or an Airbnb.

It started in the UK, which is why you'll find so many sits in London and around the country. But there are listings worldwide, and we've sat in Europe, North Africa and the US.

Quick note on perspective: we only know the sitter side. If you're the one with the pet and you're wondering whether to trust a stranger with your home, our other site, The Best Sitters, has a pet owner's take on it.

How We Got Into House Sitting

It started with a friend in the UK. She was just beginning her entrepreneurial journey, living with her parents in Brighton, but spending weeks at a time bumping around London doing house sits and saving loads of money. I struggled to believe it was real, so I pushed the thought away for a while.

Then, a few months later, I met Fabio. He was actually doing a house sit in Berlin when we first met. Not through TrustedHousesitters, but it planted the seed again.

We signed up on a whim. Fabio had gone back to Cologne after his sit and I was living with housemates, and I wanted some privacy for when he came to visit instead of squeezing him into a shared apartment.

Getting started was not instant. We applied to about 8 sits before landing one: a last-minute week in Berlin. It did exactly what I'd hoped it would. And once we had that very first review, getting the next sits was really no problem.

By November 2026 we've built up 35 reviews on the site, and the sits have taken us all over including:

• Rabat, Morocco (23 nights)
• Rome (a month each summer, with one of those found through the app)
• Milan
• London (3 sits, 80 nights on the app)
• Bristol (50 nights)
• Plymouth
• New York City and Philadelphia
• Mykonos

We even planned a whole USA road trip around whether we could find house sits. We found 10 across the country and ended up in some really cool places. In fact, we only spent $504 in accommodations over 3 months of road tripping (thanks to TrustedHousesitters), which we break down in this video:

We've never looked back, and we renew our membership every year.

How TrustedHousesitters Works: The Sitter Flow

Here's the whole thing, quickly. One step at a time.

1. Sign Up and Pick a Plan

You join as a sitter and choose Basic, Standard or Premium. We'll break the differences down in the pricing section, but the short version is that the plan decides whether you get saved-search alerts and whether you pay a booking fee on each sit.

2. Build Your Profile

This is your pitch. We're registered together as a couple, we're open about that, and we show who we are with photos and a personal bio. Complete the ID and background checks too, because owners are handing you the keys to their home, and they want to see that you're real.

You won't have reviews. That's normal at the start, and it's the toughest part of the whole process. One thing that helps: you can add references to your profile. You send a link to someone who knows your character, like a person you've pet or house sat for outside the site, or someone close to you, and they vouch for you. It builds trust with owners when you apply for your first sits. We cover more in the cons below.

3. Search, Filter and Save

You filter by place and dates, and by the type of pet you'd like to look after. There's also a smart filter that lets you exclude places, so you can search for Europe but leave out the UK, for example. That's much better than the old version of the site.

Once you've got a search you like, save it. TrustedHousesitters will send a notification when a matching sit goes live. We'll talk about why that matters so much in a minute.

4. Apply

You send a message to the homeowner explaining why you're a good fit for their home and pets. For popular sits, owners only accept 5 applications at first, so you need to be quick. If none of the 5 are right, the owner often relists the sit almost immediately, and you get a second shot.

5. The Video Call

If an owner likes your application, they'll usually set up a call. This is where you find out whether you click. In our experience, if the vibe is good on the call, the sit goes well.

6. Confirm and Go

Once you and the owner agree, you confirm the sit on the platform. If you're on Basic or Standard, the booking fee gets charged at this point. Premium members skip it. Then you show up, meet the pets and the home, and take over.

TrustedHousesitters Pricing (and Why We Pay for Premium)

Here's what the membership plans look like right now, based on the pricing pages we checked in November 2026. Prices and perks change, so double-check before you buy.

The membership looks expensive at first glance. It isn't once you actually sit. For us, it pays for itself in a sit or two, depending on how long the sit is.

Not sure yet? There's a Money Back Promise. New members get a full refund if they cancel within 14 days of joining, provided they haven't confirmed a sit. View the full terms of the Money Back Promise.

Why We Pay for Premium

We're on Premium, and we're finding it more and more necessary. Here's why.

1. The Booking Fee Is Annoying (Premium Waives It)

There's now a booking fee every time you secure a sit if you're not on Premium: £9, or about $12 (here's TrustedHousesitters' own announcement). I'll be honest, it feels a bit scammy to pay a fee on top of a membership you've already paid for.

Premium waives it. The maths is simple. Premium costs $90 more than Standard, and Standard charges $12 per sit, so once you're past about 8 sits a year, Premium is cheaper on fees alone. Compared to Basic, the gap is $130, or about 11 sits. We've done 35 sits in just over 4 years, which averages out to around 8 a year (it's ranged from 3 in a quiet year to 14 in a busy one), so on fees alone it's roughly break-even for us. The cancellation plan below is what tips it. If you only do a few sits a year, Standard is probably the better deal.

2. The Sit Cancellation Plan Actually Works

This is the one that sold me. I was really nervous about it when we first needed it, but if you follow all the terms, it works.

Here's what happened. We were visiting my sister in California and lined up a sit a few miles down the road, because her house was full of kids and the rest of my family. Then, the day before the sit (on Christmas, no less), the owner cancelled.

We could have stayed longer at my sister's, but we decided to try the insurance. So we:

1. Contacted TrustedHousesitters and told them what had happened.
2. Booked an Airbnb not far from the original sit and paid for it upfront.
3. Filed the claim almost immediately, with all the information they needed.

The claim took a while to process, and I think I had to follow up once. But they did pay it back.

A few honest caveats:

• There's a deductible. Ours was $150 out of pocket.
• Like all insurance, you have to follow the terms closely. Read the policy before you need it.
• It still felt worth it. It actually worked, and we had a relaxing place to retreat to for a few days instead of the sit.

3. The Airport Lounge Passes Are a Bonus

Premium includes 2 global airport lounge passes. We'll be upfront: we've forgotten to use them two years in a row. We get lounge access other ways, mostly because we're Diamond members on Trip.com from booking so many hotels through them. So think of the passes as a nice extra, not a reason to upgrade.

What We Love After 4 Years

Filtering Is So Much Better Than It Used To Be

The search has come a long way since we joined in 2022. My favorite addition is the smart filter that lets you exclude places. Want Europe but not the UK? One filter and every UK listing disappears, so you're not scrolling past sits you don't want.

Push Notifications Are the Feature We'd Miss Most

This is the feature we lean on most. When we have a time period, a place and a type of sit in mind, we filter a search and save it. The moment a matching sit goes live, we get a notification and we're quick to apply.

That speed matters because popular sits only take 5 applications at first. Being one of those 5 is a lot easier when your phone buzzes the second the sit goes live. It's also why Standard or Premium is worth having, since Basic doesn't include instant alerts.

It Takes Us to Places We'd Never Normally See

The US road trip is the best example. We built the trip around finding sits, and TrustedHousesitters put us in:

• Durango, Colorado: a dog sit while I juggled my full-time remote job (and where I decided to switch affiliate networks, which turned into our Travelpayouts review)
• Bernalillo, New Mexico
• Falling Waters, West Virginia

We would probably never have gone to any of these places on our own. They really expanded our horizons, and that's something you don't get from booking a hotel in the obvious city.

The Pets Are So Cute

Seriously. And you get to have a pet for a little while without actually having a pet, which is my kind of travel. You get the cuddles and the walks, and then you hand them back and carry on with your trip.

Some of our favorites: the dog in Durango, the two ragdoll cats we looked after in Wandsworth, and the cats we hung out with in summer 2023, when we paid $0 in rent for 2 months across Berlin and London. Then there was the Great Pyrenees in the video above.

The Homes Can Be Super Nice

Not just the pets, the places too. One of our sits in Maryland was utterly massive. We stayed in a cute bungalow with the epic beach view in Mykonos. And our high-ceiling apartment in Rome was just perfect.

We've only had a few places we didn't love entirely. Most of them have so much character, and you get to live like a local in a real home with a real kitchen, instead of squeezing into a hotel room.

You End Up Close With the Owners

Sometimes you become quite close with the people whose homes you look after. The best example is Rome. We do a sit there every summer (see our full Rome guide), and the host is now an excellent friend. Arriving in Rome now feels like visiting a friend.

It's Quite LGBTQ+ Friendly

In all fairness, TrustedHousesitters has been quite LGBTQ+ friendly for us. (We've also covered it in our guide to booking LGBTQ+ friendly accommodation.) We're open on our profile about being a couple.

If a host is presumably homophobic, they generally just reject our application without saying anything. It stings a little, but it happens. BUT when someone wants to jump on a call or accept us for a sit, they've been super kind and inclusive people. Every sit we've landed has felt safe and welcoming.

The Hosts Are Generally Lovely

We've had such nice hosts, almost every time. I think if you vibe with someone on the video call, you're going to have a good experience, and that's how it's played out for us. We've rarely had an issue with an owner.

What Annoys Us

It's Not Easy to Get Started

It isn't always easy to get going, especially when you don't have any reviews on the app. Owners are choosing who to hand their keys to, and a profile with no reviews is a harder sell. It took us about 8 applications to land our first sit.

If you're starting out with no reviews, add references to your profile. You give a link to someone who can speak to your character, like someone you've sat for before outside the site, or someone you're close to. It helps build trust from the owner's side when you apply for your first sits.

That's also why we wrote a guide to getting your first sit, based on our own experience.

You Don't Have Much Time to Apply

When an owner posts a sit, you have very little time to apply for high-demand ones, because they only accept 5 applications at first. A lot of owners relist super fast if none of those 5 meet their criteria, so don't write a sit off just because the first window closed.

It's a Lot of Responsibility

Don't think of this solely as a holiday, because you have to take care of pets (and a home). We've definitely had times where we thought "we should actually be paid for this", because there was a lot of work involved. At the end of a sit, we generally clean quite a lot too, which can be stressful.

But there have been plenty of chill sits as well. It's an exchange, and you have to go in treating it like one.

The App Is a Bit Buggy

It's so much better than it used to be. The form used to empty halfway through, and I can't tell you how maddening that was. There are still a few bugs, but nothing like before.

The Reviews Are Sometimes Skewed

It isn't always easy to tell whether a sit will be a good fit. Something has happened on the app where people aren't always honest about the nature of the sit, and I think they're afraid to give less than 5 stars in every category. So sometimes expectations don't meet reality. That's happened to us a few times.

You do get better at it, though. Read the description closely, read through the reviews, and you start to be able to tell a good sit from a rough one.

The Membership Fee

It seems expensive at first glance. But you really get so much out of it after just one sit. For us, it pays for itself in a sit or two, depending on how long the sit is.

The Booking Fee

If you're not on Premium, you pay £9 (about $12) every time you confirm a sit. It's a big reason we're on Premium, and we break the maths down in the pricing section.

Real Results: What 4 Years Saved Us

We first estimated our savings at about $50,000 back in 2024. This time we did it properly, going through our entire sit history in the app, adding up the nights, and multiplying by what we'd realistically have paid for a private apartment or hotel for two in each place.

Here's the result: 35 sits and 475 nights on the app, worth about $58,000. We've also done the Rome sit two more times off the app. Assuming about a month each, that's another 60 nights and roughly $9,000, which brings us to over $65,000.

A few notes on how we calculated this:

• Nights and dates come straight from our TrustedHousesitters "past sits" page. The rates are our estimates, not receipts, and we tried to keep them conservative.
• Rome off the app is an assumption. We counted 2 sits at about 30 nights each.
• It's not net of membership costs. We pay a membership of a few hundred dollars a year, plus booking fees before Premium.

Our sit count by year, for context: 5 in 2022, 14 in 2023 (the road trip year), 7 in 2024, 3 in 2025 and 6 in 2026.

Who Should (and Shouldn't) Use TrustedHousesitters

It's for you if:

• You're after an alternative kind of holiday, since sits can be as short as a few days
• You like to travel slowly and stay somewhere for weeks (or months) at a time
• You work remotely and can fit a pet's routine around your day
• You love animals but don't want to own one right now
• You want to live in expensive cities like London or Rome without paying rent
• You're a couple who's comfortable being upfront on your profile

It might not be the best fit if:

• You want a holiday with zero responsibility, since there's always pet care involved
• You need to lock in exact dates and destinations far in advance
• You're not up for building your first few reviews, which takes some patience

FAQ

Final Verdict

TrustedHousesitters isn't free money. It's work, it takes time to get your first sit (it took us about 8 applications), and the app still has its glitches.

But after 4 years, 35 sits, over $65,000 in saved accommodation, a Roman host who became a friend and trips to places like Durango and Falling Waters that we'd never have planned, we've never looked back. We renew every year. If you'll do more than 8 sits a year, get Premium. If you're only dipping your toe in, Standard is fine.

Use code FABRYK25 for 25% off an annual membership, and grab our first house sit guide so you don't have to learn the hard way.