Has anyone ever used a house sitter (and would you?)

[Feetuptime]

We’re going away in the autumn for 10 days and by then our adult child will have moved out.

We have an elderly dog and cat and I know they’ll be really upset by their routine if we send the dog to stay with DS or have someone in to feed DCat etc, they both like to have people around or they get angsty and go off their food etc.

We’ve a large comfortable, modern house in a nice area, about 20 minutes from our capital city and 15 minutes from the coast with woodland and nice walks in the area.

Has anyone ever had a house sitter? I’ve looked at House sitter’s UK but I’m just a little nervous about it all - after all you have complete strangers just living in your house.

Any experiences please?

Yes, a few times. Some through Trusted House Sitters (no payment involved. The sitter(s) stay in your home in exchange for taking care of your pets & tidying up after themselves). Others have been paid (found through Rover, Pawshake etc, and one recommended by a colleague) £30 to £40 per night.

All very nice. No appreciable difference in care between paid and unpaid/exchange.

Our dog sitter stayed while we were away last summer. Worked brilliantly, just gutted she got booked up really quickly and we missed out for this summer!

PILs use Trusted House Sitters for their 3 dogs. Never had a problem.

DH’s uncle and aunt are sitters on that site. They use it as a way of exploring the UK now they’re retired. Lovely people and I would expect they’re typical.

I've used Trusted Housesitters as well. I got lucky and have managed to get the same person back for repeat visits as it worked so well or us.

I have known a couple of people who are house sitters. Both very trustworthy.

I’m hugely tempted to use them for our two cats next time we go away. When I looked at one of the decent sites there were loads of people who you could immediately see why they’d want to house sit - that site had a lot of young couples who were living with parents to save for a deposit, for example. For someone reason I feel like I need to understand why they are doing it as that somehow seems a bit safer. Good to hear other people have good experiences.

I think people do it to save money, get a change of scene, live somewhere nicer than their own house, or because they like animals.