Balancing Pet Care and Personal Time: Understanding the Value of Pet Sitting Arrangements

Some pet sitters may think that homeowners are getting a great deal by having someone care for their pets for free, and that we’re saving a lot of money on pet care expenses. However, it’s crucial to recognize that pet sitters are also saving a significant amount by staying in a home for free. When you consider that a hotel can cost around $200 per night, plus the cost of renting a car, the savings are considerable.

This arrangement is designed to be a win-win: the homeowner gets reliable pet care, and the pet sitter enjoys free accommodations. If you’re finding it difficult to balance pet care with time to explore the area, perhaps traditional lodging would be a better choice. Many sitters manage to enjoy their surroundings while still providing excellent care for the pets, effectively balancing both responsibilities.

If a pet sitter plans to be away from the home for extended periods—more than 7 hours at a time during a week-long sit—it could indicate that the pet sitting arrangement isn’t the right fit. The primary responsibility of pet sitting should be the care of the pets, and if a sitter’s schedule doesn’t align with this responsibility, it might be better to seek someone else. It’s about finding a balance where both the pets are well cared for and the sitter can enjoy their stay.

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@mmariapiehl we have done plenty of sits with cats where they are fine to be left all day since that is what their owners do on a typical week day when at work . Cat has a cat flap to access garden . We just needed to be there to feed them and stay overnight. We have also done a THS sit where there were birds in an aviary - once a day we fed them and cleaned the aviary then we could go out for as long as we wanted without the pets being neglected or coming to any harm .( owner worked full time )
We have been invited to a dog sit where the owner left the dogs all day whilst at work so the dogs were used to being left for up to 8 hours .
We have also done THS sits with no pets .

This doesn’t necessarily mean that we are out all day every day on these sits but it does mean that we have the freedom to do so if and when we decide to .

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There is a petsitter/ petsit for everyone, and I hope you find good matches for you and your pet(-s). However - discouraging sitters from taking part in Trusted Housesitters because of your preferences is in my opinion going to far.

As a pet parent through decades all of my pets have been used to and lived quite comfortable with me having a full time occupation and being in our home for a full working day while I’m at work. I know that not everybody would need to combine working at a workplace and having a pet (and might frown on that even) in the same way as I from time to time refrain from petsits because it is described practises that I don’t support or will take part in. But that is easily solved by not applying and leaving that sit to someone who would like it (or the petparent don’t get sitters and would need to evaluate their requirements).

For me personally I spend more money doing petsits and don’t do it for «the savings» - and take on only sits that seem enjoyable. For me «enjoyable» is also exploring the community. For others it could be staying put.

As we speak I’m enjoying couch-time with the feline I met today, and tomorrow he will enjoy naptime when I take a wander.

We will probably never be a match, but I’m sure there are options for both of us!

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In the UK, you don’t generally get a car due to insurance arrangements. You have to pay your own fares to get to wherever you are going, so in return most of us would like to actually be able to go out. Personally I mostly look after cats for that reason, they can be left and mostly are very independent. I certainly wouldn’t apply for anything that was too restricting and the owners very demanding. I do think some owners treat it as an interview and think they are employing staff. I am booked up a year ahead or more with 65 5* reviews

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I have never spent that kind of money on a hotel and I have never rented a car or used a car for petsitting.

For a sitter, there are no savings. Petsitting is a hobby that costs money: the THS fee, and travel.

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I do a mix of renting hotels and renting cars. Whenever hosts talk about saving X hundreds of dollars per day, I laugh, because when I spend hundreds on a hotel room, I pick exactly when and where and I don’t need to adapt to the responsibilities of a sit. My time is entirely my own. I think the dollar figures that hosts put out are deluded for that reason.

Personally, I don’t even sit while vacationing — I sit only when telecommuting, because it takes up time to take care of pets and homes and my time isn’t my own when sitting. That’s why I’ll often rent a hotel room before and/or after sits, so I can explore with freedom.

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I read this a lot. And I agree, but what is the primary responsibilty of hosting a pet sitter?

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More and more I think it would be useful for people on the forums to mention where they are sitting or staying in order to get a grasp on their experience.
For example if someone were to complain that the clothes dryer wasn’t working… well the US is one of the few places in the world one would expect that appliance. Or even wifi connections are not as fast as we’d like in various parts of the world.
Or someone above mentioned never spending over $200 for a hotel. Well, try finding something under $200 in London, or recently I had that experience in the middle of Colorado. Hotels and Air BnBs are so expensive in many parts of the world. But in Australia we recently had some very nice stays for under $100.

Luckily we have the means to provide for ourselves between sits, but I agree that if someone is trying to save money, it isn’t always going to make sense for everyone.

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Same. I’ve been working grinding WFH hours from Europe (working mainly w/ US east coast colleagues) and am very much looking forward to a week off soon with no pet/home care responsibilities.

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I do this also; I will book an Airbnb—especially if I am traveling / flying some where that has a different time zone. I will arrive two days before the start date of the sit to get myself acclimated to the time, weather, etc., explore the area and stay one day after the sit ends.

And as flight delays / cancellations can happen, I try to give myself a little extra cushion.

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@mmariapiehl

I actually agree with what you’ve said, but this is a subject which crops up on a regular basis, and it’s getting tiresome. The root cause of it seems to be peoples’ need to ‘monetise’ the deal. If both parties are happy with what they’re signing up for, the so-called value of accommodation versus petcare is of no relevance whatsoever.

The happiest and most pivotal few months of my life thus far were spent living in a hut with no running water or electricity in the foothills of the Andes. I didn’t have to worry about paying utility bills, council tax, or what to wear each day. Life was slow, and its rewards came in the simplest of forms. The longest I went without seeing humans was three weeks, but I had horses and dogs for companions. Like the advert says, “…for everthing else, there’s Mastercard.”

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I often stay longer. Like I did a sit in London and then spent days in Paris for fun. Then I did a sit elsewhere up the U.K., and afterward spent a few free days visiting another town on my own. Then I spent several days in Dublin, just sightseeing.

On my most recent U.K. sit, I spent several days before and after at a London hotel.

Or when I got a sit in Glasgow, I spent a week in Edinburgh at a hotel beforehand. If I had time after, I would’ve spent more days in a hotel so I could tour the Highlands.

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I think that is an unusual way of looking at pet-sitting. Every sitter I’ve had has been travelling around Australia and pet sitting is a way of reducing accommodation costs, while staying put for a time to catch up with washing, communication, planning etc.

It’s mutually beneficial. They get free accommodation and a car, I get reduced cost pet-sitting. As a retiree with an older dog, I expect the sitter to be at home for most of the time. I leave my dog walker’s details if they need to be away for more than 6 hours.

(It’s a common misconception that the homeowner gets a free service but I’ve come back to enormous electricity bills, broken appliances, a crashed car, ruined sheets and towels - on different occasions. Even when there are no problems, decluttering almost empty goods, buying new pillows, and providing basic welcoming items have a cost.)

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When I want to do that, I can stay at home.

Petsitting is for me a hobby, and it obviously costs some money. It is not something that I want to do full time. I do it when I get bored at home, or when something enticing shows up. Occasionally when someone asks for last-minute help with their pets.

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Not sure if you read my response but hobby pet sitting is unknown in Australia, pet sitters are invariably backpackers, grey nomads, or remote worker-travellers.

BTW most people expect to spend money on their hobbies, at least you are not doing ocean yacht racing.

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Look, I had quoted you.

Obviously I also read your complaints about having to buy new pillows and welcoming gifts.

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Quoting is not understanding - nowhere did I complain.

Homeowners do have costs associated with a sit - that is a simple statement of fact. Hobby housesitters are unknown here - that also is a fact. My experience of many housesitters over many years is that it is a mutually beneficial arrangement and the obligations are not on one side or the other - that also is a fact.

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Nowhere?? I must indeed have problems understanding then.

Australia must be a different kind of country if all sitters are really only doing this to get a roof over their head. But I doubt it. I have some other hobbies too, for example hosting backpackers, couchsurfers etc, and there I recently hosted a retired Australian couple from Canberra, when they cycled through Sweden. They were not dependent on that, they just did that to get more in touch with the country than if they had been staying in a hotel. And then they got on our local radio.

So then I am not going to write in some forum that I had some grey Australian travellers that I hosted and that they should be understanding the value of that more because otherwise they would have had to pay hundreds of dollars for a hotel. No, I just enjoyed their visit. Meeting them at my place “saved” me the cost of travel to Australia.

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" plus the cost of renting a car, the savings are considerable."

I searched for house sits in Europe and got almost 4000 results. I added the filter for ’ encludes a car’ and it came down to 150 listings. Its not like sitters are getting a lot of free cars.

@mmariapiehl

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IMHO As soon as either party “monetises” the value relationship between a sitter and a home owner you have immediately altered your mindset and it’s a slippery slope to not enjoying the experience and frankly isn’t the ethos of the site.

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