@Cat-ophile, this is a great point.
We find that Schengen area listings are posted only weeks from sit date, where many UK/North America listings are posted multiple months in advance.
This fact - coupled with limited quantity of sits and broad geographic area - reinforces need for atypical creativity and openness. If someone wants to visit a specific city in Schengen area via housesitting then we’d suggest that they take a deep breath as highly unlikely to occur.
All entirely valid. We’ve actually never sat for Brits in any of those locations bar one couple and one half of a Swiss couple so they were a miss mash of RSA, USA, Dutch, Swiss & German. They almost all had rescues or covid velcro dogs hence the sitting need. #theplotthickens
Yep, I echo many of these comments. If you are interested in the UK you should be able to find sits especially if you are going to be renting a car and can get around. Sits in France, Spain, Portugal (especially Portugal), Greece, Italy are very competitive and hard to land especially if you have very few reviews. We have “saved” many listings and even then by the time we get the notification that they are seeking sitters, it’s already hit max applications. So frustrating. Many sits are listed only a few weeks ahead, sometimes even less! We’ve done UK, Netherlands, several in France, Malta, Spain, Switzerland and the UK (we are based in the US) but tried for Greece and Portugal for months and never managed to get one.
BTW, @em03 just a minor tip - we don’t call them pet sitting “jobs” on this platform. No one is paid so we avoid that term completely because it’s important that pet/home owners do not see sitters as employees and important sitters don’t see HO’s as their boss. It’s a bartering system - a respectful exchange.
Good Luck!
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The network, like friends and family, definately play a role.
As does the fact that some people/cultures are less open to hand over their homes to strangers and there is the language barrier in some places…
But for Balkans and Eastern Europe I know first hand, that the price is a bit steep.
Esecially when in some places you can get someone to check on your cat and feed them for less than 10 euro a day. I know it’s not the same in terms of care, but for a lot of people here the budget matters.
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