Hello!
Just wondering if anyone has been approached to do a house sit abroad and if so, did you pay for the travel expenses or did the HO?
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Hi Tweetybirdand welcome.
No I have never been approached to sit abroad although I have sat in France, Spain and US. I have always paid my own fare and any other travel expenses and would never expect a pet owner to do so. It’s a mutual exchange. No money for travel or looking after the pets and home is involved. That would change the whole ethos of the experience.
Good luck on finding what you are looking for.
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Hi Elsie,
thanks so much for the reply. I understand what you’re saying. If I was looking for a house sit abroad I would pay for my travel expenses too but I was approached by a HO living in Dubai (which is the other side of the world) to look after their animals with a week’s notice! I would have been tempted but it’s a lot of money to get there. So I turned it down but just wondered if anyone else had had a similar experience.
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@tweetybird We have been approached a few times to sit in a country that we were currently sitting in (we’re full-time sitters) cause it is convenient for owners, especially with Covid, that sitters are already in the country.
We’ve never been approached for sits let’s say in France when we were in Spain for example.
I don’t think it makes sense for the owners to provide transportation costs to sitters abroad. There is so much competition for sits, that in 99.9% of the cases they’ll find somebody who’s closer.
I have been approached but it never worked out for timing. In this case, if the only issue was cost of flights, I probably would have said I’ll consider it if you cover all transport fees. Then let them decide from there. I think it’s a fair request for a situation you would otherwise have not applied for.
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Thanks for the advice and yeah I think that sounds fair too. I’ll know for the next time! 
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I mean, the worst they can do is say no. So you’re not really losing out. Best case scenario you get to go somewhere you otherwise wouldn’t on someone else’s dime. I feel it’s a win-win.
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Hm, that does not seem to be the case right now.
Hi tweetybird, Yes I was approached earlier this year to do a house sit in central America somewhere. Looked a nice location but I declined purely due to the current situation and uncertainty. Did not want to pay out for expensive fairs and then find unable to travel. I did do a lovely six weeks one in Australia about three years ago though, which I had applied for, And yes I paid all my own fares but did get free use of their car for the entire six weeks.