How to Get Free Accommodation Around the World

It is no secret that after transportation, accommodations are the most expensive part of traveling. It can cost a fortune just to book a hotel that you will use for only a few hours a day for sleeping. For long-term travel, staying in a hotel every night is just not possible. That is why I love housesitting with Trustedhousesitters.

What is Trustedhousesitters? It is a website and app that connects people who need their house watched while they are away with travelers who need a place to stay. It is similar to AirBnB, except the houses often have cats or dogs that need to be taken care of and in exchange you get free accommodation.

How does it work? To become a sitter on Trustedhousesitters you need to pay an annual fee of $119.00 USD per year. That is basically the same price as one night in a hotel! Once you become a member, you complete some identification verification steps and then you can start applying for house sits anywhere around the world.

Where can I house sit? You can house sit all over the world, but their most popular locations are United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia, France and Canada!

Our Experience. Trustedhousesitters has enabled us to keep traveling on a tight budget and get to hang out with dogs while we are away! We have housesat twice so far on our trip around the world. Once in a suburb of Brisbane, Australia and then another time in a suburb of Sydney, Australia. We did each of these housesits for 10 days, and they both had one dog to take care of. We had a great experience in both! The owners of each house were so kind, welcoming and wanting you and their dog to both have a great experience. We would normally wake up, take the dog for a walk, then go explore the surrounding area, get back to the house, walk the dog again and make dinner for a relaxing evening. I am excited to keep using this great website for future housesits!

Like everything in life, there are good and bad parts to this type of accommodation.

The Positives

• You save a lot of money because you are not paying for accommodation, which means you have more to spend on activities.
• You get to meet locals because you’re staying in neighborhoods.
• Having a home to come back to is much more comfortable than going back to a hotel or hostel.
• Having a full kitchen to cook your own meals and save even more money.
• If you are full-time traveling like us, it is a nice time to be able to fully unpack, have good internet and relax for more than a couple of days.
• There are literally housesits for all types of durations of time. If you need a few days, a few weeks or a few months, there will be housesitting options available to you!

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  Occy, the dog we watched in our first housesit in Brisbane, Australia

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  The house we watched for 10 days near Brisbane, Australia

Some Downsides

• Less time for doing all of the touristy things because you have responsibilities of taking care of the pets.
• Some locations are competitive for sitters. You may have to apply to a lot of different housesits before you’re chosen. For example, in Sydney when we were looking, some applications had 20+ applicants already for a sit near Bondi Beach. Prime locations are more difficult to get, but normally there are enough sits to go around!

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  Marly, looking at other dogs in the second housesit near Sydney, Australia
  

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  Home for our second housesit near Sydney, Australia

In the end, TrustedHousesitters has enabled us to save a lot of money, hang out with some fun dogs and get to know areas we are traveling better. I really would recommend it to people who would like to travel longer and not break their budget.

Want 25% off your membership? Click here to sign up for Trustedhousesitters. Or you can put RAF244731 in the promo code section at checkout to receive 25% off your annual membership.

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