These Women Make A Living By Petsitting Around The World; Here's How They Got Into It
BuzzFeed
·11 min read
I live for travel hacks — especially when they involve saving money. So, when I heard about a couple of women who have managed to stay around the world for free, my ears perked up.
I'm a travel writer, and over the course of a month, two women reached out to me — one on Instagram and one via email. Both shared how they've traveled the world without paying for lodging.
Meet Kristina Corniel and Madolline Gourley. Both spoke with me about how they travel the world without paying for lodging, what to watch out for, and a few handy tips for anyone who might be thinking about trying something similar.
1.Their secret? You must like — no, love — pets. Or at least be up for housesitting.
2.In addition to providing sitters with free lodging, pet and house sitting also helps cut other costs — like car rentals, airport transfers, and food.
3.To start, build a profile on a pet sitting site. According to both Corniel and Gourley, TrustedHousesitters is the best.
4.It's probably best to pick one site and stick with it, because a big part of finding gigs is building up reviews.
5.But, if you're new, you might want to start by picking up shorter, local pet sitting gigs so you can quickly and easily accumulate your first few reviews.
6.Another way to prove you're credible is by using your online reputation from other sites — like your Airbnb, TaskRabbit, or Uber profile — or even social media.
7.The site may run a background check and ask for external references to make sure you're legit.
Since you'll be watching peoples' fur babies in their home, some sites, like TrustedHousesitters, will run a background check and ask for external references.
8.That said, pet sitting experience is not required.
9.And for your own safety, always read the reviews of the pet owners, chat with them, and even hop on a video call. In some cases, you may never see them in person. Other times, you might meet them before and after the sit.
10.One secret to avoiding any problems is to carefully follow the routine the pets are used to.
11.And make sure you're comfortable with the number and type of pets you'll be tasked with watching.
12.If you're traveling internationally, you might want to look for longer sits — at least 2 weeks. The sweet spot for domestic sits is a week+.
15.It might be worth it to look for a sit that's close to downtown — especially if you don't have access to a car.
16.In addition to taking you to new places, you'll get the scoop on local recommendations and have an "in" with the community.
17.If you're planning to sit internationally, it's worth noting that house sitting can be interpreted as work by border control, which can lead to problems.
Sits in other countries can be a bit more complicated, as chances are you're not legally allowed to work in the country you're visiting. And even though you're not getting paid, the exchange of housing for your services can be seen as "payment in kind" by border officials.
According to a blog post on TrustedHousesitters, "In the many hundreds of thousands of international sits that have taken place on TrustedHousesitters, there have been a very small handful of cases where house sitting has been interpreted as work by border control officials."
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