Last Updated on July 21, 2025 by Masha
This review of Trusted Housesitters is brutally honest and balanced. We have read some reviews of the program that were glowing – and we get that. But it isn’t for everyone. Here, we share the amazing experiences we had, the not so great one and what you need to look out for to make your stay exactly what you want it to be.
How do you figure that out? Well, we share a set of questions that you need to ask yourself and the prospective house/pet owners. These questions will help you understand if this program is right for you.
In addition, we share a 25% Trusted Housesitters discount code which will make the cheapest plan be under $100 USD for a full annual membership of unlimited home sits.
You can also apply this code: BLZ32HH744 if you are stacking other deals. If you do use our link we will also get a 25% discount for our next membership.
How we started House sitting
It has been 8 years since Rob and I have become nomads. We don’t miss the house or our stuff. However, each and every day we miss our beloved dog Fozzie. Fozz passed away during our first year of being nomads, while we were taking him on a tour of North America. He was almost 13 yrs old.
Since then, I became the crazed person running after dogs being walked, so that I could steal a cuddle. And feeding, rescuing, bathing and snuggling abandoned and homeless dogs and cats. Basically any furry out and about. I missed that unconditional love that pets give us!
A close friend was house sitting in Perth and sent us her review of Trusted Housesitters. A sit that she and her husband had just done. They live in Australia and love to get away. She included pictures of the large fluffy dog that they were looking after. The house was a mansion on a cliff overlooking the ocean with a private pool. Yup, you heard that right.
However, even those pictures were not tempting for Rob. All I would hear from him was, “I don’t want a job. We don’t need to do this. We have top status in the top hotel chains! ” And the like. Ugh! I desperately needed the love of a furry.
Well, last September, there were multiple festivals and events in Toronto when we were scheduled to visit. All the top hotel chains, Airbnbs, etc., were sold out and the only available accommodations started at $2,000 USD per night for a shoe box. It was 3 months until our flight there, so Rob agreed to give the program a try.
What it is
At its core, Trusted Housesitters is a global community connecting home and pet owners who need someone to care for their property and beloved animals with trustworthy, verified sitters who are happy to do so in exchange for a free place to stay.
Think of it like a bartering system: instead of money changing hands, the currency is trust and care.
Home Owners/Pet Parents get peace of mind knowing that their pets are happy and safe in their own environment, avoiding the stress and expense of kennels. The home is occupied and cared for.
Sitters get to travel the world, live like a local, and stay in amazing homes.
The platform operates on a subscription model. Both owners and sitters pay an annual membership fee, which then offers unlimited house sits for the year. There are no additional per-night or per-sit fees paid between members. And the annual fee is the price of a moderate hotel room.
What’s cool is that you can check out the program prior to signing up; browsing reviews of Trusted Housesitters for house sitting in Perth or anywhere else in the world to see if this can be a useful travel tool for you as well.
Now, it is imperative to do your research and ask the right questions to get the right people for your home and pet and for a pet sitter to get the right pet to sit! Otherwise the whole thing can end up being a disaster. More on this later.
How Does It Actually Work?
As a prospective pet sitter, the process to enroll does take some time. It took me 4-5 hours to complete.
First you fill out your profile with pictures, attach your Airbnb and LinkedIn profiles and add in documents allowing the organization to do an ID check and a background check. You then send out requests for references – the more you have the better.
Once that is complete and the annual fee is paid, you can start booking your sits. The app is pretty intuitive and easy to use. I had some issues at the beginning trying to figure out how to change a few things on our profile. So I reached out to TH through the chat and immediately got my questions answered.
Our Experiences – The Amazing and the Ugly
We left off telling you about our trip to Toronto. Well, our first sit was an absolute dream. We took care of Ivy, a rescued senior cat in one of the hippest neighborhoods of Toronto, right on the subway line. Ivy was amazing to care for and the house was newly renovated and just gorgeous.
Rob was in his happy place, having a home to himself while I would go and visit my parents just a few subway stops away. Ivy would cuddle with him and then with me when I returned. Rob was hooked.
However, during our second sit in San Diego we failed miserably. We did not ask the right questions and ended up with an apartment that was a 45 minute drive to anywhere we would want to go (the listing said 15 minutes to downtown). The home owner messed up the dates on the app and requested us to come 2 days earlier which put a wrench in our other plans.
The dog was a 130 lb lug of a dude who we immediately fell in love with. But he was a rescued 1 year old who was just realizing his size and had tremendous separation anxiety. We only left him once for about 3.5 hours and when we returned he had eaten half of the house.
Did I mention that the home owner wanted us to sleep on a blow up mattress on the floor with the pooch?
Since that time, we have been asking a set of questions that have guaranteed us amazing stays. Some of these have been a sit with a bunny in downtown London England, many dog and cat sits in mid town Toronto (including an award winning home) and stays with dogs in the poshest neighborhoods of Vancouver.
Questions to Ask: Is Trusted Housesitters Right for You?
Part of our review of Trusted Housesitters is asking the right questions and digging into reviews to get the full picture.
In addition, there are some sits on the platform that are listed as NEW. Therefore they don’t have any real reviews of Trusted Housesitters. These are just reviews of friends. And this goes both ways.
So, in some ways it is like booking an Airbnb that has zero reviews. You just don’t know what you are going to get. For us, the only situation when a NEW listing bit us in the butt was the one in San Diego. And we could have avoided the issue by asking the right questions.
As an ex-executive who did interviews for a living, these are the key questions we compiled:
- To break the ice: what do you love the most about your pet and even though your pet is adorable, what annoys you about your pet?
- What is the desired schedule for your pet? Because if they need 3-5 walks a day, this may not be your desired schedule and can feel more like a job!
- Do they need any kind of special care like medications?
- For dogs – how are they with other dogs or with strangers on the street? Do they get along or do we need to keep them apart? Has there ever been a time when the pet had an issue with another pet or person?
- How is the pet with noises? Is there anything that can trigger them? We know some cats that have attacked their own owners at the sound of a high pitched noise – seriously our friend had to go to the hospital a couple of times for life threatening infections!
- When was the last time that your pet had an accident in the house? What happened?
- Are there issues with the home that we need to know about? When was the last time that there was an issue with “X”? Fill in the blank regarding whatever is important to you. E.g. wifi, hot water, electricity, etc.,
- Can you tell us the approximate cross streets that you are near?
- Is there any construction happening around your house?
- Where will I/we sleep and what will we have access to?
Remember, past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. So asking these questions will give you the best insight into what may happen.
Also read the reviews carefully. Folks usually writing reviews of Trusted Housesitters don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings – so the truth is sometimes buried a bit deeper in the review. If there is anything that you read that gives you pause, make sure to ask about it in the first interview/meet up.
Lastly, if you are on a tight travel schedule and barely have time to get everything packed into your busy itinerary, then adding the responsibility of taking care of a pet is probably not for you. We only pick house sits in places where we know that we will spend an extended period of time so that there are plenty of hours per day to love and take care of a pet.
Trusted Housesitters Discount Code for 25% Off
If you do decide to give this program a go, then consider using our Trusted Housesitters discount code to get 25% off your first year membership by using the link above. Or you can stack a few deals (if you find them – like the Capital One portal) with our discount code: BLZ32HH744.
Wrap Up: Review of Trusted Housesitters
This program has been fabulous for us! Especially as we slow down our pace. We have been using it in many parts of the world – not only to stay in gorgeous homes, but mostly to cuddle with dogs, cats and even bunnies to get our “furry” fix!
Literally for the price of one night in a hotel we have unlimited annual access to house sits in many parts of the world! And if we ask the right questions, we are almost guaranteed to have a great sit.
Hopefully our honest review of Trusted Housesitters has helped you decide if this travel tool is right for you. Or perhaps you have some questions about it? Please do reach out in the comments and let us know about your experiences.