Haussitting - a new way to relax and travel

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you want to see new countries, love animals and don't mind watering your flowers a couple of times a week, you should try haussitting.

What is haussitting

In general, house sitting is part of what is called the sharing economy. This is a very young and at the same time successful market model, in which people want not only to own something, but also to share their property or their skills and talents. According to this model, entire industries arise where a complete lack of monetization is possible. After all, we receive any service not for money, but not free of charge either: the service is offered in exchange for the service. This is where the success of haussitting is based.

The rules, at first glance, are simple: the owner invites you to look after his house in his absence, for which he provides you with accommodation in this house for free.

Classic house-sitting is taking care of real estate, from which the owners have left for a long time, for example for the summer.

But what has really allowed haussitting to grow into a separate industry is looking after pets and plants that can't follow their owners and stay in or around the house.

The service has turned out to be extremely popular with haussitters and takes different, sometimes unusual, forms: caring for a vineyard or orchard on the territory of the house; caring for exotic animals and birds, not to mention ducks, rabbits and horses; suggestions not only to look after the house, but also to fix something there, and so on.

As a phenomenon, haussitting originated in English-speaking countries and is still most developed in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. This is an important fact, since a prerequisite for a haussitter is knowledge of foreign languages, at least English.

How it works

There are many sites on the Internet where you can find out who and on what conditions invites you to look after their dachas, farms and apartments (the most famous sites will be discussed below).

Viewing vacancies is open to everyone, but only registered members can contact the hosts. The registration system is different for all sites. Where it is stricter, the trust of the owners is higher, which means that you will find more interesting ads there.

To register on popular sites, the haussitter typically provides the site moderators in the form of scans of the following information:

• identification;
• driver's license;
• telephone or electricity bill (to confirm residence);
• bank account details (at the time of payment for membership).

Sometimes the owners ask for a police clearance certificate. All this, of course, guarantees the reliability and decency of the future haussitter.

Usually, when a potential house-sitter responds to an ad he likes, the answer is sent via the website's internal mail to the owner of the house. The latter then compares the resumes and ratings of all candidates in order to select the best one and contact him.

From that moment on, the householder and the householder are free to communicate with each other as they wish and discuss the details and conditions of the upcoming house sitting using a variety of means of communication.

There can be many conditions, especially if animal supervision is required.

In general, the responsible owner will always leave the haussitter with detailed instructions for the house, contacts of veterinarians, medical records of animals, a list of the nearest stores, a transport scheme - in general, all the useful information. He may also offer to conclude a contract to guarantee the rights and obligations of the two parties.

Haussitter arrives at his destination, receives the keys and final instructions from the owner, meets the pets and remains in charge of the house. As we have already said, the duration of haussitting varies from 2-3 weekends to 4-6 months. Typically, hosts will ask them to regularly update them by email or phone on how things are going. For many, the norm is one email per week, but there are also owners who communicate with their cats and dogs every day.

When the owner returns home, the haussitter gives him the keys and says goodbye to the animals. The host's subsequent feedback on the haussitter usually appears online and becomes an important point on the haussitter's resume. Thanks to this feedback and recommendation system, community members communicate with each other with greater confidence and can quickly select candidates.

Expenses

Whatever the site, in order to access its classifieds database and contact homeowners, you must register on it and pay an initial membership fee to use the site.

The term and amount vary from 25 euros per quarter to 150 euros per year.

If you pay, say, € 100 for an annual membership and devote one month to haussitting, you will have a separate house at the cost of about 3.5 € per day. Of course, no hostel, no cheap hostel can offer you such a price for such conditions.

At the same time, it is better to soberly understand that, as in any trip, the costs will still be: for the road, for the purchase of food and, if the stay is long, for electricity and water. The last point is discussed separately between the owner and the haussitter, but, as a rule, the responsible haussitter offers to pay for his share himself.

Where to look

TrustedHousesitters.com

Membership cost:95 euros per year.

The largest site is TrustedHousesitters.com. This is a British startup that appeared in 2010 and quickly became the industry leader with more than 1,500 offers from 130 countries every month.

Excellent design, user-friendly interface, the ability to quickly and competently create your own page: a presentation of a house (for owners) or a resume (for house-sitters). Importantly, in the same account, a person can both offer haussitting services and place an ad about their home. It is easy to track the popularity and relevance of each ad (visitors can see how many haussitters have applied for it). The site has a regular mailing of new offers and a convenient personal account.

TrustedHousesitters.com →

HouseCarers

Membership cost:45 euros per year.

A site with a solid reputation, which has been trusted by owners from many countries since 2000 (especially Australia and New Zealand, where it was developed). The approval of many travel bloggers is understandable: the cost of membership is low, and the quality of the options presented is very high. The HouseCarers database has more than 1,000 points around the world, the growth is active and amounts to 300 ads per month.

HouseCarers →

MindMyHouse

Membership cost:20 euros per year.

A bit primitive design, and the personal account leaves a lot to be desired. But there are some really interesting proposals. Growth - about 100 new ads per month. Since MindMyHouse has a small base (about 270 ads), the competition between house-sitters is lower. Another plus: very cheap membership for haussitters, and registration is free for owners.

MindMyHouse →

Nomador

Membership cost: 89 euros per year.

The site's working language is English, but it is a French startup and is aimed at a French-speaking audience: most of its ads are for France or for French-speaking owners around the world. Opened quite recently, but very successfully competes with more experienced players. It has easy navigation and, which makes the search especially enjoyable, the successful use of infographics: with the help of icons, the size and type of the house is shown, which animals will need to be looked after, what is the infrastructure around the house, and so on.

Nomador →

There are other sites, let's say, national, that specialize in a particular region or country, and also simply enjoy the trust of its citizens (who may have property in various countries of the world). It's impossible to list them all, but here are a few worth taking a look at:

• USA: Luxury Housesitting, Housesitters America.
• United Kingdom: Mindahome, Housesitters UK, Housesitters.
• Australia: Kiwi Housesitters.

Pros and cons

Per

With the arguments for, everything seems to be clear. A home with a soul is unlike any luxury hotel, package tour or beachfront hotel. When you practice haussitting, you get a unique chance to get to know both local customs and people. Often, haussitting becomes the beginning of a wonderful friendship, people converge closer and begin to be friends at home.

It is also a great opportunity to immerse yourself in the language and life of another country, and not as a tourist, but as a researcher - leisurely, thoughtfully and with pleasure. In addition, more often than not, animals will be in the house with you, which makes the rest of any self-respecting haussitter truly complete.

Against

Logistics

A wonderful house with a garden in which you dream of spending two months may be at a decent distance from a supermarket, shops, bakery. And without the demands of the owner, it is clear that for a normal life in this house, you must be able to drive a car and, perhaps, even come on it.

Further, the hosts, of course, will want to spend some time with you before they leave, in order to explain and show everything. So, there is a chance that they will have to arrive the day before (if they are going to leave the house early in the morning, going on a plane). But the owners will not always offer to spend the night with them, in which case it will be necessary to take care of the hotel. The same is true if the owners return home late, but want you to be with the animals until they arrive.

Duration

Most often it is seasonal housekeeping for a long time. The only exception will be megalopolises, where the services of haussitters are used more often, but not for long. Theoretically, many dream of living in a house by the sea in the summer, but rare lucky ones have the opportunity to organize it. Own home, work, family, pets - think, if in your case haussitting easily and painlessly complements this list, you are definitely ready for it.

Insurance

In general, insurers welcome haussitting: statistics show that fires, robberies, and problems with the infrastructure of a house occur less often if someone lives there permanently. But when you are considering doing house sitting abroad, check with the owner if his property insurance supports this option. If this is not a problem for the local haussitter (usually local insurance companies meet each other halfway), then the foreigner should be protected by the owner's insurance.

Planning

Haussitting is not renting an apartment or booking a hotel room. It's impossible to snap your fingers and make a decision at the last minute. To find and get an opportunity for a unique vacation, a haussitter is ready to monitor sites, communicate with people, and pass interviews. In addition, demand exceeds supply, the human factor is unpredictable and unknown, this time they will choose you or someone else.

You need either a lot of luck to become a haussitter exactly where and when you wanted it, or the ability to flexibly adapt to a proposal that interests you. But if you know this from the very beginning and prepare responsibly for haussitting, then there will be no disappointment.