Housesitting: the perfect travel job?
Palm trees in Koh Samui. Photo: Chi King / Flickr
Here’s the deal: free housing, living in a beautiful island and some fun work. Oh, and the boss is far away and can’t micromanage you. Sound too good to be true? That’s what Meg and Tony of the Landing Standing blog experienced in their post titled Housesitting in Thailand: live for free in paradise.
Meg described the setup here:
For 4 weeks, we were housesitting on the beautiful Thai island of Koh Samui. The house itself was a luxury villa/mansion perched on top of a peninsula on the Northeast side of the island that boasted panoramic views of the Gulf of Thailand from every room in the house.
. . . Not one but TWO swimming pools, a jacuzzi, a full gym, a media room, a Snooker room, a pool-side bar and entertainment system…. The list goes on! This place was over the top and we were so excited to be spending the month there!
Sounds like something out of the TV show “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”
By now you’re wondering how to get in on this. Meg helpfully explains what website she used and the process of connecting with the house owners. She also stressed that this type of luxury situation might not be the typical housesitting experience.
A Canadian girl I knew had a ninja tip to share: read up on your competition. Check out the profiles of other prospective housesitters. Pick up tricks on how to write a warm, personable profile that attracts house owners. Learn the right things to say that build up trust and rapport that gets people to give you the keys.
Have you ever done housesitting? Please share your stories in the comments.
December 5th, 2012 at 9:49 am
Have never done any housesitting, but have been giving it some serious consideration of late! Thanks for the profile tips…if I do venture out this year, I will have to be accepted first! Plenty to think about!
December 10th, 2012 at 6:17 am
Hi Sarah – I’m in UK house sitting too also through http://www.trustedhousesitters.com! It’s not five star but then neither were the hotels i could afford. I’m in ‘cornwall not too far from the beach – it’s freezing but the days have been really clear and sunny. I’ve enjoyed walking the dog on the local beaches and have found it really easy to meet people with a dog in tow – so much so I’ve been invited for Xmas lunch by a family down the road from where I’m sitting – it’s given me the chance to become more like local and really get to see the real England rather than being just another tourist. Can’t recommend it enough. Have also secured my 2nd sit in Italy early next year – cats and chickens this time, can’t wait! Who’d of thought!
December 10th, 2012 at 10:53 am
Since we’ve started traveling ‘full time’ in 2010, we have done housesits all over the world – Malaysia, Thailand, Italy, Germany, the U.S., Canada, Costa Rica and Mexico – and we’re about to start a housesit in Santiago de Chile tomorrow. We find that housesitting is perfect if you are running an online business while traveling – we have our own space, which is most of the time much more luxurious than the hotel rooms we can afford, the internet is usually reliable and we have pets who keep us entertained 🙂 It’s a great way to travel and get to stay in places for a longer period of time.
December 10th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
My first house sit was in Newcastle on Tyne England. As I had applied for lots of sits before I landed this one I asked the owner what made him choose me. He said he only had about 4-5 replies and he decided on me.. So not many to choose from!! I had been applying for places everyone would want to go to so the advertisers were inundated in many cases, and by the time they received my reply they had virtually chosen someone. That first one is crucial in order to get a reference to validate what you say about yourself.
Since then…last June…I have had 6 weeks in San Diego and in a weeks time I’m flying to Cairns, Australia to sit for six weeks. W have skyped and they said they would be quite happy for my family to come and stay!
All this through Trusted house sitters. Happy Christmas everyone, and happy house sitting.