Smart Travel Edit

I’m writing this from the office of a 19th-century château, looking out over an infinity pool and across the Gaillac wine valley in the south of France.

I have two dogs curled up beneath the marble fireplace in their beds after a morning walk through the property’s vineyards. There’s a farmhouse table loaded with cheese, and a vineyard reservation waiting for us this evening.

Sounds like a French countryside retreat, doesn’t it?

It is exactly that.

But the best bit?

We haven’t paid a penny for our accommodation.

We’re housesitting.

And as I sit here, glass of French wine in hand and two very contented dogs at my feet, I’m wondering why more people don’t travel this way.

Could housesitting genuinely be a better alternative to Airbnb for certain types of travellers?!

So, What Exactly Is Housesitting?

Housesitting is pretty much what it says on the tin: looking after someone’s home and, usually, their pets while they’re away.

In return, you get to stay in their home without paying for accommodation.

Simple, right?

Well, there is a little more to it than that.

We discovered housesitting as hosts back in 2022 through TrustedHousesitters. For almost five years, we’ve invited people into our own home whenever we’ve gone away — from weekends and mini breaks to longer family holidays.

It’s allowed us to travel regularly without the planning, worry or expense of putting our much-loved Golden Retriever into kennels.

Only in 2026 did we decide to flip the arrangement and become house sitters ourselves.

And every time we do it, we kick ourselves that we didn’t start sooner.

We have now housesat in Wales as well as France, so this isn’t our first experience of staying in someone else’s home. But our French housesit is on another level entirely.

This time, it means six days in a French château near Toulouse, looking after two dogs and getting to experience France in a way we probably wouldn’t have done on a conventional holiday.

Not as tourists, but as temporary residents.

And that, I’ve discovered, is one of the biggest attractions of housesitting.

How Does Housesitting Work?

We use a website called TrustedHousesitters, which connects people who need someone to look after their pets and homes with people looking for somewhere to stay.

There is an annual membership fee, and the plan you choose depends on whether you’re looking to sit, have someone sit for you, or both.

We’re combined members because we do both.

Our current membership costs £239 a year, following an upgrade from the plan we originally joined on. That might sound like a lot at first, but when you consider that we’ve used it both to host sitters at our own home and to find places to stay ourselves, we’ve found it very easy to justify.

Once you’re a member, you can browse housesits around the world and apply for as many as you like.

And trust me when I say you can lose hours to this.

You can search by location, dates and the type of pets you’re happy to look after, and suddenly you’re mentally planning a completely different life.

Ever fancied looking after a dog in the Dordogne? Feeding a donkey in France? Spending a week somewhere you’ve never even heard of?

This is where the dreaming starts.

When you find a sit you’re interested in, you apply. The homeowner then reviews your profile and, usually, arranges a video call before making a decision.

It’s essentially a mutual interview.

They want to know that you’re a responsible person who will look after their home and animals properly. And you want to know that you’re comfortable with the people, pets and expectations involved.

Because housesitting only really works when both sides trust each other.

There can also be additional costs depending on the membership plan. TrustedHousesitters introduced a booking fee for members on applicable plans, while Premium members don’t pay this fee. It’s therefore worth checking the current membership options and costs before joining.

And here’s another little bonus: TrustedHousesitters has a Refer a Friend scheme. If someone joins using my referral link, they receive 25% off their joining membership and I receive two free months of membership.

So, if you’ve read this far and are already thinking “Actually, this sounds right up my street…”, you can join TrustedHousesitters with my referral link and receive 25% off.

Full disclosure: I receive two free months if someone joins through my link. I think it’s only fair to be transparent about that!

Why Did We Decide to Try Housesitting?

For years, I’d been intrigued by the concept of house swapping and housesitting. But I’d never quite had the gumption to sign up.

Until I had a problem that needed solving.

That problem was finding good-quality kennels near home.

One summer, I was faced with a quote of around £700 to kennel our dog for a long holiday.

I nearly spat out my tea.

I love my dog as much as anyone, but the thought of paying the best part of a thousand pounds to have him stay in a kennel, away from his home comforts and with people I didn’t know, just didn’t sit right with me.

Then I discovered TrustedHousesitters.

And the rest is history.

Instead of sending our dog away, we invited someone into our home to look after him while we travelled.

It solved the kennel problem, saved us money and, perhaps unexpectedly, introduced us to an entirely different way of travelling.

From hosting to housesitting

There is something quite funny about the fact that we spent years welcoming house sitters into our own home before ever considering doing the same thing ourselves.

We knew exactly what we wanted from someone looking after our dog and our house — someone trustworthy, respectful and genuinely happy to be there.

So when we eventually decided to try housesitting ourselves, we already understood the arrangement from the other side.

And our first sit was in Wales.

That experience gave us the confidence to try it abroad.

How We Found Our French Housesit

My husband and I try to get away on our own a couple of times a year.

With three children — and a bucket load of expensive hobbies — I’m always looking for creative ways to make that happen without spending a fortune.

It’s not always possible, but for short breaks where we want to escape the rat race, explore somewhere new and work remotely for a few days, housesitting is proving to be a pretty brilliant solution.

I often browse the Trusted Housesitters website and favourite properties that catch my eye.

Sometimes it’s because they’re in an area I’d love to explore. Other times it’s simply because the house looks incredible.

Our French château had been sitting on my favourites list for a while when I was notified that some new dates had become available.

I applied quickly.

A short video call later, and we’d been accepted.

Cue me booking flights and sorting childcare for six days away.

Not quite as simple as clicking “Book Now” on Airbnb!

But that’s also part of the fun.

What Do You Actually Have to Do?

So, what’s the catch?

Well, you’re not getting a free hotel.

You’re exchanging money for responsibility.

While we’re housesitting in France, we’re expected to look after two dogs as if they were our own. We feed them, walk them and keep them to their usual routines as much as possible.

Our hosts are incredibly relaxed and know that we have a Golden Retriever ourselves, so they trust us to use our judgement.

This particular housesit comes with rather more responsibility than most.

We’ve been entrusted with the care of a century-old château, along with an infinity pool, a garage containing three cars, four outbuildings and, of course, the security and general care of the main house.

Oh, and the vineyard.

It’s quite a responsibility, and not one we take lightly.

This is where being housesitting hosts ourselves has been invaluable. Years of having people stay in our own home have made us very aware of the care and attention we expect someone to give our property — so we try to offer exactly the same in return.

To some people, this might sound restrictive.

To us, it works perfectly.

We’ve come here to slow down, spend time together, get some work done, walk the dogs and explore the local wine region.

We’re both business owners, so this is technically a working holiday too.

And there’s something rather lovely about being able to sit at the same table, open our laptops and actually work alongside each other for a few hours without the usual distractions of everyday life.

What It’s Really Like Staying in Someone Else’s Home

Arriving at someone else’s home is very different from arriving at a paid-for Airbnb.

We’re very conscious that we’re here to care for someone else’s property.

Some housesits involve a simple handover. Others involve staying for a meal or spending some time with the owners before they leave.

Our hosts asked if we’d like to join them for dinner when we arrived.

They were leaving at 3am the following morning and wanted someone in the house from the moment they left.

Luckily, we’re pretty relaxed people.

So we spent our first evening drinking limoncello in the drawing room, followed by a long French-style dinner around the century-old kitchen table, getting to know each other and hearing about their lives here.

We were made to feel completely at home.

They even left us gifts of wine from their vineyard.

And honestly?

It was lovely.

It also left me wondering, why don’t more people travel like this?

And perhaps more importantly, why didn’t we start housesitting in our twenties?

In comparison with a hotel, there is no reception desk, no breakfast buffet and no cleaner arriving at 10am.

Instead, you have someone else’s crockery in the kitchen, two dogs waiting for their morning walk and a completely ordinary French neighbourhood outside the front door.

Although, in this particular case, there actually is a cleaner, gardener and vineyard attendant.

I’m not sure that’s representative of the average housesit!

The Unexpected Bonus: Living Like a Local

This, for me, is where housesitting gets really interesting.

If we’d booked a hotel for this trip, we probably would have chosen Toulouse.

Instead, we’re staying in Rabastens, surrounded by vineyards in the Gaillac wine region.

We’re walking the same routes as local dog walkers.

We’re shopping for breakfast in local shops.

We’re visiting the market.

We’re discovering the surrounding villages.

We’re drinking wine produced actually on our doorstep.

And we’re beginning to understand what everyday life in this part of France actually feels like.

We’re not simply visiting France.

For six days, we’re living here.

And I think that’s something you simply can’t buy with an Airbnb booking.

So, How Much Are We Actually Saving?

Of course, housesitting isn’t completely free.

We still had to pay for our flights, hire car, airport parking, food and everything else that comes with a trip abroad.

Our flights from Stansted to Toulouse were just £44 each return, but once everything else is added, the actual cost of the trip is considerably more.

The accommodation, however?

£0.

And that is where the saving can become significant.

A beautiful French château with a pool and vineyard views would not exactly be the cheapest place to book for six nights through a conventional holiday rental site.

Instead, we’ve exchanged accommodation for something that, for us, feels pretty natural anyway: looking after two dogs and treating someone’s home as carefully as we would our own.

Is Housesitting Right For Everyone?

Probably not.

And that’s important to say.

Housesitting could be perfect for you if:

✔ You love animals
✔ You want to travel for less
✔ You like living like a local
✔ You’re happy to take on some responsibility
✔ You don’t need hotel-style service
✔ You’d rather have space than a traditional hotel room
✔ You’re happy to work around pets and their routines
✔ You want to stay somewhere you might never otherwise visit

It might not be for you if:

✘ You want complete freedom to come and go
✘ You don’t want responsibility while travelling
✘ You want a traditional hotel experience
✘ You don’t want to work around pets
✘ You’d rather have someone else deal with the housework, maintenance and unexpected problems

For us, though, the balance is pretty perfect.

So, Is Housesitting the New Airbnb?

I think it might be — for the right kind of traveller.

We’re still relatively new to housesitting ourselves, but having experienced it in Wales and now France, I can already see why people become hooked.

It’s not completely free travel.

It’s not a hotel.

And it’s certainly not a holiday where you can forget about everything and have someone else do all the work.

But if you’re prepared to exchange a little responsibility for the chance to stay somewhere extraordinary, save a significant amount of money and experience a destination from a completely different perspective, I think it’s hard to beat.

As I sit here in this French château, with two dogs asleep beneath the fireplace, vineyards outside the window and a bottle of local wine waiting for this evening, I’m struggling to think of a better way to spend six days in France.

And if this is what travel looks like when you swap an Airbnb for a housesit, I suspect we’ll be doing it again.