House Sitting Europe 2026: Best Platforms by Country and Region

Home > Blog > House Sitting Europe 2026: Best Platforms by Country and Region

This is not immigration or legal advice. We are not immigration lawyers or licensed advisors. The information in this article is based on our own research and experience, and immigration and visa rules change frequently and vary by nationality, country, and individual circumstances. Always confirm current requirements directly with the relevant embassy, consulate, or a qualified immigration professional before you travel.

TrustedHouseSitters and Nomador are the two essential platforms for house sitting in Europe. Neither dominates the continent as a whole. THS owns the UK. Nomador owns France and French-speaking Europe. Outside those strongholds their numbers are surprisingly comparable, and which one you start with should depend entirely on where you plan to sit. The house sitting market across Europe is growing faster than at any point in its history. If you build a strong profile and apply with a genuine message, you are in a better position than you probably think.

I wrote the first version of this article from a beach bar in Albania, on the border with Montenegro, between our Kefalonia and French sits. We are now mid-way through a six-month sit in Portugal, one cat, four chickens, German-speaking owners, a view I still cannot quite believe is real.

We have completed 20 house sits across 12 countries since June 2023, driven over 19,000km around Europe in our 1998 VW T4, and saved over €24,000 in accommodation across our European sits alone.

The platform that anchors most of our sits is TrustedHouseSitters. A 25% discount on membership is available here. But THS is not the only answer for Europe, and for some routes it is not even the primary one.

For specific countries, see our dedicated guides on house sitting in France, house sitting in Switzerland, house sitting in the UK, house sitting in London, and house sitting in Portugal.

The Two Platforms That Actually Matter in Europe

Most guides position TrustedHouseSitters as the clear European leader. The real picture is more nuanced and worth understanding before you spend money on a membership.

THS's European listings are dominated by the UK. That leaves a much smaller number for the entirety of continental Europe.

Nomador has strong continental coverage in a way that THS's is not once you remove the UK from the equation. The majority of Nomador's listings concentrate in France and French-speaking countries, but across continental Europe the two platforms are genuine equals in many countries.

The honest conclusion is this. For a UK-focused trip, THS dominates by a wide margin and there is no close competitor. For a continental European trip, Nomador and THS are genuine equals, and in several key countries Nomador has more listings. For France or French-speaking Europe specifically, Nomador is the primary platform without question.

Neither is better than the other across Europe as a whole. They serve different parts of the market. Which one you start with should depend on where you are going.

Platform by Region: The Direct Answer

The Verified Listing Numbers

Every figure below was verified directly on each platform before publishing. Listing counts change regularly, sometimes significantly within weeks. Always browse free on any platform before joining to see what is currently available in your target region.

A few things stand out when you look at this table honestly.

France is the clearest case of platform dominance anywhere in Europe. The gap between Nomador and THS in France is not close, as the table above shows. If France is your destination, Nomador is where you start.

Belgium follows the same pattern. Nomador's Belgian listing count reflects its strength across Francophone Europe as a whole.

Switzerland is genuinely split. Both platforms are worth browsing before you decide.

Spain is effectively equal between the two platforms, as the table shows.

Portugal is THS's second strongest continental market after Germany. The gap versus Nomador is significant here.

Italy is thin on both major platforms. MindMyHouse's Italian coverage actually matches the combined THS and Nomador total, which the country table above shows clearly.

How to Choose a Platform

The advice here is different from what you will read on most house sitting guides, which tend to recommend joining multiple platforms from the start. My view is that you should choose one platform that suits your situation, build your profile and reviews there, and only consider a second platform when you find a specific listing worth applying for.

Reviews are cumulative. Every sit adds to your profile on that platform. A sitter with 20 reviews in one place is significantly more competitive than a sitter with 5 reviews spread across four different platforms. Building depth on one platform first is the stronger long-term strategy.

Choose based on where you plan to sit.

If you are sitting primarily in the UK, start with TrustedHouseSitters. The listing volume is unmatched. Our TrustedHouseSitters pricing guide covers which plan makes sense at different sitting frequencies.

If you are sitting primarily in France or French-speaking Europe, start with Nomador. The French listing volume makes it the obvious choice. Our Nomador pricing guide covers the plan options in full.

If you are sitting across continental Europe generally, browse both platforms free before paying for either. Whichever has more listings in the specific countries you want to visit is the one to join first.

The right moment to join a second platform is when you find a specific listing there that you want to apply for. Not before. That listing is the signal.

The UK: Why It Drives Everything

The UK has the most developed house sitting culture in the world and THS's European numbers reflect that almost entirely. The vast majority of THS's European listings are in the UK, concentrated in a single country.

If you are sitting in the UK, THS is unambiguously the right platform. House Sitters UK adds further listings from a different subset of homeowners who prefer a UK-only platform. Sign up through this link and use code HSG15 at checkout for 15% off your membership. Using the link and the code together generates a small commission for this site at no extra cost to you. That is what keeps these guides free and the articles coming.

What this means for continental European sitters is that THS's headline European number is misleading if you are not UK-focused. Strip out the UK and THS's continental European presence is significantly smaller than it first appears. Nomador's total European coverage in that context makes it a genuine equal, not a secondary option. Our House Sitters UK guide covers the UK market in full detail.

MindMyHouse: The Case for $29

MindMyHouse has a small global footprint but its European coverage punches above its weight. The community is tight-knit, homeowners are highly engaged, and the applicant-to-listing ratio is significantly lower than on the larger platforms. A new sitter with a strong profile has a genuine shot at a MindMyHouse listing in a way that is harder to achieve on THS or Nomador.

The properties themselves can be exceptional. I have browsed MindMyHouse listings and been genuinely surprised by the quality. High quality homes in good locations that simply are not appearing anywhere else. MindMyHouse is particularly strong in places where THS and Nomador are thin: Italy, Spain, Greece, and the Balkans.

At approximately $29 per year, it costs less than a dinner out. If you find a listing there that you want to apply for, joining is an easy decision. Our MindMyHouse pricing guide covers what the platform offers in full.

The State of the Market: A Gold Rush for Prepared Sitters

You will read online that house sitting in Europe is oversaturated, that you need hundreds of reviews, that competition is fierce and impossible to break into as a newcomer. In my experience across 20 sits and 12 countries, that is simply not accurate.

There are more house sitting listings available across Europe right now than at any point in the platform's history. The market is growing on both sides. More homeowners are discovering house sitting and more sitters are joining. But the available listings are growing faster than the applicant pool in most regions.

If you set up a profile today, make it genuinely good, and apply with a thoughtful message, it would be very unlikely that you did not land a European house sit within the first couple of weeks. The barrier is not competition. It is profile quality and application quality.

Where competition is real is in the most obvious, most desirable locations. A listing in central London, Paris, or a Swiss chalet in ski season will attract experienced applicants with strong review counts. If you are new, avoid those markets first. Not because those sits are out of reach eventually, but because there are so many excellent listings in less contested markets where your profile has a genuine chance right now.

Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, rural France, regional UK, these markets are accessible for a new sitter who approaches them properly. Start there, build your reviews, and the more competitive listings become achievable quickly.

If you are struggling to land sits, the answer is almost always in your application message rather than your review count. Before you apply for anything, read our house sitting profile guide. A strong profile is the single highest-leverage investment you can make in your house sitting career.

Our European Sits: The Real Numbers

Between June 2023 and now Caro and I have completed sits across Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Portugal. All were found through TrustedHouseSitters.

The highest single travel cost across all our European sits was the €160 round-trip ferry to Kefalonia. Everything else we were already driving past in the T4.

The Athens sit stands out in a way the numbers do not capture. We were looking after a French Bulldog and I loved every single moment of it. That dog took my heart. The homeowners were wonderful, the connection was immediate, and the whole sit felt like spending time with friends rather than fulfilling an agreement. The best sits are always the ones where you have a genuine connection with the homeowners. When you go into a sit as a friend rather than a transaction, everything changes.

The current Portugal sit is in a category of its own. I did not expect to be living in paradise. One of the most incredible views I have ever experienced, time to work and think and exist without the logistical noise that travel usually involves, and pets and a home that Caro and I genuinely care about. We feel at home here in a way that no hotel or Airbnb has ever produced.

And these experiences are not rare. Caro recently looked at a five-month sit in Annecy, France. These kinds of listings are appearing all the time across Europe. Long sits, beautiful homes, genuine connections with people who need someone they can trust.

The Switzerland Factor

Switzerland is the most competitive house sitting region in continental Europe. The homes are exceptional. We stayed in a three-storey chalet in Leysin where nearby properties were renting for €650 per night. That quality attracts serious applicants.

What makes Switzerland interesting from a platform perspective is that it is one of the few continental European countries where THS and Nomador are genuinely comparable, as the country table above shows. Browse both before applying. Apply with a tailored, homeowner-focused message. Generic applications do not work in a market this competitive.

See our full house sitting Switzerland guide for the complete approach.

The France Opportunity

Our one-month sit in Lullin in the French Alps was one of the sits we talk about most. Two outdoor cats, a traditional mountain house, views across the Alps, twenty minutes from Lake Geneva. We hiked, swam in the lakes, and found a patisserie in the village we visited every single day.

France is a country that is quickly capturing our hearts. The platform strategy for France is the clearest of any European country. Nomador first, for its dominant French listing volume. THS as a secondary option for the smaller number of French listings that appear there.

Anyone treating THS as their primary French platform is missing the majority of the market. Our house sitting France guide covers everything including regional breakdown and what to expect from French homeowners.

Van Life and House Sitting in Europe

Since November 2025 Caro and I have driven over 19,000km around Europe in our 1998 VW T4. The rhythm of van life between sits is something that is hard to describe until you have lived it.

We wake up in the morning, take down the blinds, rearrange the bed, and make coffee. Some days are slow, exploring a town or sitting somewhere to work for a few hours. Some days are long drives with exploration peppered in between. When we drove from France to Portugal, we had bigger driving days, but we still found time to stop and take things in. It is not about the driving. It is about the experience along the way.

Between sits, monthly costs in the van run around €1,000 to €1,200 per person. During a house sit that drops to roughly €250 for a full two-week period covering food and fuel only. The combination makes long-term European travel affordable in a way that neither approach achieves alone.

If a sit ever falls through, the van means we are never stranded. We adapt the route and keep moving. That flexibility is the strongest argument for any serious long-term European sitter having their own vehicle. See our full guide to combining van life and house sitting.

Seasonality: When to Find the Most Sits

European listing volumes follow school holiday calendars. Easter, summer, October half-term, and Christmas produce the largest spikes as homeowners travel and pets need looking after. The UK, France, Germany, and the Netherlands drive most of this seasonal pattern.

Check THS or Nomador daily during these windows and apply immediately when something appears in a region you want to visit. Our Kefalonia sit appeared three days before the start date. That opportunity goes to whoever is watching the platform regularly and has their application ready to go. Our house sitting application guide covers how to build a template that lets you apply in minutes rather than starting from scratch every time.

The Human Side: Why House Sitting in Europe Is Different

I have stayed in hotels, Airbnbs, hostels, and my own places across 60 countries and nine countries of actual residence. I have run my own hostel. After enough of them, they all start looking the same. That is not an exaggeration. One Airbnb blurs into the next. The walls, the kitchen, the bed. You are a guest passing through a space designed for guests passing through.

Every house sit has character. Every single one has something about it that is entirely different from anywhere else. You are not staying in accommodation. You are living in someone's home, with their things, their pets, their rhythm. You wake up in the morning and look after the pets, which gives your day a structure and meaning that a hotel check-out never does.

It slows you down in the best possible way. And because it slows you down, you actually experience the place you are in rather than moving through it.

I cannot imagine travelling any other way now. Every now and then Caro and I will stay in a hotel or Airbnb when it is the most practical option. But house sitting has changed our relationship with travel entirely. Once you hit those two or three sits that shift your perspective about a country or a way of life, there is just no going back.

Practical Notes for European Sits

Almost all of our European sits have been with English-speaking homeowners. German, Dutch, and Austrian homeowners communicate in English without exception in our experience. France is the exception, where Nomador listings are sometimes in French. Our current Portugal sit is conducted entirely in German between Caro and the homeowners.

Things break. This is worth knowing before your first sit. Across our European sits we have broken glasses, snapped a knife handle, and blocked a coffee machine on day two of a Swiss sit. Not one homeowner charged us anything. In Switzerland, when Caro opened a cupboard and two glasses fell out, she messaged the homeowner immediately to apologise and offer to replace them. The homeowner wrote back laughing, saying the wife broke a six-pack every few months so not to worry. That joking, warm response is representative of every incident we have had.

The rule that has worked every time: message within 30 minutes, be transparent, offer to replace or reimburse. The response is almost always to not worry about it. For anything more serious, our guide on what to do if something goes wrong during a house sit covers the full approach.

We use N26 as our primary travel bank for zero foreign transaction fees across European currencies, with a backup card always available separately.

Visa Practicalities for Non-EU Sitters

If you are travelling to Europe on a passport from a visa-exempt country such as the USA, UK, Canada, or Australia, three things matter right now and in the months ahead.

ETIAS: Not yet live

The European Travel Information and Authorisation System has not launched at the time of writing. The confirmed timeline from the official EU source is a Q4 2026 launch, meaning October, November, or December 2026, with a six-month transition period before strict mandatory enforcement begins around April 2027.

ETIAS is not a visa. It is a pre-travel online authorisation costing €7 for adults aged 18 to 70, valid for three years, and covering all 30 ETIAS countries. When it launches, the only legitimate application portal will be at an official europa.eu domain. Any website currently accepting ETIAS applications is fraudulent. No action is required right now.

EES: Already live

The Entry/Exit System launched in April 2026, replacing passport stamping at Schengen borders. Border officers now register biometrics on entry and exit. No action required from travellers, but every entry and exit is digitally recorded, making the 90/180 day Schengen rule precisely enforceable in a way it never was with stamps.

The 90/180 Day Schengen Rule

Visa-exempt travellers are limited to 90 days inside the Schengen Area in any rolling 180-day period. For house sitters doing back-to-back sits across multiple European countries, this adds up faster than expected. Caro's German passport and my Polish passport cover us entirely as EU citizens. Non-EU sitters planning sits exceeding 90 days in a 180-day window need to address this before confirming anything.

Longer Stays: Digital Nomad Visas

All figures are approximate and change regularly. Always verify directly with the relevant government or consulate before applying. Our digital nomad visas and house sitting guide covers how these visas interact with house sitting arrangements specifically. Our what to tell customs when house sitting abroad guide covers border questions for house sitters in general.

Browse Before You Pay

Every major house sitting platform allows you to browse listings without creating an account or paying anything. Go to the platform website, browse your target country on the map, and you can see exactly what is available right now. No email address required. No membership needed.

Do this before you pay for anything.

Spend twenty minutes browsing TrustedHouseSitters and Nomador for your target countries. Look at what is available, what the sits involve, and whether the dates and locations work for you. The verified listing table above tells you the numbers, but browsing the actual listings tells you something no table can: whether the sits available right now are in places you actually want to be.

The right moment to pay for a membership is when you find a specific sit you want to apply for. Not before. That sit is the signal.

The one exception is HouseCarers, which requires sign-up before browsing. For all others including TrustedHouseSitters, Nomador, and MindMyHouse, free browsing is available from the homepage with no registration needed.

Conclusion

Europe is one of the best house sitting markets in the world right now. The listings are there. The homeowners are genuine. The experiences available, from a French Alps chalet to a Portuguese farmhouse with a sea view to a flat in Athens with a French Bulldog who will take your heart, are the kind that change how you think about travel permanently.

The platform question is simpler than most guides make it. THS for the UK. Nomador for France. Either for most of the rest of continental Europe. MindMyHouse as a $29 addition when you find a listing there worth applying for. Browse free first. Pay when you find something specific.

And if you are worried about competition, stop. Build a profile that genuinely represents who you are, apply with a message that speaks directly to the homeowner's situation, and start with listings in regions where the competition is lower. The rest follows from there.

Have you done a European house sit, or are you planning your first one? Drop your experience or questions in the comments below. I read every one.

Caro and I have completed 20 house sits across 12 countries, driven 19,000km across Europe in our 1998 VW T4, and saved over $26,500 in accommodation costs over three years of house sitting. If you have questions about house sitting in Europe, send us a message on Instagram, we read every DM.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the best platform for house sitting in Europe?

  It depends on where you are going. TrustedHouseSitters leads the UK by a wide margin. Nomador dominates France and French-speaking Europe. Outside those strongholds the two platforms are comparable in most countries. Browse both free before deciding which to join. The verified listing table in this article shows the current numbers by country.

• Is Nomador better than TrustedHouseSitters in Europe?

  For France, yes by a significant margin, as the country table shows. For French-speaking Belgium and parts of Switzerland, Nomador also leads. For the UK, Germany, Portugal, and the Netherlands, THS leads. For most other European countries they are roughly comparable. Neither is better across Europe as a whole.

• Which European country has the most house sitting opportunities?

  The UK, by a very wide margin. France is second, led by Nomador. Every other European country has a fraction of either figure. See the verified listing table for current numbers across each country.

• Is house sitting in Europe competitive for new sitters?

  Less than you probably think. The most sought-after sits in major cities attract strong applications. But the broader European market has more listings available than at any point in its history. A new sitter with a well-built profile and a genuine application message has a strong chance of landing a sit quickly, particularly in Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, and regional UK. Read our house sitting profile guide before applying for anything.

• Is MindMyHouse worth it for European house sitting?

  At approximately $29 per year, yes. The community is tight-knit with lower applicant-to-listing ratios than THS or Nomador. It is particularly strong in Italy, Spain, Greece, and the Balkans where the major platforms are thin. Browse it free first. If you find a listing you want to apply for, the membership cost is trivial. Our MindMyHouse pricing guide covers the platform in full.

• Do I need to speak another language to house sit in Europe?

  In practice, no. Almost all THS and Nomador listings and homeowner communication happen in English, even in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. France is the exception where some Nomador listings are in French.

• When are there the most European house sitting opportunities?

  Around school holiday periods. Easter, summer, October half-term, and Christmas produce the largest listing spikes. Check your preferred platform daily and apply fast when something appears.

• Do I need a car to house sit in Europe?

  Outside major cities it helps significantly. Many European sits are in rural or semi-rural areas that are not practical to reach without transport. We drive our 1998 VW T4 to every European sit, which also gives us the flexibility to bridge between locations and never be stranded if a sit changes at short notice.

• What is ETIAS and do I need it for European house sitting?

  ETIAS is a pre-travel online authorisation system for visa-exempt nationals travelling to the Schengen Area. It has not launched at the time of writing. The confirmed timeline is Q4 2026 with mandatory enforcement beginning around April 2027. No action is required right now. When it launches, apply only through official europa.eu domains.

Related Guides