House Sitting Europe 2026: How We Saved €24,000 on Rent

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Quick Facts

Platform by Region: The 30-Second Answer

I am writing this from a beach bar in Albania, on the border with Montenegro. Caro is next to me. We are between sits, driving north through the Balkans in our VW T4. Before this, Athens. Before that, Kefalonia. Before that, Italy, then Switzerland. We have driven over 14,000km around Europe in our VW T4 since November 2025, completing five house sits across three countries.

Since June 2023 we have sat in Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Australia. We have a six-month sit in Portugal starting May 2026. At €100 per night, the accommodation we have stayed in free of charge represents over €24,000 in savings.

This guide covers which platforms actually have listings in Europe, which numbers are misleading, and the three platforms we would recommend combining for full European coverage. We did this research ourselves in March 2026, checking each platform directly.

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 Platform Numbers: March 2026

The three platforms that matter for European house sitting are TrustedHouseSitters, Nomador, and MindMyHouse. Together they account for close to 5,400 listings. Every other platform has either minimal European coverage, limited it to the UK, or charges too much for what they provide.

Reality Check: The UK Drives Everything

The most important thing to understand about THS's European numbers is that the UK is doing almost all of the work. Of 4,234 European listings, approximately 3,843 are in the UK: England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. That leaves roughly 391 listings for the rest of continental Europe.

This is not a criticism of THS. The UK has the most developed house sitting culture in the world and the platform reflects that. But if you are planning to sit in France, Italy, Spain, or Eastern Europe and you assume 4,000+ listings means abundant options everywhere. It does not.

Here is every major European country with numbers across all three recommended platforms:

The honest picture for continental Europe looks like this:

Spain's numbers surprised us. With one of the largest expat populations in Europe, we expected far more listings. House sitting culture in southern Europe is growing but has not yet reached the scale of the UK or France.

Reality Check: The Nomador Numbers

Nomador's platform displays figures that can look much larger than the reality for house sitting specifically. The headline number includes "stopovers", a separate category where homeowners host travelling sitters for short overnight stays, which is completely different from a house sit. When you filter to actual house sits only, Nomador's European total is around 1,060, with approximately 970 of those being in France.

That leaves roughly 90 house sits spread across the rest of Europe. Nomador is not a serious competitor to THS outside France. For France itself it is essential: 823 listings compared to THS's 67 is a decisive advantage.

Our Recommendation: browse Nomador free until you find a specific French sit worth applying for, then activate a short-term paid subscription. The three-month plan at €34 is excellent value for a France-focused trip.

The MindMyHouse Discovery

This is the finding from our March 2026 research that surprised us most. MindMyHouse is one of the cheapest house sitting platforms at around $29 per year, and most guides either ignore it or dismiss it as having thin inventory. At the European level that is broadly true. But when you look at the regional breakdown, it tells a different story.

MindMyHouse has 122 European listings covering Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Switzerland, and more. THS still has more listings in most of these countries (around 20 Balkan listings on THS compared to MindMyHouse's 7), but at roughly $29 per year, which is about a third of the price of THS or Nomador, MindMyHouse is a strong value addition. You are not choosing it instead of THS. You are paying roughly what a single coffee costs per month to expand your coverage in regions where every extra listing matters.

At $29 per year, adding MindMyHouse alongside THS costs less than a single night in most European cities. The combined coverage is meaningfully better than either platform alone, particularly if your travel route takes you through central or south-eastern Europe.

Our recommendation: if you use THS as your primary platform, add MindMyHouse. If you are also targeting France, add Nomador. 

If you use our 25% discount on TrustedHouseSitters, THS Standard comes to around $97. Add MindMyHouse at $29 and you are paying $126 total for two platforms with close to 4,400 combined European listings. That is less than two nights of accommodation in most of the cities those sits are in.

Which Platform Combination to Use

For most European sitters, the answer is THS and MindMyHouse. Together they cover the UK comprehensively, provide the best non-French continental coverage, and give you good reach into the Balkans and Switzerland.

If France is part of your travel plans, add Nomador. The 970 French listings make it indispensable there and it is worth activating a paid plan specifically when you have a French sit in mind.

If you are targeting only the UK, THS alone is sufficient. The ~3,960 UK listings represent the largest concentration of house sits in the world for a single country and no other platform adds meaningful coverage on top of that.

Our European Sits: The Real Numbers

Between June 2023 and March 2026 we have completed sits across Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Australia. All European sits were found through TrustedHouseSitters.

Our highest single travel cost across all European sits was the €160 round-trip ferry to Kefalonia. Everything else we were already driving past. That is the financial reality of combining a van with house sitting. Travel costs are ones you pay regardless.

The six-month Portugal sit starting in May 2026 adds 180 nights, pushing our total saved accommodation well past €34,000.

The Switzerland Factor

Switzerland is the most competitive house sitting region in Europe. The homes are exceptional. We stayed in a three-storey chalet in Leysin where nearby properties were renting for €650 a night. The quality draws a lot of applications. Apply with a tailored, owner-focused message and expect to compete seriously.

MindMyHouse has notably good Swiss coverage for its size. If you are targeting Switzerland specifically, checking THS,  Nomador and MindMyHouse gives you the full picture. See our house sitting Switzerland guide for the full breakdown.

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 day. The mille-feuille was exceptional.

France is a country that is quickly capturing our hearts and we are planning a longer stint there. The platform strategy for France is clear: Nomador first for the volume of French listings, THS second for any sits that do appear. For a France-focused trip, Nomador is not optional. See our house sitting France guide.

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 are travelling and pets need looking after. The UK, France, Germany, and the Netherlands drive most of this seasonal pattern.

We check THS daily and apply immediately when something appears in a region we want to visit. Our Kefalonia sit appeared three days before the start date. It was a last-minute listing we jumped on. The habit of checking daily and having a pre-written application template ready is what allows that kind of speed. Our AI application guide covers how to build that template.

Van Life and House Sitting in Europe

Since November 2025 we have driven over 14,000km around Europe in our VW T4. We drive toward places we want to visit and look for sits in that area. Sometimes we find one and sometimes we do not. It is not a schedule, it is a strategy.

Between sits, monthly costs in the van run €1,000–1,200. 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. See our full guide to combining van life and house sitting.

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, two things matter in 2026.

The first is ETIAS. The European Travel Information and Authorisation System is now fully operational and required for entry into the Schengen Area for visa-exempt nationalities. It is not a visa but a pre-travel authorisation, applied for online before you fly. It costs €7, takes minutes to complete, and is valid for three years. If you do not have one you will not board the plane. Apply at the official ETIAS website before booking anything.

The second is the Schengen 90/180 day rule. Visa-exempt travellers are limited to 90 days inside the Schengen Area in any rolling 180-day window. This catches people out on longer sits. A six-month sit in Portugal, for example, sits entirely within the Schengen Area. If you are not an EU citizen you cannot legally stay for six months on a standard tourist entry. To do a sit of that length you need a longer-stay visa such as Portugal's D7 passive income visa or the Digital Nomad visa. Both allow stays beyond 90 days and are applied for before arrival.

Caro holds a European passport and has no restriction. Our Portugal sit works straightforwardly for her. Non-EU sitters planning any single sit or combined sits exceeding 90 days in a 180-day window need to check their visa position before confirming. Our house sitting legal issues guide covers the framework in more detail.

Practical Notes for European Sits

Almost all of our European sits have been with English-speaking homeowners. German and Dutch homeowners communicate in English without exception in our experience. The exception is France, where Nomador listings are sometimes in French. Caro handles our German-language sits. Our Portugal sit starting in May is entirely in German.

We use N26 as our primary travel bank for zero foreign transaction fees and built-in travel insurance, with Revolut as a backup. Crossing multiple currencies across a single trip makes fee-free banking meaningful.

On incidents: across our European sits we have broken glasses in Bochum and Switzerland, snapped an Ikea knife handle in Italy, blocked a €1,500 coffee machine in Switzerland on day two, and melted fuses in Kefalonia. Not one homeowner charged us anything. The rule that has worked every time: message within 30 minutes, be transparent, offer to replace or reimburse. Every single response has been to not worry about it. See our guide to property damage during a sit for the full approach.

Browse Before You Pay

This is the step most guides skip, and it is probably the most practically useful advice in this article.

Every major house sitting platform allows you to browse listings without creating an account or paying anything. Go to the platform website, click "view listings" or "find a sit," search your target country or city 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, Nomador, and MindMyHouse for your target countries. Count the listings. Check the locations. Look at the kinds of sits available. The country-by-country table above tells you the numbers, but browsing the actual listings tells you something no table can: whether the sits available right now are actually somewhere you want to be, with animals you are comfortable with, at dates that work for you.

The right moment to pay for a membership is when you find a specific sit you want to apply for, not before. A sit that catches your attention is the signal. At that point, sign up, apply, and your membership is immediately working for you rather than sitting unused.

The one exception is House Carers, 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.

The numbers for European house sitting are clear once you strip out the UK from THS's total and the stopovers from Nomador's count. Continental Europe outside the UK and France is a growing but still thin market. The sits are there and we have found excellent ones across nine countries. You just need the right combination of platforms and a profile worth choosing.

THS and MindMyHouse together cover most of Europe well. Add 3 months with Nomador for France. Use our 25% THS discount and the total cost of all three is under €160 for the year. A single night in most European cities costs more than that.

Build a strong profile before you apply. The two tools we use are our AI profile guide and our AI application guide. That investment in your profile is what makes everything else work.

DM us @housesittersguide on Instagram. We answer everyone.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

  TrustedHouseSitters for most of Europe, Nomador for France, and MindMyHouse as a valuable addition for both. THS has 4,234 European listings as of March 2026, with ~3,843 in the UK. Nomador has ~1,070 European sits with 823 in France. MindMyHouse has 122 European listings across Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Switzerland and more at around $29/year.

• Is Nomador better than TrustedHouseSitters in Europe?

  Only for France. Nomador has 823 French listings compared to THS's 67. Outside France, THS has significantly more European coverage. For any multi-country European trip, THS is the primary platform and Nomador is a France-specific addition.

• Which European country has the most house sitting opportunities?

  The UK by a very wide margin. Of THS's 4,236 European listings, approximately 3,960 are in the UK. France is second, where Nomador has ~970 listings. Every other European country has a small fraction of either figure.

• Why is MindMyHouse worth considering for Europe?

  Because of its price-to-coverage ratio. At around $29 per year, roughly a third of THS's cost, MindMyHouse adds 122 European listings covering Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, and Switzerland. THS still has more listings in each of those countries, but MindMyHouse's marginal cost is so low that adding it is a no-brainer for any sitter targeting continental Europe. The combined cost of THS discounted at 25% and MindMyHouse is still less than two nights of accommodation in any of the cities those sits are in.

• Is house sitting in Switzerland competitive?

  Very. Switzerland produces exceptional sits. We stayed in a three-storey chalet in Cries near Mont Blanc where nearby rentals were €650 per night. That quality draws strong competition. Apply with a tailored, homeowner-focused message and expect to work for it. See our house sitting Switzerland guide for the full approach.

• Is Eastern Europe worth targeting for house sits?

  Not yet. As of March 2026, Eastern Europe from Turkey to Slovenia has under 15 total listings across all platforms. Budget accommodation in Eastern Europe is cheap enough that house sitting does not offer the same financial advantage as in Western Europe. MindMyHouse has the best Balkan coverage of any platform but even there the numbers are low.

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

  In practice, no. Almost all THS listings and homeowner communication happen in English, even in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. France is the exception. Some Nomador listings are in French. The majority of our European sits have been with English-speaking homeowners regardless of country.

• When are there the most European house sitting opportunities?

  Around school holiday periods. Easter, summer (June to August), October half-term, and Christmas produce the largest listing spikes as homeowners travel. Check daily and apply fast. Our Kefalonia sit appeared three days before the start date. That opportunity goes to whoever is watching the platform regularly.

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