House Sitting Without Pets 2026: How to Land the Rarest Sits

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Pet-free sits are the rarest listings in house sitting, under 1% of active listings on every major platform. They disappear within minutes of posting. The sitters who land them consistently are not the ones who search the hardest. They are the ones who are set up to move the moment a listing appears, with the right application ready and the right platforms on alert.

Caro and I have done 20 house sits across 12 countries. Most have involved animals, and we would not have it any other way. But we have watched pet-free sits vanish in real time while drafting a message, and that experience taught us exactly what the process requires. This guide covers where these sits actually live, which platforms have the most of them, and how to position yourself to land one when it appears.

If you are not yet on TrustedHouseSitters, a 25% discount on membership is available here. It carries the most no-pets sits in absolute terms of any global platform.

Pet-Free Sit Availability by Platform (June 2026)

These numbers are from June 2026 and shift regularly, sometimes significantly within a single week. The share percentages are more reliable than raw counts for understanding which platforms prioritise this type of listing. MindMyHouse consistently carries the highest proportion of no-pets sits despite its smaller size.

TrustedHouseSitters is the platform with the most no-pets listings in absolute terms, and you can read our TrustedHouseSitters review for the full picture before joining. THS starts at $129/year for the Basic plan — our TrustedHouseSitters pricing guide covers every plan including the per-sit booking fee. Search any platform without signing up before committing to a membership.

These numbers change daily, treat them as a snapshot, not a forecast. The pattern they confirm is consistent: pet-free sits are never more than a small fraction of any platform's active listings at any given moment, which is exactly why speed matters more than anything else.

We call them the golden tickets of the house sitting world. No feeding schedule on the counter, no morning alarm for the dog walk, no emergency vet number taped to the fridge. Just a set of keys, a list of plants to water, and a city entirely to yourself.

Pet-free sits are rare, genuinely rare, not just "harder to find" rare. At the time of writing there are 11 pet-free sits on TrustedHouseSitters out of over 12,000 active listings. Nomador has 7 out of 1,750. Aussie House Sitters has 13 out of 1,350.. On some platforms the share is under 0.1%. On TrustedHouseSitters and the other major house sitting platforms, the vast majority of listings involve animals — that is the core exchange and why most homeowners post in the first place. But a small and consistent stream of pet-free sits does exist, and we have watched them disappear in real time while drafting an application. The sitter who gets there first with a good message wins. This guide explains why these sits exist, what homeowners actually want from them, and exactly how to position yourself to secure one.

Which Platforms Have a No-Pets Filter?

Not every platform makes it easy to filter for no-pets sits. These are the ones that do and how each one works.

TrustedHouseSitters has a filter available in saved search preferences and it can be set as a permanent alert. Given how fast these 11 sits go, the alert is essential. As soon as a no-pets listing appears you need to be one of the first five applicants. If THS does not have no-pets listings in the region you want, our TrustedHouseSitters alternatives guide covers every other platform worth considering.

Aussie House Sitters has a no-pets filter available in search preferences. Currently the strongest market for no-pets sits in Australia with 13 active listings. Our Aussie House Sitters pricing review covers the platform in full.

Kiwi House Sitters has a filter available. Three active no-pets sits from around 350 total listings. Our Kiwi House Sitters pricing review covers what the platform offers.

MindMyHouse is searchable by pet type and carries the highest proportion of no-pets sits of any platform at 2.80%, nearly 1 in 35 listings. At $29/year it is also the cheapest paid platform on this list.

House Sitters America has no dedicated filter but currently carries 5 no-pets sits. Browse manually.

House Sitters Canada has 1 active no-pets sit. Small market but worth checking if Canada is your target.

Nomador has partial filtering by pet type but the no-pets filter is less prominent than on THS. Worth browsing manually in addition to using any filter. Currently 7 no-pets listings concentrated in France and Francophone Europe. For a full comparison of platforms by country and listing volume, our guide to the best international house sitting platforms covers each one in detail.

International House Sitting Without Pets

Pet-free international sits exist but follow different patterns to domestic ones.

Homeowners leaving their property in a foreign country for an extended period have an especially strong security motivation. An empty property abroad is harder to monitor remotely, and insurance requirements in some countries mandate occupancy for coverage to remain valid. This makes the security angle even more central to your application than it would be for a domestic sit.

The platforms where international no-pets sits appear most frequently are TrustedHouseSitters and Nomador. THS has global reach and carries 11 active no-pets sits worldwide at any given time. Nomador concentrates its 7 no-pets listings in France and Francophone Europe.

For international no-pets sits specifically, the application strategy shifts further toward property security credentials. Mention any experience you have with home maintenance, your communication reliability across time zones, and any language skills relevant to the country. A homeowner leaving a property in France for three months wants to know you will notice a problem and tell them, not that you love their dog.

Countries where no-pets international sits appear most regularly based on our tracking: France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Australia. We are currently mid-way through a six-month sit in Portugal, one cat and four chickens, but the property-care responsibilities mirror a no-pets sit and the homeowner's primary concern was finding someone reliable for a long stay. Even without pets involved, travel insurance for house sitters covers property incidents, medical emergencies, and trip cancellations and is worth having before any international sit.

House Sitting Without Pets in Australia

Australia is one of the strongest markets for no-pets house sitting relative to total listing volume.

Aussie House Sitters currently carries around 1,350 Australian listings and has 13 active no-pets sits, the highest raw count of any single platform and a 0.96% share that consistently outperforms THS in the same market. 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.

The no-pets filter on Aussie House Sitters is straightforward. Set it once in search preferences and it surfaces automatically. Regions where no-pets Australian sits appear most frequently: Queensland, coastal New South Wales, and South Australia, where homeowners often travel domestically for extended periods and want a reliable presence rather than a pet-sitter specifically.

For Australian no-pets sits, the application angle that works is emphasising property maintenance awareness, garden or plant care if mentioned in the listing, and reliability over the duration. Australian homeowners posting pet-free sits are almost always motivated by security or maintenance, not lifestyle preferences.

Australia is the strongest market for no-pets sits proportionally. Our full guide to house sitting in Australia covers which platforms carry the most property-only listings and how the broader Australian market works.

Why Homeowners Post Sits Without Pets

Understanding the motivation behind a pet-free listing changes how you apply. With pet sits the homeowner's primary concern is their animal. With pet-free sits, the motivation is almost always about the property itself, and it usually falls into one of three categories.

The first is security. An empty house signals an absent owner. Mail accumulating in the letterbox, lights off for three weeks, no car in the drive, these are visible cues that nobody is home. A sitter's presence removes all of that. The home looks lived-in, and that alone is often enough to deter opportunistic theft. For homeowners leaving for more than a few weeks, particularly in urban areas, house sitting safety and property security are the entire point of posting.

The second is maintenance. A slow leak under the kitchen sink is a minor inconvenience when caught early. Left unnoticed in an empty house for a month it becomes a flooded floor, damaged joists, and a serious insurance claim. A burst pipe in winter, a tripped circuit breaker shutting down the freezer, a roof tile blown loose in a storm, all of these cross the line from nuisance to disaster when there is nobody in the house to notice them. Homeowners with valuable properties or older homes are acutely aware of this, and a reliable sitter is their early warning system.

The third is plants. This sounds minor until you meet someone with a serious indoor plant collection or an established vegetable garden. These homeowners cannot simply leave for six weeks and come back to find their way through it. Plant care sits are a genuine niche, and homeowners who post them tend to be particularly detailed in their listings and particularly grateful to sitters who take the responsibility seriously.

There is also a fourth category worth knowing: homeowners whose usual pet has recently passed away or is staying with family for this particular trip. These sitters are already comfortable with the platform and the exchange model — they just do not have an animal needing care this time. They make excellent homeowners to work with because they understand how house sitting works from previous experience.

Why the Application Is Completely Different

With a pet sit, your application centres on your relationship with animals. With a pet-free sit, that entire angle is either irrelevant or actively distracting. The homeowner does not need to know that you are a dog person. They need to know that you are a responsible, attentive presence who will treat their home with care and flag problems early.

This means your application template needs a separate version — one that leads with property stewardship rather than animal affinity. Mention your track record of communication with homeowners, your attention to maintenance basics, and if you have any specific relevant skills (basic plumbing knowledge, gardening experience, pool maintenance), name them directly. If the listing mentions plants, address the plants specifically. If it mentions a vegetable patch, note that you are comfortable with that kind of ongoing care.

Your house sitting profile and verified reviews still matter enormously here — perhaps more than in pet sits, where an endearing opening about loving dogs can carry some weight. With a pet-free listing the homeowner is making a purely rational decision about who they trust with their property. A strong review history and a clear, professional application message are what close that gap.

The Speed Problem (and How to Solve It)

We have watched pet-free sits disappear while we were still writing the message. We have had a notification arrive, opened the listing, started drafting, and by the time we hit send the homeowner had already received the 5 applications and closed the listing. This is not an exaggeration — it happens regularly with desirable pet-free sits in popular locations.

The solution is preparation that happens before you need it. Set up saved searches on your preferred platforms with location filters and the pet-free option activated, and turn on instant push notifications — not daily digest emails, instant notifications. Then write your pet-free application template now, today, before any sit appears. It should be 85 to 90 percent complete, requiring only the homeowner's name and one or two sentences that speak directly to their specific listing. The moment the notification arrives you are filling in those gaps, not starting from scratch.

The "seconds matter" move: if you see a pet-free sit and the dates and location work, send your pre-written template immediately — do not read the full listing first. You can read the details and withdraw later if something does not fit, but if you wait ten minutes to finish reading, the sit will likely already be closed. Get your foot in the door, then do your due diligence.

This approach is exactly what we cover in more depth in our AI house sitting application guide — the principle of having a strong, personalised-feeling template ready to deploy is the same whether you are using AI to help draft it or not.

Not seeing any pet-free sits today? Use our complete dog sitting guide to land a high-quality animal sit in the meantime — the application skills transfer directly.

What the Sit Actually Looks Like on the Ground

Once you are in the house, the rhythm is noticeably different from a pet sit. There is no fixed daily structure imposed by an animal's needs, and that freedom is the main appeal for many sitters. You can spend a full day out exploring, take a spontaneous overnight trip to a nearby town, and stay out late without watching the clock for a dog's final walk. For remote workers doing house sitting, the absence of animal care hours in the day makes it significantly easier to maintain a work schedule.

Your actual responsibilities typically involve watering plants on a set schedule, bringing in post and packages, doing a visual check of the property every day or two, and handling the handful of specific requests the homeowner leaves — whether that is mowing the lawn once a week, running a pool filter, or keeping an eye on a neighbour's delivery. The homeowner video call before the sit is where you map all of this out clearly. With no animals to discuss, you have room to go deep on property specifics — and these are the five questions that matter most:

These replace the "Big 5 dog questions" (feeding, vet, triggers, medication, walks) that dominate most handover calls. Print this list before your video call and work through it — homeowners are often surprised and reassured that you are thinking at this level.

Do not confuse fewer responsibilities with no responsibility. The same house sitting legal considerations apply. If something goes wrong through negligence — a bath left running, a door left unlocked — you are still accountable. The baseline of care and respect for someone else's home does not change because there is no animal in it.

Building a Profile That Attracts Both

One question that comes up regularly: does applying for pet-free sits affect how you appear to homeowners who do have animals? The honest answer is no, provided you handle your profile sensibly. Your general profile should reflect genuine warmth toward animals — if that is true for you — while your application message does the contextual work of matching the tone of each listing.

The house sitting profile itself does not need to choose between the two. Homeowners with pets want to see that you genuinely like animals. Homeowners without pets want to see that you are reliable and trustworthy with their property. Neither of those things cancels the other out. The application message is where the pivot happens, not the profile.

If you are still building your review base, pet-free sits can be a useful early step. Because the care requirements tend to be lower, they are slightly more forgiving for newer sitters who are still finding their feet — though the competition for them is fierce enough that a strong profile still matters. Our guide on getting house sits without prior experience covers how to address that gap directly.

Conclusion

Pet-free sits are rare, they move fast, and they reward sitters who understand what homeowners actually need from them. The application pivot from animal carer to property steward is a small shift in framing but a significant one in terms of how your message lands. Set up the saved search, write the template, get the notifications on, and when one appears — move immediately.

Most of our sits have involved animals, and we would not have it any other way. But there is a particular kind of quiet that comes with a pet-free sit — the kind where your day genuinely belongs to you from start to finish and once you have experienced it, you understand why sitters chase them.

Have you landed a pet-free sit, or are you actively hunting for 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 finding no-pets sits, send us a message on Instagram, we read every DM.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Are pet-free house sits actually worth pursuing?

  Yes, if the location and timing work for you — particularly if you want maximum flexibility during the sit. The absence of animal care responsibilities means your schedule is entirely your own, which makes them especially valuable for longer sits or periods when you have remote work commitments. The trade-off is that they are significantly harder to land than pet sits, so they should be part of your search strategy rather than the whole of it.

• Why do pet-free sits disappear so quickly?

  Because the demand is high and the perceived barrier to entry is lower. Sitters who would hesitate to take on a dog or a complex cat medication schedule have no such hesitation here, so the applicant pool is larger and faster. Combined with the desirability of a flexible, animal-free stay, these listings attract more competition per posting than almost any other type of sit.

• What should I emphasise in my application for a pet-free sit?

  Lead with property stewardship — your reliability, your communication habits, and any specific skills relevant to the listing. Mention home maintenance awareness, your track record of prompt communication with homeowners, and address any specific property needs named in the listing (plants, garden, pool) directly. Do not open with your love of animals. It is irrelevant here and signals that you have not read the listing carefully.

• Can I still get a pet-free sit as a new sitter with no reviews?

  It is harder, but not impossible. Because the competition is strong, a thin review profile puts you at a disadvantage. A well-written, highly personalised application that speaks directly to the homeowner's specific property concerns can compensate somewhat. Your best route is to build a few reviews quickly through pet sits first, which are both more common and often more willing to take a chance on a newer sitter with a strong profile.

• Is there anything I should ask the homeowner before a pet-free sit that I might not think to ask?

  Yes — ask specifically about the property's maintenance quirks. With pet sits most of the handover conversation is about the animals, and property specifics sometimes get rushed. With a pet-free sit you have room to go deeper: where is the stopcock, how does the heating system behave, which breaker controls what, is there a known slow drain or a dodgy window latch? These are the details that matter when something goes wrong at 11pm and the homeowner is in a different time zone.

• Do pet-free sits pay better or worse than pet sits in a paid context?

  Generally worse, because the care load is lower. In the free exchange model this is not relevant — you are receiving accommodation regardless. But if you are considering whether to accept a paid or partially paid arrangement, the lower complexity of a pet-free sit typically means a lower rate is standard. Our house sitting fees guide covers how to think through what is fair compensation for different types of care.

• Are there house sits without pets?

  Yes, but they are genuinely rare, under 1% of active listings on every major platform. TrustedHouseSitters has 11 pet-free sits from 12,000+ listings. Aussie House Sitters has 13 from around 1,350. MindMyHouse has the highest proportion at 2.80% of its listings. They disappear within minutes of posting because competition is high and the logistics are simpler than pet sits.

• Which house sitting platform is best for no-pets sits?

  MindMyHouse has the highest proportion at 2.80% of listings, but with only around 250 total listings the raw number is small. Aussie House Sitters has the best combination of volume and no-pets share in the Australian market with 13 active no-pets sits. For global no-pets sits TrustedHouseSitters has the most options in absolute terms with 11 active listings from 12,000+ total.

• What is international house sitting without pets?

  International house sitting without pets means caring for a property abroad while the owner travels, with no animals involved. These sits typically run longer than standard pet sits because the homeowner's primary motivation is sustained property security rather than short-term pet care. They appear most frequently on THS and Nomador in France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Australia.

• Can you house sit in Australia without looking after pets?

  Yes. Aussie House Sitters currently carries 13 no-pets sits from around 1,350 total Australian listings, the highest raw count of any single platform. Use the no-pets filter in Aussie House Sitters search preferences to surface them automatically. Queensland and coastal New South Wales have the highest concentration.

• Does MindMyHouse have no-pets sits?

  Yes, and proportionally more than any other platform. MindMyHouse currently carries 7 no-pets sits from around 250 total listings, a share of 2.80%. This makes it the highest-proportion no-pets platform despite its smaller size. At $29/year it is also the cheapest paid platform on the market.

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