Home > Blog > How Much Does House Sitting Cost
Quick Facts
| Platform fees (all time) | €378 across 3 years |
| Fuel costs | €3,000 |
| Total costs | €3,378 |
| Completed sit nights | 170 nights |
| Upcoming sit nights | 190 nights confirmed (including 6-month Portugal sit) |
| Accommodation saving — completed | ~$17,000 (conservative $100/night) |
| Food saving — completed | ~€7,650 (€45/day saving for two, vs eating out) |
| Laundry saving — completed | ~€243 |
| Total saving to date | ~$17,000 + €7,893 across all categories |
| Upcoming saving (190 nights) | ~$19,000 accommodation + €8,821 food and laundry |
| Break-even point | One night of saved accommodation covers an entire year of Basic membership |
| Our discount link | 25% off TrustedHouseSitters |
| Other platform discounts | Aussie House Sitters, Canada, US, Kiwi, UK: code HSG15 for 15% off |
House sitting has cost Caro and me €378 in platform fees over three years. Against 170 completed nights of free accommodation (and another 190 nights already confirmed) that number looks less like a subscription and more like the best financial decision either of us has made.
This article is the honest version of how house sitting costs actually work. Not a general overview. Our real numbers, our real methodology, and the savings categories most articles do not mention.
What We Have Spent
Platform Fees
Our total TrustedHouseSitters spend since June 2023:
| Year | What we paid | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | €169 | THS Standard, first year as a couple |
| 2024 | €169 | THS Standard, renewed |
| 2025 | €40 top-up | Black Friday upgrade to Premium — no more booking fees |
| 2026 onward | €0 | Referral credits carry us through to 2029 |
| Total | €378 |
The referral credit system is worth understanding. THS adds two months of free membership for every person you refer, and three months per referral during Black Friday promotions. Referral credits extend your existing membership rather than starting a new one. We accumulated enough referrals during our first two paid years to push our renewal through to 2029 at no extra cost.
Six referrals in your first year adds a full extra year at renewal. This is not a difficult number to reach once people you know see what house sitting actually saves them.
We used TrustedHouseSitters as our primary platform throughout. Our full platform comparison covers when regional platforms like Nomador or Aussie House Sitters make more sense depending on where you are sitting.
Travel Costs
Platform fees are the smallest cost of house sitting. Transport is the real variable.
Our total fuel spend across all sits to date is approximately €3,000. This covers road travel across Montenegro, Bosnia, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, France, and within the countries we have sat in. It does not include flights. Our travel has been almost entirely by van. Our most expensive single sit by non-fuel transport cost was Kefalonia in Greece: €160 for the ferry, round trip. Our house sitting in Europe guide covers the regional transport picture in more detail.
What We Have Saved
Accommodation: The Conservative Calculation
170 completed nights at a conservative $100 per night: $17,000.
The $100 per night figure is deliberately modest. It represents a basic apartment in an average-cost city or town, not a particularly desirable property. Many of our sits have been in properties that would cost three to five times that to rent on the open market. The Swiss chalet we sat in was listed at around €650 per night on similar platforms. The property near Sydney Harbour Bridge was in the same category.
If you want a more realistic average for the type of properties we have actually stayed in, the number is closer to $150 to $200 per night, which puts the 170 completed nights between $25,000 and $34,000 in saved accommodation.
The 190 nights already confirmed add a further $19,000 at $100/night, bringing the conservative total across completed and confirmed sits to $36,000.
Against €378 in platform fees.
Food: A Real Example
House sitting changes your food costs in a way that most guides do not address properly.
During our 10-day sit in Manosque, south of France in April 2026, we spent €150 on food total. That is €15 per day for two people, including all meals. If we had been travelling and eating out every day, a modest €30 per person per day is a realistic minimum in France, which would have been €600 for the ten days combined.
The difference: €450 in ten days.
The reason house sitting changes food costs is access to a full kitchen. You cook. You buy from local markets and supermarkets. You eat the same way you eat at home rather than the way tourists eat on holiday. Over the course of a two-week sit, the food saving for a couple compared to eating out daily typically sits between €300 and €500 depending on location.
This saving is invisible in most house sitting cost calculations because it depends entirely on how you travel otherwise. If you would have been cooking in an Airbnb anyway, the saving is smaller. If you would have been eating out, it is significant.
Laundry
A small saving but a real one. Most house sits include a washing machine. For a two-week sit, not having to find a laundromat or pay for hotel laundry service saves around €20. For a couple doing multiple sits per year, that adds up.
The practical benefit beyond the cost is time and planning. When you are travelling and staying in hotels or hostels, laundry is a logistical problem. It requires finding a laundromat, budgeting time, carrying coins. At a house sit, you load the machine and get on with your day.
Parking
Most house sits outside city centres include off-street parking. For sitters travelling by car or van, this removes a cost that accumulates quickly in European cities. Parking in central locations in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany ranges from €10 to €30 per day. Over a two-week sit, that is €140 to €420 in parking costs avoided.
We travel partly by campervan. The campervan comparison is covered in its own section below.
Three Ways to Think About the Return
The One-Night Calculation
The cheapest THS membership is Basic at $129 per year with our 25% discount bringing it to around $97. One night of saved accommodation in any major city covers the entire annual membership cost. Everything after night one is net saving.
For anyone doing two or more sits per year, the membership fee is financially irrelevant. The real question is not whether house sitting saves money (it does, dramatically) but how much you value the lifestyle that comes with it.
The Monthly Living Comparison
We have compared our monthly costs across three different living arrangements:
| Living situation | Average monthly cost (two people) |
|---|---|
| House sitting | ~€500 (food, transport between sits) |
| Campervan travel (no sits) | ~€1,200 (fuel, campsites, food) |
| Renting in a city (Bochum equivalent) | ~€1,500 (rent, utilities, food) |
The ~€500 figure during sits is real but requires context. It covers food and incidentals only, because accommodation, utilities, laundry, and parking are provided by the sit. It does not include the periodic transport costs between sits, which we average across the year rather than booking to individual months.
The Full Three-Year Picture
| Category | Completed (170 nights) | Upcoming (190 nights) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform fees | €378 | €0 (covered by referrals) | €378 |
| Fuel to sits | €3,000 | TBC | €3,000+ |
| Total costs | ~€3,378 | ||
| Accommodation ($100/night) | ~$17,000 | ~$19,000 | ~$36,000 |
| Food saving (€45/day for 2) | ~€7,650 | ~€8,550 | ~€16,200 |
| Laundry saving (€20/2 weeks) | ~€243 | ~€271 | ~€514 |
| Total saved | ~€24,893 | ~€27,821 | ~€52,714 |
| Net saving after all costs | ~€49,336 |
The €24,000 figure we have previously cited for total savings uses a higher accommodation average and includes the Portugal sit. The conservative $100/night calculation gives a lower but defensible number. The real figure is somewhere between the two depending on how you value the specific properties we have stayed in.
Discounts on Other House Sitting Platforms
If you want to spread your search beyond TrustedHouseSitters, we have a 15% discount code for several regional platforms. Use code HSG15 at signup on any of the following:
Aussie House Sitters (AU89/year) is the dominant platform for Australia. Kiwi House Sitters (NZ89/year) is the leading platform for New Zealand. House Sitters UK (£29/year) is the main UK domestic alternative to THS. House Sitters America (US49/year) is a useful complement to THS for US sits. Canada House Sitters (US59/year) is the best Canada-specific option.
Code HSG15 gives you 15% off all of these at signup. None require the code at checkout on THS. The 25% THS discount applies automatically through our dedicated link.
Our full platform comparison covers listing volumes, review systems, and which platforms are worth combining for specific countries.
The Campervan Comparison
For full-time travellers considering house sitting as part of a van life setup, the numbers look different again.
When we are on the road in the campervan between sits, our costs increase significantly. Fuel, campsites or wild camping, and eating out more frequently push the monthly total to around €1,200. The sits themselves bring it back down to €500 or below.
The model we have settled on: use the campervan for travel between sits and for spontaneous exploration. Use house sitting for the longer stays where you want stability, a kitchen, a washing machine, and a home base rather than a vehicle. The two approaches complement each other rather than compete.
Our van life and house sitting guide covers this combination in detail.
What the Upcoming Sits Add
We have 190 nights of confirmed sits ahead of us as of April 2026. The largest block is a six-month sit in Portugal starting in May 2026, caring for one cat and four chickens for a German-speaking couple. Six months in Portugal at $100/night is $18,000 in accommodation alone.
This is before food, utilities, laundry, and parking are factored in. A six-month sit in Portugal also means six months of cooking in a full kitchen rather than eating out or living from a campervan kitchen, which at the Manosque rate of savings represents another €2,700 in food costs avoided compared to eating out daily.
The Portugal sit will push our confirmed total savings well past $36,000 on the conservative calculation, and closer to $50,000 or more using realistic property valuations.
When Does the Maths Not Work?
House sitting is not cost-efficient for everyone in every situation.
If you are doing one short sit per year and would otherwise stay in budget accommodation, the maths is marginal. Basic THS at $97 after discount covers itself in one night of mid-range accommodation, but if your alternative is a hostel at $25 per night, the break-even is four nights. That is still fast, but it requires committing to the approach rather than treating it as a one-off experiment.
The savings compound with frequency. The more sits you do, the less the platform fee matters as a percentage of total accommodation saved. Our €378 over three years represents roughly 0.002 cents per saved night at the conservative calculation. It is not a meaningful number.
Conclusion
Platform fees are not what house sitting costs. Platform fees are what house sitting membership costs, which is a different thing. The actual cost of house sitting is the time invested in building a profile, applying to sits, and doing the work of caring for someone's home and animals well.
That time investment is real and not free. But it compounds. A strong review history reduces the time needed per application. Relationships with homeowners generate return invitations. The effort front-loads into the first six months and becomes steadily lighter.
170 nights of free accommodation. 190 more confirmed. €378 in membership costs. That is the current balance sheet.
Join TrustedHouseSitters with 25% off using our discount link and start building yours.
DM us @housesittersguide on Instagram with questions about the costs and savings of house sitting. We answer everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does TrustedHouseSitters cost?
Basic starts at $129/year, Standard at $169, Premium at $259. With our 25% discount link, those become approximately $97, $127, and $194. Basic and Standard also carry a $12 per-sit booking fee. Premium has no booking fees. Our full THS review covers what each tier actually includes.
How much money can you save house sitting?
It depends on frequency and the type of sits you pursue. At a conservative $100/night, 170 completed nights saves $17,000. Using realistic property valuations for the sits we have actually done, the figure is higher. Food, laundry, and parking are additional savings that most calculations ignore. For a couple doing five or more sits per year, total annual savings of $10,000 or more are realistic.
Is house sitting worth it financially?
Yes, for almost anyone who completes more than one sit per year. The membership fee pays for itself in a single night of saved accommodation in any mid-range city. The question is not whether it saves money but how much value you place on the lifestyle element: the connection with animals, the slower form of travel, and the access to properties you would not otherwise be able to afford.
What are the hidden costs of house sitting?
Transport to sits is the main variable cost. Our most expensive single sit cost was €160 for a ferry to Kefalonia. Most European sit transport costs us €30 to €120. Food, laundry, and parking are usually lower during sits than during other forms of travel, so they function as savings rather than additional costs.
