What Homeowners Wish House Sitters Knew (20 Real Sits)

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Five stars on every sit across 20 sits in 12 countries is not an accident. It is not luck. It is a set of small, consistent behaviours that Caro and I apply to every single sit, regardless of the country, the pet, or the length of stay. Most of it is not complicated. Almost none of it requires special skill. What it does require is the willingness to treat someone else's home the way you would treat a close friend's home, and to treat the homeowner the way you would treat that friend.

Before we start: this is the companion article to what house sitters wish homeowners knew. That article covered the homeowner's side honestly. This one covers the sitter's side with the same honesty. It is not a lecture. It is the specific, practical list of things Caro and I do that we believe contribute directly to the reviews we receive. If something here sounds obvious, that is because the best house sitting advice usually is.

Caro and I have been house sitting for three years, on and off since our first sit in Bochum in June 2023, and full-time since November 2025. We are currently over a month into a six-month sit in Portugal, looking after one cat and four chickens. If you are considering joining TrustedHouseSitters as a sitter, a 25% discount on membership is available here.

The First Hour Sets the Entire Sit

The way you arrive at a house sit determines how the first few days feel, and the first few days determine how the whole sit goes.

Caro and I have a consistent arrival routine. We put our things down, do a video walkthrough of the entire property to document its condition, and then we stop. We don't immediately start organising or cleaning or exploring the area. We sit down, spend time with the pets, and let ourselves adjust to the space.

That first hour is grounding. It lets you take in the home at your own pace rather than trying to absorb everything from the welcome guide, the walkthrough, and the new environment all at once. The pets need that time too. They are meeting strangers who have just walked into their territory, and the calmer and more present you are in that initial period, the faster the animals relax around you.

The video walkthrough is not optional. It takes five minutes and documents the condition of every room before you have touched anything. If something is disputed later, if a stain was already on the carpet, if a scratch was already on the table, the video settles it without emotion. We do this on every single sit and have never regretted it. The companion video, filmed on the last day before the homeowner returns, completes the record.

The first day itself is usually quiet. We unpack, read through the welcome guide properly, do the evening pet routine as described, and go to bed early. There is no rush to explore. The area will still be there tomorrow. What matters on day one is settling in, not sightseeing. Our article on the permission to stay still covers why that matters more broadly.

Follow the Routine Exactly

The pet's routine existed before you arrived and will continue after you leave. It is not your job to improve it, adjust it, or personalise it. It is your job to maintain it.

If the cat gets fed at 6am and the dog gets walked at 7am, that is what happens. Not 6:30, not 7:15. The routine was established by someone who knows this animal far better than you do, and changing it, even slightly, can create stress for a pet that is already dealing with the absence of its owner. It can also make it harder for the homeowner to re-establish normalcy when they return.

In our experience, if the routine has been in place long enough, the pet will remind you anyway. The cat at the current Portugal sit wakes us at 6am every morning regardless of what we planned to do with our alarm. The chickens know when feeding time is. Animals are creatures of habit, and the most useful thing a sitter can do is respect that habit rather than introduce their own preferences.

We have never had a homeowner mention in a review that we needed to stick to the routine more closely, because we stick to it from the first day. If the routine is explained in the welcome guide, follow it. If it was explained verbally during the handover, write it down that same evening so you don't lose the detail. The giving pet medication guide covers the medical side of routine, which is even more critical to get right.

Read the Welcome Guide Before You Ask Questions

This one is simple and it is one of the most common complaints homeowners raise in community forums.

If a homeowner has taken the time to write a thorough welcome guide, and you then message them asking a question that is clearly answered in the guide, it tells them one of two things: either you didn't read it, or you read it but didn't trust it enough to act on it. Neither is a good signal.

Before sending any message during a sit that starts with "quick question," check the guide first. In Cortona, we weren't sure about the rubbish schedule. The guide had it. In Manosque we were unsure of the dog's walking routes. The guide had it. These are the moments where a thorough guide pays for itself, and where a sitter who has actually read it earns trust without the homeowner even knowing a question was avoided.

If the guide doesn't cover something, of course ask. If the guide is vague or missing, our article on what to do when there is no welcome guide covers how to handle that. But if the information is there and you ask anyway, that is an unnecessary interruption to someone's holiday that also undermines their confidence in you.

Communication Is What Separates Four Stars From Five Stars

This is the single biggest factor, in our experience, between a good review and an excellent one.

A homeowner who feels informed and reassured throughout their trip leaves a different review from one who felt they had to chase updates or who spent parts of their holiday wondering whether everything was okay. Communication is the thing that makes or breaks that feeling, and it costs nothing beyond a few minutes each day.

In the first week of every sit, Caro and I send a message almost every day. The message is not a formal report. It is a photo and a line or two. The cat is sleeping in a sunbeam. The chickens have been fed and are doing their usual morning patrol. The dog had a good walk and is currently asleep with its belly up. These messages are not about conveying specific information. They are about sending evidence that the pet is relaxed, comfortable, and well looked after.

The photo matters more than the words. A picture of a pet laying on its back with its belly wide open communicates more about its comfort level than any written description. Homeowners can tell instantly from a photo whether their animal is settled or stressed. Send those photos. They are worth more than any paragraph.

In the second week, we pull back slightly. Maybe skip a day. If the homeowner messages on the gap day asking for an update, that tells us they want daily messages and we return to that rhythm. If they don't message, we know the pace is comfortable and we can continue with less frequent updates.

On longer sits, once or twice a week is often enough after the first couple of weeks, but the messages should stay interesting. Don't send the same "everything is fine" every time. At the current Portugal sit, we had a helicopter putting out a fire nearby and a snake sliding across the terrace on the same day. We took photos and sent them because it was genuinely interesting, it didn't require a response, and it gave the homeowners a window into what was happening at their property that went beyond the standard update.

The best messages are the ones that don't require a response. "Amazing weather today, the cat brought a gift to the doorstep this morning but we saved the lizard" is the kind of message that makes a homeowner smile, feel informed, and not feel obligated to reply. If you get a thumbs up, great. If you get nothing, that is also fine. The message did its job.

Our over-communicative homeowner article covers this from the sitter's perspective when the messaging becomes too heavy from the other side. But from the homeowner's perspective, the sitter who communicates well and proactively is almost always the one who gets five stars.

It Is Not Your Home

This is the sentence that should be running quietly in the background of every decision you make during a sit.

Even though the homeowner has invited you to treat the space as your own, even though you are living there, sleeping there, cooking there, the reality is that it belongs to someone else. Every item in that house was placed there by someone who will come back and notice if it has moved. Every surface was last cleaned by someone who has a standard they care about. Every pet in that home has a relationship with its owner that predates you by years.

This does not mean you should be anxious or uncomfortable. It means you should be thoughtful.

Do not rearrange furniture. Do not reorganise the kitchen to suit your preferences. Do not move decorations, books, or personal items from where they are. The homeowner will notice, and even if they don't say anything, it creates a subtle feeling that their space was treated as a project rather than respected as it was. Our article on what house sitters can and can't change covers the boundaries in detail.

Do not invite guests without asking first. A simple message is all it takes: "A friend is passing through town, would it be okay if they stopped by for dinner? They'll go home afterwards." In our experience, homeowners almost always say yes when asked. The problem arises when they aren't asked, and find out later that strangers were in their home. Our can house sitters have visitors article covers the etiquette around this.

When it comes to food in the pantry and fridge, our golden rule is straightforward. Use anything that will go off during the sit. Leave everything else. If you finish something that was there when you arrived, such as coffee, pasta, or cooking oil, replace it before you leave. This means the homeowner returns to a functional kitchen rather than empty shelves and an immediate trip to the supermarket. It is basic courtesy but it is the kind of thing that gets mentioned in reviews because not every sitter does it.

Do Not Go Through Personal Belongings

If a room is closed, it stays closed. If a drawer is not one you need to open for the sit, it stays shut. If a cupboard contains personal items that are clearly not related to the home or pet care, it is not yours to explore.

This should not need saying, but it comes up often enough in community discussions that it clearly does. Some sitters treat someone else's home the way they might treat a hotel room, opening every drawer, checking every cupboard, exploring every corner. The difference is that a hotel room was prepared for guests and contains nothing personal. A home was prepared for the homeowner's life, and the parts of it that were not specifically made available to you are private.

The welcome guide will tell you where things are. The homeowner will show you during the walkthrough which cupboards contain pet food, which drawers have spare towels, and where the cleaning supplies are kept. If something was not pointed out or mentioned in the guide, the default assumption should be that it is personal and not for you to look through.

If you genuinely need something during the sit and cannot find it, send a message asking the homeowner where it is. That is always better than opening drawers until you find it yourself, because even if your intention is purely practical, the homeowner has no way of knowing that after the fact. All they see is that drawers they didn't mention have been opened and items inside have been moved.

Rooms that the homeowner has specifically marked as off limits, whether locked or simply closed with a note, are not suggestions. They are boundaries. Respect them the same way you would respect a locked door at a friend's home. You wouldn't open it. Don't open it here either.

Our sitter snooping and homeowner privacy article covers this in more detail, including what homeowners can do to protect their space and what sitters should be aware of before arriving.

Respect the Homeowner's Privacy

The homeowner's home is listed on a platform, which means some of their information is already public. That does not mean everything inside their home is also public.

Do not post photos from inside the home that reveal identifying details, the layout of the property, the homeowner's possessions, or anything that could be used to locate the home. If you post a photo of the pet, which most homeowners appreciate and encourage, make sure the background doesn't reveal anything personal. A photo of a cat on a generic couch is fine. A photo that shows family photos on the wall, the street number through a window, or expensive items in the background is not.

Never tag the location of the home on any social media platform. The homeowner is away. Their house is being cared for, not empty, but broadcasting its location while they are on holiday is a privacy issue that has potential security implications.

Caro and I occasionally post photos from sits, but they are always basic enough that they could be from any home. We never tag the location and we keep the homeowner's space as private as we would want our own space to be kept. Our article on social media and your house sitting journey covers how to share your experience publicly without crossing lines. The hidden cameras and house sitting rights article covers the privacy question from the other direction.

The Checkout Is Where Five Stars Are Won or Lost

Many sitters do a good job during the sit and then rush the final morning. This is a mistake. The homeowner's last impression of you is what they see when they walk through the door, and that impression directly influences the review they write within the next few days.

Here is exactly what Caro and I do on the last day of every sit.

We roll out of bed and strip the sheets immediately, because we won't be using the bed again. The sheets go into the washing machine but we don't start it yet. We do the morning pet routine as normal, feeding, walking, whatever the day requires.

Then we clean. We start with the kitchen: wipe down all the benchtops and surfaces first, so that if anything falls on the floor during cleaning, it gets picked up in the next step. After the surfaces are done, we vacuum the entire house. After vacuuming, we mop. After mopping, we shower and add any remaining dirty cloths or towels to the washing machine.

If the timing works, if the homeowner isn't arriving until the afternoon, we run the washing machine and either hang the laundry or put it in the dryer. If the homeowner is arriving earlier, we leave everything in the machine, ready to be washed, so they can decide how they want to handle it. If a homeowner has specifically asked us not to wash the sheets, we don't. But we always make sure they are ready to go.

Before we leave, before the homeowner arrives, we do the final video walkthrough. This captures the state of every room as we left it. Combined with the arrival video, we now have a complete documented record of the home at both ends of the sit.

The standard we aim for is simple: leave it as clean or cleaner than we found it. Not "roughly the same." Cleaner. Because homeowners notice, and because it is the right thing to do when someone has trusted you with their space for two weeks.

Our cleaning and etiquette guide covers what level of cleaning is expected during and at the end of a sit. The checkout guide has the full walkthrough.

Report Problems Immediately

If something breaks, if a pet behaves unusually, if an appliance stops working, if you notice something that wasn't mentioned in the welcome guide, tell the homeowner straight away.

The instinct to wait, to assess, to hope it resolves itself, is natural and almost always wrong. Homeowners would rather hear about a problem in real time, when they can help you troubleshoot or make a decision, than discover it when they return. A broken glass reported within an hour is a small thing. A broken glass discovered two weeks later is a trust issue, even if the glass itself was worthless.

Our approach, covered in detail in the how to apologise when something goes wrong article, is to state the facts, offer a solution, and move on. At a sit in Switzerland, we messaged the homeowner the moment two glasses fell out of a cupboard and broke. We asked for a link so we could replace them. The response was "don't worry about it, that happens all the time in our house." The whole thing was resolved in three messages.

The when not to apologise companion article covers the other side: when something goes wrong that isn't your fault and you shouldn't be taking responsibility for it. Both are worth reading together, because knowing when to own something and when not to is a skill that protects you and the homeowner equally.

Do Not Treat the Sit as Just a Holiday

This is probably the most sensitive point in the article, and it needs to be said plainly.

House sitting is not free accommodation with an animal-shaped condition attached. It is an exchange of genuine value. The homeowner is providing you with a home, often a beautiful one, in a location you might never be able to afford otherwise. In return, you are providing them with something they genuinely need: trustworthy, attentive care for their pets and property while they are away.

The pets come first. Always. Before the sightseeing, before the day trips, before the afternoon at the beach. If the dog has separation anxiety and the welcome guide says not to leave it alone for more than an three, then your day trips are limited to one three hours. If the cat needs medication at a specific time, you are home at that time. If the chickens need to be locked in at dusk, you are back before dusk.

This does not mean you can't enjoy the location. It means you plan your enjoyment around the pet's needs, not the other way around. Our article on can you take a day trip during a house sit covers how to explore without neglecting the animals, and the leaving pets overnight guide covers the boundaries around longer absences.

Be Honest About Your Experience

If your profile says you have experience with large dogs and you have only ever looked after a chihuahua, that will become obvious within the first hour of a sit with a Labrador.

Homeowners read profiles carefully. They look at what you claim, cross-reference it with your reviews, and make a decision about whether you are the right fit for their specific pet. If you oversell your experience and then struggle visibly during the sit, that is a worse outcome for everyone than if you had been upfront about your limitations and the homeowner had chosen someone else.

Caro and I are honest in our profile about what we have and haven't done. We have looked after cats, dogs, chickens, and combinations of all three. We have not looked after horses, large exotic animals, or pets with complex medical needs beyond what we describe in the profile. If a listing requires something we are not confident about, we don't apply.

The homeowner's trust starts with the profile. If the profile is accurate, the video call confirms it, and the sit reflects it, the review writes itself. If the profile overpromises and the sit underdelivers, the review writes itself too, just differently.

The Mindset That Makes All of This Work

If there is one thing that ties everything in this article together, it is this: think of the homeowner as a friend, not an employer.

When you treat house sitting as a job, you do the minimum required to meet the brief. You follow the routine because you were told to. You clean up because it's expected. You send updates because you should.

When you treat house sitting as looking after a friend's home while they're away, everything shifts. You follow the routine because you want their pet to be comfortable. You clean up because you want your friend to walk into a home that feels cared for. You send updates because you'd want to know if someone was looking after your pets and they seemed happy.

The messages read differently. The checkout looks different. The review reads differently. Because the intent behind every action is different, and homeowners can feel that, even through a screen.

Caro and I do not go into any sit thinking about the review. We go in thinking about the homeowner as someone we might want to stay in contact with, someone whose friendship we would value beyond the sit itself. Not every sit produces a friendship, and not every homeowner wants one. But the mindset of treating them as a potential friend rather than a temporary employer changes the quality of the entire experience.

The result, across 20 sits, has been five stars every time. Not because we are perfect sitters. Because we are genuine ones.

A Quick Note for New Sitters

If you are reading this before your first sit, everything above might feel like a lot. It isn't. Most of it reduces to a few core habits: follow the routine, communicate warmly, keep the house clean, read the welcome guide, report problems quickly, and remember that it's someone else's home.

The first sit is the most nerve-wracking. We know because our first sit in Bochum, two cats, zero reviews, a profile edited by my mother, was exactly that. What got us through it was treating the homeowner with the same care we would give a friend and being honest about what we didn't know. The cat's foot swelled up during that sit and we had no idea what to do. But we communicated openly, used the THS vet helpline, and the homeowner trusted us more for being transparent about a difficult moment than she would have if we'd pretended everything was fine.

Our getting started guide covers the practical side of your first sit. The building trust without reviews article covers how to earn that first review when you have nothing on your profile yet. And the what not to do when house sitting article covers the mistakes worth avoiding from the start.

Conclusion

Five star house sitting is not complicated. It is a set of small, consistent behaviours applied with genuine care over the course of every sit. Follow the routine. Read the guide. Communicate like a friend. Clean the house properly. Report problems immediately. Leave it better than you found it. Remember whose home it is.

The homeowners who list their properties on TrustedHouseSitters, Nomador, Aussie House Sitters, and every other platform are trusting strangers with the things they care about most. That trust deserves to be met with the same care and honesty it was given with. When it is, both sides get something worth more than what either could buy: a genuine connection, a well-cared-for home, happy pets, and a five star review that reflects something real.

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 becoming a better house sitter, send us a message on Instagram, we read every DM.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the most important thing a house sitter can do to get five star reviews?

  Communicate well and consistently. Send a photo and a short message daily in the first week, taper based on the homeowner's response pattern, and keep the updates warm, interesting, and easy to read. A homeowner who feels informed and reassured throughout their trip leaves a different review from one who felt they had to chase for updates.

• Should I follow the pet's routine exactly or adjust it based on what I observe?

  Follow the existing routine exactly. It was established by someone who knows the animal far better than you do. Changing feeding times, walk schedules, or sleeping arrangements, even slightly, can create stress for a pet that is already adjusting to its owner being away. If the routine has been in place long enough, the pet itself will remind you what to do and when.

• What should I clean before leaving a house sit?

  Everything the homeowner would notice. Strip the bed, wipe all kitchen surfaces, vacuum the floors, mop where appropriate, clean the bathroom, and load the washing machine with sheets and used towels. If time allows, run the wash and hang or dry the laundry. Film a final video walkthrough before you leave. The standard is simple: leave it as clean or cleaner than you found it.

• Can I invite friends to a house sit?

  Always ask the homeowner first. A simple message explaining who is coming, when, and for how long is all it takes. Most homeowners will say yes. The problem only arises when guests appear without the homeowner's knowledge. It is not your home, and the homeowner has the right to know who is in their space.

• Should I post photos from a house sit on social media?

  Keep it minimal and anonymous. A photo of a pet on a couch is fine. A photo that reveals the home's layout, the homeowner's possessions, family photos on the wall, or anything that could identify or locate the property is not. Never tag the location of a home you are sitting. The homeowner is away and their privacy should be protected.

• What should I do if something breaks during a sit?

  Message the homeowner immediately. State what happened, mention anything you've already tried, and offer to replace or repair it. Most breakages are resolved within a few messages when handled quickly and honestly. The longer you wait, the more it looks like you were trying to hide it.

• What is the difference between a four star and a five star house sitter?

  The mindset. A four star sitter does the job well. A five star sitter treats the homeowner as a friend and the home as something they genuinely care about. That difference shows up in the communication, the checkout, the small gestures like replacing finished consumables, and the overall feeling the homeowner gets when they walk back through their door.

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