House Sitting in London (How to Get Started + Our Experience)

It was back in 2015 that we very first started house sitting in London.

We moved to London to do the classic Kiwi/Aussie 2 year visa stint.

While we were there one of ours friends was house sitting in Mayfair. It was an incredible house looking after a poodle.

We had never heard of house sitting before, but with our visas coming to an end and wanting to keep traveling!

We thought house sitting would be a great way to travel on the cheap and still get to look after animals!

See how we landed our first house sit without any references!

How We Got Our First House Sit in London (Without References)

As we had no previous house sitting experience we put our thinking caps on!

With the small amount of time left on our visas we starting to apply for housesitting jobs in London to build up our references.

It was creeping closer to the Christmas holiday period, which was perfect timing.

Over the Christmas holiday period in London, lots of people scape the cold of winter and head off to Europe for a warmer Christmas.

We discovered even with no references the demand is so high for house sitters home owners are more open to accepting sitters with no references.

We used screenshots of our Airbnb reviews

We signed up for Trusted House Sitters and Housecarers, created profiles, and started applying for as many sits as we could

.As we were applying for house sits in London and living in London a lot of homeowners were a little confused why we wanted to house sit there.

We explained that we had never house sat before but were very keen and wanted to start house sitting in London to build of references and experience.

The home owners we spoke to loved the idea and we locked in our first ever house sitting assignments in London.

How to Find House Sitting Jobs London

We used the following websites to start securing house sitting assignments. Some are more localised to the UK and some are more worldwide.

Trusted House Sitter – Your best option, its has the most assignments n the UK and worldwide

Housecarers – Lots of great options with less competition

House Sitting in Finsbury Park, London.

Our first house sit in London was in a cute little apartment in Finsbury Park looking after a cat.

We both love cats and Jay grew up with them – so this was the perfect start to our house sitting adventure.

The home owners were going away for a 10 days over the Christmas / New Year period – this was perfect for us! We felt like we had our own little Christmas get away booked in.

Before the homeowners went away we met up a couple of times and they showed us around their apartment and gave us some time to hang out with the cat and get to know one another.

The homeowners were not new to having house sitters, this was a great start for us. They had their own little welcome pack which included instructions for the cat, plants, house and general information about their suburb – Finsbury Park.

Having lived in London we were familiar with the area but the homeowners included all their favourite bars, cafes and restaurants – this allowed us to explore some of the best spots in the area and really enjoy our last months living in London.

We settled into our house sit and got to know Aria. She was a sweet little cat who loved to play. She had a plethora of toys and a huge cat play tower.

Tips for House Sitting in London

London is a hot spot for house sitting.

As it is one of the tourist hot spots in the world it is somewhere that lots of people want to house sit.

Luckily most of the people who live in London are not originally from London there are always house sitting opportunities in London.

Depending on what time of year you are looking for a house sit it can be very competitive – especially as the cost of living goes up.

Don’t worry though we have some tips to help you to secure your own house sit in London.

• Don’t be picky – we are all looking for the perfect house sit an in amazing spot, with our favourite type of animal.
  
  However, not every house sit will tick every box. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices and settle for a location, animal or timeframe that isn’t quite your ideal. 
  
• Choose the right time – different times of year have different demand for house sitting assignments.
  
  The best time to look for house sits in London is Easter holidays, school holidays and the Christmas period. As mentioned above everyone evacuates London over these times and there are lots of house sitting assignments available compared to the rest of the year.
  
• Use multiple house sitting websites – London has a huge population and you will find homeowners in London use several different house sitting websites to advertise their homes.
  
  We found signing up to all the major house sitting sites helped us. It will cost you more initially to buy a subscription to multiple house sitting sites, but after your first sit or two they easily pay for themselves long term.
  
• Be honest – house sitting is all about honesty. Be honest with the homeowner why you want to house sit in London. You will be surprised how far honesty gets you!

Have you ever house sat in London or somewhere else in the UK?

We would love to hear about your experiences!