House Sitting Stories | Hyekyong & Jordi AKA The Lifetime Travelmates

Recently, we sat down with The Lifetime Travelmates Hyekyong & Jordi. A full-time traveling / house sitting sitting couple. In this interview we talk about traveling, Youtube, house sitting, how the pandemic has affected their lifestyle, and much, much more!

House Sitting Travellers The Lifetime Travel Mates Hyekyong & Jordi

Tell us a little bit about yourselves – who are you, where are you from, do you housesit full-time or sporadically?

We are Hyekyong from South Korea and Jordi from Barcelona (Spain). We met at the University while Jordi was studying as an exchange student in Seoul.

After a few years as good friends, we got married, and three years ago, we left our jobs back in Seoul to start a travel life. Initially, for a year, then we kept going, combining house sits, volunteering, and long stays in different countries. We do house sits sporadically but as often as we can.

How many housesits have you had and where?

We are currently on our 11th house-sit. We’ve done it in Bangkok (Thailand), Goa (India), Barcelona (Spain), and many other places around the UK, Ireland, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Why do you housesit? What is the primary motivation?

The main motivation was to save in accommodation expenses while we traveled. Then we realized that staying at home with pets in a different country is one of the best ways to live as locals live, which is the travel lifestyle we like.

We stay as long as we can (as long as tourist visas allow) in a country and try to get to know more about the local side of the town and less about the touristy spots. Since we aim for long house sits (mostly 3 weeks or more), we can do that. And since we love animals, staying in an accommodation with animals is comforting and makes us happy.

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What motivated you to start your Youtube channel?

Jordi always liked photography and videography. When we decided we would leave jobs and travel around the world, we had the idea of starting a blog, leaving some written memories and images, sharing tips and experiences, and inspiring others just like many others inspired us.

Later, we thought of sharing the videos we took on our trips and creating a series to show others what backpacking and housesitting really are.

How Did You Find out About Housesitting?

We were looking for ways to reduce accommodation spending, and among others like Couchsurfing and volunteering, we found some blogs about house sitting. We decided to try it and followed the steps for house sitting as a beginner, and three years later, it has become one of the things we love the most in our lives.

Pros of House Sitting?

• Stay with pets!
• Staying in a real home from a family and not in a “cold” hotel room.
• Seeing the real life of a typical neighborhood or village and experiencing an authentic “local” life.
• Not paying for accommodation!

Cons of House Sitting?

Leaving those furry friends that you bonded with so much. When the pets get sick, we feel so much responsibility.

What’s Been the Biggest or Best Adventure so Far?

Jordi: Probably when we did a 10-day motorbike loop in the extreme north of Vietnam. The Hà Giang loop was a challenge at the beginning of our travels, and I was still a total beginner with the motorbike, so the lack of experience was a handicap. Still, in the end, the feeling of achievement was awesome.

Hyekyong: Our 3 months of traveling South India was the best adventure. It started right after our unexpected house sit in Goa, India. After the 3 months of long-term house sit, we took a train and headed South. During the journey, we visited beautiful places, met incredible people, and had a chance to dive into its amazing local cuisines. The most fascinating thing about the traveling experience in India was it taught us things that we would have never learned if we hadn’t traveled there.

How do you decide on a destination?

First, we look for houses in nearby countries where we are, and if not, we look for the cheapest airports to fly into. Then we expand the radius and if we don’t find a sit long enough to make the long journey worthwhile, we travel (preferably on land) to a neighboring country.

We don’t have a bucket list per se, we do have some countries that we want to visit sooner than others. But with our lifestyle, it’s better to be flexible and not make very long-term plans.

How much luggage do you travel with?

We started with just a 40-liter backpack each. After three years, we added a small day backpack and a handbag, so that is our packing list for house sitters—keeping it as light as possible!

How has the pandemic changed your traveling / house-sitting lifestyle?

The pandemic caught us in the middle of a house sit in Goa, India. The country went on lockdown one month before our sit was supposed to end. We are very lucky that the house and pets’ owners are okay abroad and are happy with us taking care of the pets. What was supposed to be a six-month sit turned out to be one year long and counting!

We had the chance to leave, but to be honest, this house sit is a blessing, and we felt safer here than traveling to any other country. We don’t know when or where we are going to travel again, but we still keep “traveling” through the various Indian cuisines we keep trying.

Since we have more time at home, we are putting together some old footage for a travel series for our YouTube channel.

Was it hard for you to secure your first house-sitting gig?

It was a bit harder than we thought. Our 9th application was the one that got us accepted.

Did you ever have any unusual pets to take care of or responsibilities that were out of the norm?

There are no special pets. The most out-of-the-norm was taking care of a cat with asthma. We had to give him the inhaler every day, but he was very well-trained, and it was very easy. Another cat we took care of was extremely old and almost blind, so we had to take extra care and medicate her.

What was your favorite housesitting experience to date and why?

The hardest question! We can’t choose. Each of them was very special, and we loved them all. And we would repeat all of them right now. We are still in touch with some of the house/pet owners, and we often get messages about their holiday plans asking if we are available and in nearby countries.

Let us highlight the Ireland dog sit we did in a village in the middle of the country surrounded by farms and the cat sit in a luxury apartment in Singapore.

Have you had any funny housesitting experiences?

During our first cat sit in Goa, India, we woke up to some sounds in the middle of the night. We couldn’t find the cats, but we were hearing some sound. We got very scared thinking someone could have entered the house.

After checking the locked doors, we went to the bathroom and found the two cats in the bathtub “playing” with a tiny mouse. We “saved” the mouse by throwing it outside to the fields and returning to sleep, feeling a bit sorry to have taken away that “toy” from the cats.

But that small rodent couldn’t escape its destiny: the next morning, when we woke up, we found it in the bathtub again, but this time, the cats had “played” enough with it and left it there as a gift for us.

Tips for Others Wanting to Get Started?

Be transparent and honest. Write a good profile and keep applying for house sits, even if they aren’t your ideal or dream ones. It’s better to accumulate some experience and reviews; later, it will get easier to get the ones you wish for.

Where to next (when you can)?

We want to try a long stay in a Southeast Asian country—some that we haven’t been to yet. But if the situation gets longer, we might just visit family and friends in one of our hometowns.

Any Final Words?

Thanks for giving us this chance to share our experiences. We hope they are useful to others! We’d like to invite readers to follow our travel and house sitting adventures on our YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Need Help Getting Started With House Sitting?

Have we got you excited about house-sitting? We love sharing our house-sitting experiences and teaching others how to become house-sitters and start their journeys. 

So, if you need help starting your house-sitting journey, see my resources here, and don’t hesitate to contact me and ask me any questions.

How Does House Sitting Sound to You?