Help Centre

To request a testimonial/review from another member, following the steps below:

• Make sure you are logged in to the site
• Go the 'My testimonials > Request testimonial' section from your dashboard and enter the persons' first and last names into the search form
• Click the 'Request testimonial' button to send your request

An email will go to the home owner/house sitter, notifying them that you have requested a testimonial from them. You will be emailed back when they write it. If you haven't heard back from them after a few days, it may be that they have ignored your request.

To add your own testimonial/review for a home owner or house sitter, following the steps below:

• Make sure you are logged in to the site
• Go the 'My testimonials > Write testimonial' section from your dashboard and find them via the search form
• Fill out the form and click the 'Add testimonial' button to submit it

An email will go to the person, notifying them that you have written a testimonial for them, which they have to approve.

Approvals for home owner listings should only take about 24 hours. If it is taking longer than that, we apologise for the delay. We have found that it's necessary to have a manual check in place, in case someone posts something that isn't appropriate for our service.

To add references to your listings, you first need to upload you reference  to a third party site first as a PDF document eg.Dropbox, OneDrive, CloudMe- all of these services are free :). 

 Once you have uploaded you reference/s:

1. Login to our account
2. Go to the 'Edit my listing' page
3. Scroll down to the 'References' section
4. Add the URL for your PDF

A 'URL' is the link to the document. You can get that from wherever you uploaded the document, usually via a 'Share' button or function. We also advise you convert any Word documents to the PDF format, as many people may not have the Microsoft Word application installed.

Also, please note that there is a limit of five URLs. If you reach this limit, you can try sharing a folder, instead of individual files. That way you only need to use one slot and share as many files as you like.

Dropbox

To share a document, or folder via Dropbox:

1. Login to Dropbox
2. Upload your file
3. Click on the 'Share' button to the right of your document
4. Click on the 'Create a link' text
5. Click the 'Copy link' text
6. Navigate back to your MindMyHouse account
7. In the References box, paste the URL you just copied into the References URL field.
8. Click the 'Plus' icon if you want to add more URLs
9. Save your listing

Microsoft OneDrive

To share a document, or folder via OneDrive:

1. Login to OneDrive
2. Upload your file
3. Click on the file to view the file
4. Click the 'Share' button (top left)
5. Click the 'Get a link' button
6. Click on the 'Copy' button to copy the URL
7. Navigate back to your MindMyHouse account
8. In the References box, paste the URL you just copied into the References URL field.
9. Click the 'Plus' icon if you want to add more URLs
10. Save your listing

CloudMe

To share a document, or folder via CloudMe:

1. Login to CloudMe
2. Upload your file
3. Click on the file to select the file
4. Click the 'Share' button
5. Click the 'Copy link' button
6. Navigate back to your MindMyHouse account
7. In the References box, paste the URL you just copied into the References URL field.
8. Click the 'Plus' icon if you want to add more URLs
9. Save your listing

Google Drive

To share a document, or folder via Google Drive:

1. Login to Google Drive
2. Upload your file
3. Double click on the file to view the file in Google Drive
4. Click the blue 'Share' button (top right)
5. Change the general access to 'Anyone with a link'
6. Click the 'Copy link' button
7. Navigate back to your MindMyHouse account
8. In the References box, paste the URL you just copied into the References URL field.
9. Click the 'Plus' icon if you want to add more URLs
10. Save your listing

We are using the latest map technology to create maps to accompany our  listings. If there is an issue with your map not showing the right place, try a less specific address. For example, if your house is at "5 Johnsville Road, Wellington, New Zealand" and nothing comes up, try just searching for "Johnsville, Wellington, New Zealand" instead.

It may also be that the problem is not at your end - a map may have disappeared briefly due to a glitch in our geocoding service provider. Check in again a bit later to see whether it has been restored to its former glory on the site, or send us an email at help@mindmyhouse.com.

There are hundreds of other websites, magazines, classifieds and online directories where house and pet sitters can advertise their commercial services. Here at MindMyHouse.com we're trying to do something different by providing a forum for home owners and house sitters to meet for the free exchange of goods (accommodation) with services (house and pet sitting). Our house sitter members should be aware that every home owner they may contact through our site will be expecting their house and pet sitting services for free. However, home owners and house sitters are free to negotiate the exchange of money as suits their particular house sitting assignments. If you require fees for your house sitting services please state this clearly in your listing and in your first contact with the home owner.

Any problems saving changes to your listing or your details will probably be due to your sessions 'timing out'. Every time you login to MindMyHouse you begin what's known in computer jargon as a 'session'. The computer starts a clock every time you click on a page or link; if forty minutes passes since your last mouse click, the computer automatically logs you out of that session. Annoying we know! This is done as part of our security protocol - if the computer thinks you have abandoned it, your session 'times out' and no one is able to access your password-protected account areas and information. Next time you login to edit or create your listing simply click on different parts of the site every so often and you'll be fine! If you still cannot save your listing or save changes to your listing or your details don't despair! We can make the changes or paste your information directly into the template for you. Please contact us directly at help@mindmyhouse.com or contact us via our support form.

If you're having trouble creating and saving your listing using our online system don't despair! We are committed to providing the highest level of customer support to you our valued members. If you would like to send us your information by email we can paste your listing into the template for you. Send an email to us directly at help@mindmyhouse.com or contact us via our support form.

You'll need to provide all the information that you can see on the 'Edit my listing' page, for each of the fields.

Once you've sent your email to us your listing will be viewable (and searchable) online within 24 hours.

Many home owners are cautious about allowing house sitters move into their homes without checking their references/testimonials first. It is strongly recommended that you do provide references/testimonials. These can be from your estate agent or a former or current landlord. They could also be from previous satisfied home owners who have used and enjoyed your house sitting services. Basically the home owner just wants to have some idea of who you are to reassure them that you're not wanted in three states! Also, home owners can easily see which house sitters have references by doing a simple search, so it's a good idea to have references/testimonials to improve your chances of being contacted.

To give home owners extra reassurance that you're not a member of the criminal fraternity, it's a good idea to commission a copy of your very own police check, or in other words, a statement from a government authority that proves your "lack of a criminal record". Having this available shows home owners that you're serious about presenting yourself as responsible and trustworthy and may put you ahead of the competition.

The process of commissioning a police check (known variously as a 'criminal record check' in Canada and a 'police certificate' in New Zealand) varies but is a fairly straightforward and inexpensive process.

• In Australia visit the Australian Federal Police website at www.afp.gov.au
• In Canada look at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police website at www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca
• In Germany try the Federal Office Justice at www.bundesjustizamt.de
• In the UK, you can try the www.acro.police.uk or the www.gov.uk website
• In the US, obtaining a criminal record check is less common, but you can try the travel.state.gov website which has some useful suggestions
• In France, go to the Ministère de la Justice website at www.cjn.justice.gouv.fr
• In New Zealand, go to the www.police.govt.nz website
• In Spain, go to theSpanish Ministry of Justice website at www.mjusticia.gob.es
• In Sweden, try the polisen.se website

Your criminal record check should be current (preferably less than one year old).

If you don't want your sitter available listing to be viewable online for a time, you can hide it from view by choosing 'Hide my listing' from the 'Edit my listing' option in your account area. However, please note that many home owners search our database for house sitters well in advance of the beginning of their house sitting assignment. If you keep your availability dates set into the future and your listing viewable online you increase your chances of securing future house sitting assignments.

Unlike on some of our competitors' sites, our members have complete control over when and how their listings are viewed. Once you've logged into your personal member account area you can choose to create, edit, delete, hide or show your listing at any time by accessing "Edit my listing" from your account homepage. If you don't want to advertise your services or your assignment for a time we recommend you simply choose the 'hide' button at the top of your listing so that it is saved and can be 'shown' again when you next require it. While you don't need to ask us to create, edit or delete your listings for you, we're always on hand for advice if you need it.

Adding photos to your photo is now a snap! Sorry, bad pun. First, make sure you are logged in. Then click on the "Edit my listing" link from your Dashboard. If you haven't created your listing yet, it will be created for you.

On the edit listing page, you first need to go to 'Step 2 - Photos'. Once there, click the blue 'Upload' or 'Upload/edit photos' button. This will open our image editor. Then you can drop your pics anywhere to upload, or click the 'Select photos' button to choose images to upload. Works on mobile phones too!

Be patient – it may take a while to upload. When your done, select the 'Return to my listing' link and viola! 

Need more details?

You can choose which image to feature on the search results and as the main image in your listing. To do this, click the blue 'Upload/edit photos' button again from your listing, then click the 'star' icon on the thumbnail.

To delete an image, same as above, but click on the 'bin' or 'garbage can' icon instead.

You can also crop your image when it first get's uploaded (but not after, sorry). Please only upload one image at a time, if you want to use the cropping feature. Please also note that your image may appear differently, depending on whether it's viewed on a mobile device, tablet or desktop.

You can upload any image as long as it's a JPEG, PNG or GIF formatted image. For the technical minded, it needs to be less than 8Mb, or less than 4000 pixels across. Captions can be added when you upload an image, or click the 'edit' link under the thumbnail to bring up the caption edit screen.

If your having problems uploading a photo, please check the following in order to help resolve the problem:

1. Logout of MindMyHouse and login again.

2. Refresh your web browser by clicking on the 'Refresh' button in your web browser toolbar

3. Check that your image isn't too large

4. Check that your image has the correct filename (eg. jpg).

5. Ensure you have JavaScript enabled

6. If that doesn't work, try another web browser, or your phone (yes, we've tested this and it works nicely via your phone).

You are also welcome to send us your images as attachments to help@mindmyhouse.com. We can then try to upload your photos to your listing for you.

There are two possible reasons for this. You may have inadvertently hidden your listing or we may have hidden your listing for you because the dates you listed in your sitter available listing had expired.

A week before your availability dates expire we will have sent you an email. This email asked that you either set your availability dates into the future or that you hide your listing from public view (you can do this from your account area) until you would like to advertise your house sitting services again. If you didn't act on this reminder, we will have hidden your listing from view for you.

If this happens and you would like to amend your availability dates after they've expired, simply edit your listing from your account area, taking care to choose dates that are current. To bring your listing back into public view choose the 'Save and publish' option from your listing.

When home owners search our database for house sitters they do so by choosing a country name and entering place names in up to two additional fields (city/town, region/state) in a search form. They may also narrow their search still further by typing one or more keywords into the form. If you want to be found by the largest number of home owners keep in mind the following tips when listing area names in your sitter available listing.

• Keywords: These are the wildcards of the searching process. By adding one or more keywords to their search form home owners are considerably reducing the number of sitter available listings that they see. Our search engine will only find and display those listings that contain a match with the home owner's search terms. You can make searching by keyword your friend by trying to anticipate what terms home owners will be looking for and adding them to your listing where relevant. Popular keywords may include: non smoking, drivers lisence, dog lover, cat lover, gardener, companion, retired couple, veterinarian, security deposit, police check etc.
• Region: We have several options to assist home owners when they search for house sitters by region. First, they can select a country to restrict their search to. This corresponds to the countries that you have selected to house sit in (ie. via your listing). Home owners can also search for house sitters who live near to them. This will try to find house sitters who live near them and  corresponds to the 'Do you also want to sit locally' option that you see on your 'Edit my listing' page (step 7). We recommend that you opt in to this search to improve your chances at being selected for a house sitting assignment.
• Whole names: Using acronyms, abbreviations and local lingo in your sitter available listing will work just fine if everyone else is on your wavelength (using exact matches of your terms in their searches). However, many home owners may not be familiar, so please spell out any acronyms or abbreviations.

When you edit your 'Sitter wanted' listing (available from your Dashboard), under the 'Dates' section, just click the 'Add a new date range' button to add a second or third set of dates. This will allow you to select a second (or third) house sitter for those dates.

Important note: To view who has applied for which set of assignment dates, visit the 'Manage my sitters' page (from your Dashboard). You can manage everything for each set of dates from this screen, and is seperate to your 'listing' page.

Your listing, once pubished, has its own unique web address (or URL) so you can use it anywhere.

For house sitters – consider your sitter available listing your personal web page on our site. If you are contributing to forums you can use your web page's URL as part of your biographical information so that other people can click on it and see your listing. Or you could include the URL as part of your personalized email tagline or print it out on a business card. Why not? It's a good way to get your sitter available listing out there! Once you have logged into your account area on our site, you can find the unique URL of your listing easily by clicking on 'Edit my listing'. Your web page address should look like this (but with a different number instead of the zeros):

http://www.mindmyhouse.com/owners/sitter_listing/000/

If you paste your unique URL into the address field of your web browser you will immediately see your sitter available listing as it appears on our website. Note that your name and other contact details have been hidden behind a password-protected area on our site so this information is not viewable in this version of your listing.

You can also choose to have your listing hidden from Google searches. Just look for the 'Hide from Google' checkbox on the 'Edit my listing' page, under the 'Miscellaneous' heading.

If you are interested in house sitting in your local area, it's a really good idea to opt in to our new Local Sitter Search. This is a way of searching our site which allows home owners to see which of our house sitters normally live closest to them on a map (previously home owners could only see which country our house sitters normally lived in). To appear in our Local Sitter Search you need to create your own sitter available listing (if you haven't done so already) and choose the 'Local Sitter Search' option.

Please note that to appear on the right part of the relevant Search by location map you will need to ensure that you have filled out the address fields in your contact details correctly. For the database to include you on the right map, it is imperative that your address correct and that you type the name of your town/city into the town/city field of your registration form and not the name of your suburb! Note that your location on the map will only be shown to the nearest suburb. We will never reveal your street address or postcode!

Please feel free to write your listing in as many languages as you want to. We just ask that you try your best to include an English version of your listing as well. We don't mean to be English-centric but in order to have a global service that is accessible to the greatest number of users we need to have a common language in use on the site. Plus, if you include an English-language version of your listing you'll have a great many more users reading your listing (and replying to it!). If you're not confident about your written English, email our editor an English-language version of your listing (you could put your text through Google's language translator at the following URL: http://www.google.co.uk/language_tools?hl=en to come up with a rough version in English). I'll do my best to correct your text for you while retaining the original meaning of your words. It's all part of the service!

Home exchanging, like house sitting worldwide, is a new(ish) global phenomena that has taken off with the advent of the Internet. Many websites now cater specifically for those who want to swap their homes (temporarily) with others around the planet. Here at MindMyHouse, we're focused on creating the world's best resource on all things house sitting. Of course, it doesn't hurt to mention your interest in home exchanging in your listing but if you are at all curious about home exchanging we recommend searching online for home exchange websites. Helen Bergstein of the US-based website Digsville is an expert on the subject of home exchanging worldwide. She has created a well-respected home exchanging website that undoubtedly has all the information you are looking for. It's free to search the listings on Digsville and free to contact home owners with a home exchange proposition. Note however, that home exchanging is all about mutuality, so to be successful as a home swapper it's a good idea to invest in Digsville's annual subscription (MindMyHouse members get a discount on a full membership package) and create your own online member profile to showcase your home and location (with photos of course!).

Having gone to the effort and (maybe) the expense of registering with MindMyHouse.com as a house sitter member, consider these simple guidelines to help you create the kind of fabulous 'sitter available' listing that you deserve to have and that will attract home owners to you.

1. Don't shortchange yourself. Less is not more when it comes to advertising your house sitting services. Home owners are busy people, but they are prepared to give you all the time that it takes to read your listing. So take more than a moment to craft an listing of around 150 words that really sells your house sitting services. Note that the first 400 characters of your blurb will be shown in the search results so start with your best stuff.
2. Your title is your banner. Your title functions as the banner for your listing and thus needs to sum up what your listing is all about in a memorable kind of way. This may be your only chance to tempt someone to click onto your listing to read your lovingly crafted text so make it a good one!
3. Why do you want to house sit? 'All the world is a stage' or so the saying goes. In your listing try and summarise the kind of person you are, provide a brief history of who you are, and, most importantly, tell home owners WHY you are seeking house sitting positions. It is never enough to say 'contact me for more information'. They won't.
4. Are you experienced? Be honest. Tell home owners about how much previous experience of house sitting you have and if you do have referees, reassure them that they can be contacted to confirm your experience and trustworthiness.
5. What do you have to offer home owners? Rack your brain to think of what attributes you may have to offer a home owner. You may be a dog lover who has done a pet first aid course, you may have an 'at home' lifestyle feeding a young baby or writing a novel, you may be a keen organic gardener or you may be a locksmith who can offer the home owner free advice on home security. Anything that encourages home owners to add you to their favourite potential house sitters should be included in your listing.
6. You're trustworthy, right? You need to reassure home owners that their most valuable assets will be safe in your hands. It doesn't hurt to say just how responsible, mature and trustworthy you are.
7. Punctuation, spelling, grammar. Yes, boring I know, but crucial in giving a good first impression (this is the only impression you have to give) to make it onto home owners' favourite house sitting candidates. Style is just as important as content so please follow the conventions of good written English. Spell check your listing in Word before pasting it into the site. Only use complete sentences in your listing. Use commas and full stops where required. Don't use any slang or abbreviations. A single 100-word sentence full of ellipses ...and unusual 'text talk' abbreviations will be passed over by every home owner from Anchorage to Zagreb.
8. How's your English? If English isn't your first language or if writing is not your strongest skill, then ask someone more skilled at writing in English to help you with your listing. As long as it's factual and correct, there's no such thing as cheating when composing your sitter available listing, honest.
9. Do you have a desirable address? Make sure that your email address gives home owners the right impression. If it's rude or crude (such as these gems: 'slackarse@lycos.com.au', 'el.loco.albino@shrooms.co.sa', 'lusciouslucy@paradise.co.nz') or if it includes your name and place of work you may want to use a more neutral address. A suitable email address both conveys what a respectable person you are and can preserve your anonymity for as long as you want it to.
10. Maximise your chances of being found. Our search engine searches the database of sitter available listings in structured ways (trying to match ALL THE TERMS in the search with terms in your listing) to produce predictable search results. You can maximise the number of times your listing is found by loading your listing with relevant 'keywords'.
11. Check out these samples. Lastly, check out our selection of sample 'house sitter available' listings. You may be inspired.

A week before the availability dates in your sitter available listing expire we will send you an email. This email will ask that you set your availability dates in your listing into the future or ask that you hide your listing from public view (you can do this from your account area) until you would like to advertise your house sitting services again. If you don't act on this reminder, MindMyHouse.com will hide your listing from view for you. If this happens and you would like to amend your availability dates after they've expired, simply select 'Save and hide' from the 'Edit my listing' page in your account area.

The vast majority of house sitting assignments are in the wealthy countries of the west: Canada and USA, New Zealand and Australia, UK and Europe and South Africa. Due to space reasons we've shortened our list of countries to reflect this fact. If you want to select a country such as Ghana or Brazil for your listing, simply choose Africa or South America from the pull-down menu. You can then include more detail in your listing about what you are specifically looking for.

Creating your own 'sitter wanted' listing is a great way of gathering offers from interested house sitters without having to do the hard work of searching MindMyHouse.com for a house sitter yourself. Consider these simple guidelines to writing a 'sitter wanted' listing that will provide potential house sitters with enough of the right type of information to know if they really should apply for your house sitting assignment.

1. Don't shortchange yourself. Less is not more when it comes to advertising your house sitting assignment. House sitters are busy people, but they are prepared to give you all the time that it takes to read your listing. So take more than a moment to craft an listing of around 150 words that adequately describes your house sitting assignment.
2. Your title is your banner. Your title functions as the banner for your listing and thus needs to sum up what your listing is all about in a memorable kind of way. This may be your only chance to tempt someone to click onto your listing to read your lovingly crafted text so make it a good one!
3. Two bases to cover. 'All the world is a stage' or so the saying goes. In your listing you need to cover two bases simultaneously. Your first challenge is to adequately describe what you are looking for and expect from a house sitter. Your second challenge is to adequately describe what your house sitting assignment can offer to a house sitter.
4. Give them enough to go on. Many 'sitter wanted' listings suffer from the same fault: lack of information. It is never enough to say 'contact me for more information'. Curious house sitters may be motivated to do this but you could end up repeating the same information endlessly to house sitters who quickly realize the assignment is unsuitable for them.
5. Answer these questions. Try and answer the following questions in your listing: Where is my property located? What type and size is my property? What and how many animals will require care? What kind of maintenance will my property need? What are the good features of my property? What are the good features of my location? Is there anything a house sitter should know before they apply for the assignment?
6. Punctuation, spelling, grammar. Yes, boring I know, but crucial in getting your message across. Style is just as important as content so please follow the conventions of good written English. Spell check your listing in Word before pasting it into the site. Only use complete sentences in your listing. Use commas and full stops where required. Don't use any slang or abbreviations.
7. How's your English? If English isn't your first language or if writing is not your strongest skill, then ask someone more skilled at writing in English to help you with your listing. As long as it's factual and correct, there's no such thing as cheating when composing your 'sitter wanted' listing.
8. Staying anonymous. MindMyHouse.com preserves your anonymity right up until the moment you respond to house sitters' emails. As your usual email address can give away all sorts of things about you such as your name and your place of work, you may want to retain your anonymity by creating a new email address to use on MindMyHouse.com.
9. Check out these samples. Lastly, check out our selection of sample 'house sitter wanted' listings. You may be inspired.

You can choose to make your listing invisible to Google and other search engines at any time by ticking the 'hide from Google' checkbox on the 'Edit my listing' page, under the 'Miscellaneous' tab. Please note that your listing will still be searchable using the MindMyHouse search if you select this option. Also, it may take Google a while to take note of the changes - sorry but there isn't anything we can do about that.

As part of the redesign for version 3, we have made the images in your listings much larger relative to the text. However, to make everything fit well on small screens, medium screens and large screens, we opted for a ‘panoramic’, or horizontal format.

If you upload a portrait image, we will fill in the background with a blurred version of the original, to fit our unique panoramic format.

If you previously uploaded an image (before May 2022) that was in a portrait format, some unfavourable cropping might have happened as we crossed over to the new ‘landscape’ format. To resolve this, can we ask that you edit your listing to delete old, now unsuitable portrait-style listings and upload some new images that work better?

There may be a few reasons why this has happened:

• We only started collecting data about this type of site activity from April 2020. It may be that your assignment was from before this date. Use this form to submit any assignments you completed before then.
• The home owner may have disputed that you successfully completed the assignment and MindMyHouse, after investigation, has either agreed or the outcome is still pending.

The Reply reliability rating is a rating that MindMyHouse gives to each member, to see how reliably they reply to messages sent to them.

MindMyHouse will calculate this simply as a percentage, from messages received versus messages sent. Please note that it’s only an approximate figure – we will convert the percentage into something like ‘always’, or ’often’,  ‘sometimes’ or ‘rarely’. Hopefully there won’t be any of that last one!

The Reply speediness rating is a rating that MindMyHouse gives to each member, to see how speedily they reply to the first message sent to them.

To start, everyone will begin with a rating of five points. If the member does not respond to a new message sent to them within five days, they will lose a point. To get the point back, they just need to reply within five days for the next new message they receive. It’s a similar system to those used on some of our competitors’ websites.

There are several things you can do to improve your chances at being selected for a house sitting assignment. The most important thing to do is to get your 'Sitter available' listing looking as good as it can.

This would include adding some more details about yourself into your listing. We find that home owners often find it difficult to choose between house sitters, and so having some additional information will always give you an edge.

The following FAQs may also help you:

How do I customize my sitter available listing so that the maximum number of home owners find it?

http://www.mindmyhouse.com/support/faq/60

We also encourage you to add some references or testimonials to your 'Sitter available' listing. For more information about these, please read the following article in our news section:

http://www.mindmyhouse.com/community/blog/news/mindmyhouse-news-sept-2016/

In addition, you should setup an email alert or two, so that you can be respond quickly when a listing comes up that you are interested in. Competition for house sitting opportunities can be intense sometimes and email alerts are a good way to help you get your application in early. For help in setting up an email alert/s, please see the following FAQ on the subject:

What is an email alert? How I create/delete/edit my email alert?

http://www.mindmyhouse.com/support/faq/51

With regards to your listing, to improve your visiblity, please consider opting into the Local House sitter feature on the site. This makes you available for house sitting locally.

How do I make myself available for house sitting in my local area?

http://www.mindmyhouse.com/support/faq/77

MindMyHouse is a niche site, specialising in matching home owners and house sitters worldwide for the free exchange of house sitting services for free accommodation, and we want to keep it that way! We also know that our house sitter members are not particularly interested in finding sub-letting or short-term rental, home exchange situations, B&B or AirBNB management, or work swap through our service.

For these reasons, we will most likely not publish your listing if it fits into this category.

If you are a lifetime member, should you ever be seeking candidates for the conventional house sitters role, please edit your listing and re-submit it for publication. There is every chance it will meet our criteria!

If you paid for an annual membership, we are happy to give you a refund if your 'sitter wanted' listing was denied (and you were not able to use our service).

Home owners – when looking for a house sitter, please keep in mind that MindMyHouse is a niche site, specialising in matching home owners and house sitters worldwide for the free exchange of house sitting services for free accommodation, and we want to keep it that way!

We also know that our house sitter members are not particularly interested in finding sub-letting or short-term rental, home exchange situations, B&B or AirBNB management, or work swap (workaway) through our service.

Therefore, if we feel that your listing isn't suitable for publishing on MindMyHouse, we will let you know. If you paid for your home owner membership, we can issue you with a full refund.

Also, over the years, we have had a few home owners with pets that need looking after and whom have been either ill, have had behavioural issues, or have required specialist medical treatment. And whilst most home owners have been good at indicating in their 'Sitter wanted' listings that their pet has required specialist care, not all house sitters selected for the house sit have the necessary experience for handling these situations.

This may require us to write to you (and other home owners with similar situations) and suggest that a professional pet care service may be a better option instead of using MindMyHouse, especially as it will provide more peace of mind, knowing that you pet will be given the best of care. Due to the way that MindMyHouse works, we don't vet our house sitters and rely instead on home owners to check references etc. There are some other house sitting websites that do these types of checks of course, and you may want to look them up.