Is TrustedHousesitters Worth It? The Membership Math Explained

TrustedHousesitters charges an annual membership instead of a per night rate, which makes it a genuinely different question from asking whether a Rover sitter or a boarding kennel is worth it. You are not paying for a single stay, you are buying a year of access to a pool of vetted sitters who will live in your home and care for your pet in exchange for free lodging. The honest bottom line is that the membership earns its keep quickly for owners who travel more than once or twice a year, own or rent a home a sitter is willing to travel to, and are comfortable inviting a vetted stranger to stay unsupervised while they are away. For someone taking one short trip a year, or someone who is not willing to do the vetting work themselves, it is often not worth it.

How the membership actually works

TrustedHousesitters is not a booking marketplace in the Rover sense. You pay one annual fee to join as a pet parent, and that membership gives you access to search, message, and arrange sits with sitters for as many trips as you can fill in that twelve month period. There is no separate charge for the sitter's time. In exchange for free accommodation, the sitter feeds, walks, and cares for your pet and keeps an eye on your home while you are gone. Both sides are expected to be genuine: the sitter wants a place to stay, and you want reliable, in home pet and house care, not a stranger paying you for a room.

Because the whole model runs on a membership rather than per booking payments, the value calculation is completely different from a pay as you go service like Rover. A deeper side by side of how the two models compare is worth reading before you commit to either one, since they suit different travel patterns.

What membership actually costs in 2026

Pet parent (owner) membership on TrustedHousesitters is sold in tiers, and pricing varies by country and by promotional offers, so always confirm the current numbers on the official pricing page before you buy. As a general 2026 ballpark, a basic pet parent plan runs roughly $130 to $150 per year, a mid tier plan runs roughly $200 to $230 per year, and the top tier runs roughly $260 to $300 per year. The lower tiers typically carry a small per sit booking fee on top of the membership, while the top tier is usually sold as fee free once you are a member. None of these figures are guarantees. Confirm the exact tier prices and fee structure for your country on the site before joining, since TrustedHousesitters has changed its pricing structure more than once in recent years.

Whichever tier you choose, there is no per night charge to the sitter. That is the core trade you are making: a flat annual fee instead of a recurring nightly rate. TrustedHousesitters' own breakdown of what membership costs confirms the same shape: one flat yearly payment covers however many sits you can arrange in that period, rather than a charge tied to each individual stay.

It is worth reading the tier comparison closely before you buy, not just the headline number. The cheapest tier looks attractive on price alone, but if it carries a per sit fee, a household that fills three or four trips a year on that tier can end up paying close to what the fee free top tier would have cost outright, plus the hassle of tracking each charge. Run your own expected number of trips against each tier's total cost, including any per sit fee, rather than assuming the lowest sticker price is automatically the cheapest option for your travel pattern.

The math: how many trips before it pays off

The break even question comes down to comparing the annual membership cost against what you would otherwise pay a paid sitter or boarding service per trip. A paid in home pet sitter or boarder commonly runs about $25 to $75 per night depending on your area and the number of pets, so even a single week long trip can cost $175 to $525 through a pay per booking service. If your membership costs somewhere around $150 to $300 for the year, one week long trip covered by a TrustedHousesitters sitter can already come close to covering the membership fee, and every trip after that is essentially free pet and house care. Someone who travels three, four, or more times a year with a paid sitter each time is very likely paying far more across the year than the flat TrustedHousesitters fee, sometimes by a wide margin.

The math flips for someone who travels once, for a long weekend, or only occasionally needs care. A single weekend of paid drop in visits or a short boarding stay can cost less than the cheapest TrustedHousesitters tier, and you avoid the effort of vetting and hosting a live in sitter for a trip that short. In that case a one off booking through a service that reviews and compares options, such as Rover, or a trusted local sitter, is usually the cheaper and simpler path.

Who saves the most money

The clearest winners are frequent travelers who own or rent a home in a location sitters are willing to visit. Retirees and remote workers who take multiple long trips a year, people who travel for weeks or months at a time, and owners with multiple pets who would otherwise pay per pet boarding rates tend to see the biggest gap between what they were paying before and what the membership costs. Owners in popular or easy to reach destinations also tend to have an easier time finding sitters, which matters because the savings only materialize if you can actually fill your trips with sits.

Owners with unusual schedules, homes in remote or hard to reach locations, pets with intensive medical needs, or only one short trip planned tend to see much smaller savings, and sometimes none at all once you account for the time spent vetting candidates and coordinating a stay.

Households with more than one pet, or with a dog and a cat together, tend to see an outsized benefit, since a single sitter usually covers the whole household for one flat rate. A paid boarding facility, by contrast, often charges per pet per night, so a two dog household can pay close to double a single dog's boarding bill for the same trip. That per pet math is one of the more overlooked reasons the membership favors larger pet families.

The real advantages beyond price

Cost is not the only reason owners choose this model. A sitter living in the home means a pet stays in a familiar environment instead of moving to a kennel or an unfamiliar sitter's house, which can matter for anxious pets, senior pets, or multi pet households that are hard to split up. A resident sitter also keeps an eye on the house itself: watering plants, collecting mail, and generally making the home look lived in while you are away, which a per visit drop in service usually does not cover in the same way. For frequent travelers this combination of savings and in home continuity is the main draw.

The honest downsides

The membership model asks you to accept real tradeoffs that a paid, professionally insured service does not. You are inviting someone you have not met in person to stay in your home, often for several days or weeks, based on a profile, reviews, and whatever verification your tier includes. That is a genuine trust decision, not a formality. The American Kennel Club's guidance on choosing a pet sitter recommends checking references, confirming credentials, and doing an in person meet and greet before handing over your home and pet, and that advice applies just as much to a membership exchange sitter as to a paid one. Organizations like Pet Sitters International set professional standards for paid sitters that a peer to peer exchange does not automatically guarantee, so the vetting responsibility sits more heavily on you as the owner.

Availability is not guaranteed either. Unlike a paid marketplace where you can usually find someone for the right price, TrustedHousesitters depends on a sitter actually wanting to travel to your location on your exact dates. Popular destinations and holiday weeks fill up fast, and owners in less convenient locations can struggle to find anyone at all, which undercuts the value of the membership if you cannot book the trips you planned around.

There is also real coordination effort: writing a listing, messaging candidates, screening references, running a meet and greet, and leaving detailed instructions all take time that a one click paid booking usually does not. For a single short trip, that effort plus the membership fee can end up costing more in time and money than simply paying a sitter for the nights you need, the way you would through Rover. Independent reviews on sites like Trustpilot reflect this split: many long time members report strong value, while first time or infrequent users are more likely to feel the membership fee was hard to justify.

Renewal is another honest cost to plan for. The membership is billed annually, and if a trip falls through, a sitter cancels last minute, or your travel plans change for the year, you can end up having paid the fee without getting meaningful use out of it. That risk sits entirely on the owner, unlike a pay per booking service where you only ever pay for care you actually receive.

When it is not worth it

The membership tends not to pay off when you only travel once or twice a year for short trips, when you live somewhere sitters rarely want to visit, when your pet has needs that require a paid, insured professional rather than a peer exchange, or when you are not willing to spend the time vetting and communicating with candidates. In any of those cases a pay per booking option, a trusted local sitter, or a boarding facility is likely to cost less and involve less coordination overall. It is also worth reading through how a membership exchange differs from a traditional paid arrangement before deciding, since the two are not interchangeable services with different price tags, they are structurally different: see our full breakdown of house sitting versus pet sitting for the mechanics of each.

For a deeper look at the platform itself, including how sitter verification works and what members say about it, read the full TrustedHousesitters review.

A quick way to run the numbers yourself

Before you buy, sketch out your own year rather than relying on averages. Start with how many trips you realistically expect to take, and how many nights each trip runs. Multiply that by what you would pay a paid pet sitter or boarding facility in your area per night, then compare the total to the annual membership fee for the tier you are considering, including any per sit fee that tier charges. If the paid alternative total is close to or higher than the membership, the math favors joining. If it is well below the membership cost, you are likely better off paying per trip instead.

Two variables matter more than people expect: how many pets you have, since a paid service often charges per pet while a membership sit typically covers the household for one fee, and how easy your location is for a sitter to reach, since a membership only pays off if you can actually fill the trips you planned around. A quick search of sitter availability in your area for your usual travel dates, before you commit to a tier, is a reasonable way to sanity check whether the supply side of the exchange will work for you.

Trips per year | Typical paid sitter cost (est.) | Membership cost (est.) | Likely verdict
1 short trip (2 to 4 nights) | About $50 to $300 | Roughly $130 to $300 | Often close to a wash, sometimes cheaper to pay per trip
1 to 2 longer trips (1 to 2 weeks each) | About $350 to $1,050 | Roughly $130 to $300 | Membership usually pays off
3 or more trips a year | About $525 to $1,500 plus | Roughly $130 to $300 | Membership almost always pays off
Extended travel (a month or more per trip) | Can exceed $1,000 per trip | Roughly $130 to $300 | Membership strongly favored, if sitters are available

Frequently asked questions

Is TrustedHousesitters really free after I pay the membership?

The sit itself is free. The sitter does not charge for their time and you do not pay a nightly rate. You pay the annual membership fee to join, and depending on your tier there may be a small per sit booking fee on top of that, so confirm your tier's exact terms before you rely on the math being perfectly fee free.

How many trips do I need per year to make the membership worth it?

As a rough guide, one longer trip or two shorter trips a year is often enough for the membership to match or beat what you would have paid a per night sitter, and three or more trips a year usually makes the membership the clearly cheaper option. A single short trip is the case where it is least likely to pay off.

Is it safe to have a stranger stay in my home?

It carries real risk that a paid, professionally managed service does not fully remove. TrustedHousesitters sitters typically go through some form of identity verification and review based reputation, but you should still check references, do a video or in person meet and greet, and confirm what verification your specific membership tier includes. The American Kennel Club recommends the same diligence for any sitter, paid or unpaid, who will be in your home.

What if I cannot find a sitter for my exact dates?

Availability is not guaranteed. Popular destinations and peak travel weeks fill up quickly, and owners in harder to reach locations sometimes cannot find a match at all. This is the biggest risk to the membership math, since you still pay the annual fee even in a year where you could not fill every trip.

How is this different from just paying a sitter through an app like Rover?

TrustedHousesitters is a flat annual membership with a sitter for accommodation exchange, while Rover is a pay per booking marketplace where you pay a provider's rate for each specific job. Frequent travelers tend to save more with the membership model, while occasional travelers often find a pay per booking service cheaper and simpler for a single trip. See our full comparison of Rover versus TrustedHousesitters for the complete breakdown.