Housesit Match has been a perfect fit for us

17 Sep, 2019

Housesit Match has been a perfect fit for us

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One of our Housesit Match homeowners very kindly sent us a blog describing how she believes our housesitting platform has been a good fit or ‘match’ for her and her husband and their pets. So as a way to share her housesit story, and perhaps encourage other home and pet owners to step forward and ask us to help them, we share the Housesit Match experience of Spain-based Kemkem her husband and their two dogs.
Thanks again Kemkem for your lovely contribution to our history of HouseSitMatch, the housesitting platform…
Living in Seville has great advantages. But who looks after the dogs?
The Alcazar Palace of Seville. Living as expats in Seville has great advantages.

As travelers we like to spend time in a location to learn more about each country

My husband and l travel a lot – a whole lot! It’s been that way ever since we pretty much sold everything we owned and left the United States over three years ago.
Our decision to retire early and do what we loved best –  to travel – was triggered by a tragedy. I watched one of my older sisters work hard to raise three boys.
They were her life and she rarely took any time off for herself. That was going to be in the future. Unfortunately, life had other plans and she ended up losing her life to breast and lung cancer.  Her loss shook me to the core.
I realized that yes, life is indeed short. Since l was young, l had always felt the urge to travel, discover new places and meet new people. Somehow we ended up with the house, the job, the cars, all the trappings of “normal” adult life. We made the decision to get our affairs in order and get to traveling. It didn’t happen for almost three years, and involved lots of sacrifices, but it was worth it.
Our dogs have traveled the world with us. Together we make our home
Our dogs have traveled the world with us. Together we make our home wherever we are

HousesitMatch helps us care for our dogs at home while we travel

Our little family includes two precious dogs, both rescues from Houston. I would be lying if l said we didn’t contemplate leaving them behind, but we ultimately couldn’t do it. They moved with us to Malta, which was our very first destination.

For the first eight months, we didn’t travel outside the country because we had no one we trusted to look after them. We eventually did find a really nice kennel that was popular with the other expats on the island. They were very good with the dogs.

Moving to Seville in Spain

I had resigned myself to the same fate once we moved to Seville, Spain. I really had no idea about people who housesit. Never heard of it as an online business until one day l saw an ad on the internet. I signed on to two platforms. I was a bit nervous with the first couple that sat for us, but they were really nice and it went well. The dogs liked them.

Housesit Options

Over the next six months, l think we used them about four times, one being a disaster that ended up costing a lot of money. I went searching for another company and as luck would have it, l somehow found a group on Facebook called HouseSitMatch.

Getting to know HouseSitMatch and Lamia the founder

From the first time l interacted with Lamia Walker, the founder, l was so impressed by her professionalism. l emailed her from India in need of a sitter (family emergency) and my husband was scheduled to join me two days later and we had no one to care for the dogs in Seville! Even though we were unable to find someone through her in such little time, she still kept in touch.

I decided to join the platform because l loved the  personal touch.

At home in Seville with the dogs

Lamia is very intuitive. I am kind of an organized person, but admit to being be a scatterbrain when it comes to some things, like dates etc. I have been known to book us travel for overlapping days ;-). To start with I had no idea how to use the HouseSitMatch website to put an ad in etc… but she patiently helped and made sure to put the right dates etc.

We have  found really good sitters through HouseSitMatch.

Repeat housesits

We’ve used them l believe four times in six months. We have another upcoming in October through the site as well. As homeowners and pet owners, it is such a relief to be able to find knowledgeable, trustworthy people to take care of our beloved pets when we go away.

That to us is very important thing. We’ve had all kinds of people caring for our dogs including an Australian family, and American couple and a British retired sports teacher!

An Australian family with two children came to housesit last Winter
An Australian family with two children came to housesit last Winter

The biggest advantage is the peace of mind knowing that the dogs are well cared for while we are often very far away. The dogs routine not being interrupted. They don’t have to sleep in a strange bed or kennel, but on their usual familiar and comfortable sofas (we’ve given up on beds for them as they tear them up and prefer the couch or the floor 🙂

Housesit Match helps us all save money!

It has also been a big money saver for us. We have paid huge sums of money over time to put them in kennels or have someone keep them at their house. With HouseSit Match, we are doing a sort of barter, it’s an exchange. We save some money on kennel care, and the sitters in return have a free place to stay while on vacation, saving money on hotels.
They also have a kitchen to cook in and a pool that is really useful in the Summer.

Housesit Match helps us with Long term house-sitters

Our last trip took us to Madrid, Stockholm, Italy and Portugal over 31 days. Our sitters from HouseSit Match, Eden and Denny were excellent with the dogs. We had a day overlap before we left so we could show them around and let them know the quirks of the house. It was obvious from the get-go that they were animal lovers and experienced.

The smaller dog, who is usually wary of strangers was all over them as soon as they walked in through the gate. It was quite the love fest 🙂 .

While we missed them a lot, it was one of the few times that my husband didn’t mention them that much. His mind was truly at ease.

We have not used any other platforms since we started working with Lamia. We don’t plan to either. For us, HouseSit Match is the perfect fit, a ‘match’ for our needs. If you are a homeowner with pets, you owe it to yourself to check out HouseSitMatch. I think you’ll find it’s a perfect fit for you as well.

If you would like to try house-sitting register with Housesit Match and we can help you find either a housesitter to help you, or a housesit to start your journey!

To register as a House sitter follow this link

To register as a Homeowner follow this link

FURTHER READING

The Affordable Alternative to Dog Kennels

What is House Sitting?


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LamiaW

LamiaW

Founder and Director of HouseSitMatch - I'm a hands-on Admin on the site. Please ask any questions and as soon as I can I'll happily answer and assist where I can.

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