Dog Sitting and House Sitting - making sense of your holiday options

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It's time to plan your holidays. What should be a joyous exciting adventure on where to go and what to do is also a worrying and potentially frustrating experience for us pet parents.

Of course, there's also a pang of guilt involved too, but sometimes there just ain't enough pet friendly hotels in pet friendly locations that can help.

So there it is - you've decided to travel somewhere (exotic!) or most likely abroad without being able to bring your favourite furry friend along too. If the sound of kennels strikes fear into your heart then don't worry as there are other practical, safe and in-expensive options available.

Friends and family

The option of asking your friends or family to look after your pet is probably your first thought. If you just have a dog that needs looking after then things may be easier as fortunately dogs are willing to travel and stay overnight at someone else's home.

If you have a cat then things get more complicated and you're most likely to want your friend or family member to pet sit at your house whilst you are away. Even if you just have a dog this can bring many benefits as follows:

- all pets prefer to be in their own home which brings familiarity, comfort and feeling of being safe

- your house is occupied which will deter burglar's

- House plants and outdoor flowers/shrubs will get watered. This may sound trivial, but seeing your favourite rhododendrons die off prematurely is anxiety inducing.

All good so far? However there can be some less obvious downsides if you do after all manage to rope in friends/family/neighbours to help you out and pet sit:

- When things goes wrong? It's the height of awkwardness when items get broken. Small things you overlook but when washing machines don't work anymore (was it overloaded?) and there is a cost running into hundreds, some hard conversations may need to be held

- Payback, it sounds cynical but when cat/dog sitting favours occur there will always be some reciprocation or recompense involved (not necessarily monetary). If your sitter also has a pet you may simply offer to return the pet sitting favour, so that can work out equally. If not, it can be tricky working out how pay that person back (non-financially). You may have to play the long game and it can build resentment over time if that other party somehow feels they're not appreciated enough or valued for their efforts.

Local Pet sitters/dog walkers

On the surface, this sounds like a great solution as it avoids potential mishaps and awkward moments with friends and family helping you out. Plus local professionals will know your area and should hit the ground running (or dog walking in this case) without too much input from yourselves. All is good until you start crunching the numbers.

As a guide, in London, you can be looking at paying £50 per day for a professional dog walker to come in and daily walk your dog with extra costs involved if this includes overnight stays and/or feeding your cat. Now this could well be a price worth paying to have the confidence of a pro caring for your pooch, however when you factor in this extra cost on top of your holiday bills, you may question whether it's working travelling in the first place!

Let's say, for instance, you budget your hotel stay at £100-200 per night then you could be adding a further £100 pet cost so together you and your dogs overnight stay tops £200-300 per night.

House Sitting platforms

This is a recent discovery of mine that there are national pet sitting services that use an online platform to match pet parents looking for pet sitting with real people who love animals and are looking for a place to stay in return.

The concept is simple but, as always, you need to check the finer detail of these arrangements to ensure it's suitable and reliable for what you need. Peace of mind is key. As part of my research, I applied some basic criteria to help:

1. Insurance

Are you covered if things go wrong. This can involved accident breakages etc which are no-ones fault

2. Vetting

What rules and processes are employed to help ensure the pet sitters are genuine caring pet lovers?

3. Contact

Are you able to speak (in-person/online) to the prospective pet sitter and ask all those important (and silly) questions

4. Costs

Do the cost rack up per night? Are there any extra's to pay for additional services?

5. Cancellation

If plans change can I or they cancel the service? Are their costs involved?

I found a number of pet sitting services online and the site that appeared to answer positively to all my set criteria was TrustedHouseSitters. Here what I like about their pet sitting service:

- Home & contents insurance for damage and theft included as standard

- Vetted sitters which give me detail about who they are with many reviews before I even contact them

- Very easy to get in touch with potential sitters very email and video

- Just a one-off membership cost which doesn't increase and they are no further pet sitting fees

- Sit cancellation plan - although this is not encouraged as these things work both ways. This makes me feel more secure so I know arrangements are made seriously in order to not let anyone down

When visiting the TrustedHouseSitters site, take a bit of time to familiarise yourself. I admit to being quite nervous to begin with. Once you feel confident enough, it's very straightforward to create a listing talking about your you, your home and your pets.

I recommend you look at other peoples listings living close to you first to get a good idea of what others put in their post. Also take a few minutes to scan through potential applicants before going live. Nerves settled, I took the plunge and put my listing live and await the outcome (but that's for another blog post!).

The nice people at TrustedHouseSitters gave me a free trial to help me write this blog experience. You can also benefit by using our exclusive discount code PP20 directly to save 20% on TrustedHouseSitters membership.

Before making any decision, you can always read more here about theTrustedHouseSitters discount deal and how to claim your 20% discount.