Why hire a house sitter?

Author picture Jessica

Why should I hire a house sitter?

A house sitter can keep your home secure and care for your dog or cat while you are away. By living in your home as a guest would, a house sitter maintains your household routine and keeps your home safe and sound. 

Your house sitter can also perform extra tasks such as watering plants, bringing in mail, signing for parcels, keeping the house fresh (instead of being shut up for days on end) and do a quick tidy up before you arrive home. Your house will look lived in too, which is a great form of home security.

What is a house sitter 

A house sitter is a trusted individual who can mind your home while you are away. House sitters treat your home as you would by staying overnight and, most importantly, keeping your pet happy and fed. 

This is why many house sitting websites use the terms ‘house sitter’ and ‘pet sitter’ interchangeably. On Pawshake, our house sitters ARE pet sitters, because pet care always comes first. 

Why should I hire a Pawshake house sitter?

1. No membership fees

You won't be charged any membership fees when you hire a house sitter through Pawshake, unlike other traditional house sitting websites. Our house sitters set their own prices so that they are paid fairly for their hard work.

When a house sitting booking is made through our platform, we deduct 19% from the booking. This is to provide all of our users with local customer support, veterinary cover for each booking, third-party insurance, secure online payments and coverage by the Pawshake Guarantee. 

2. Our house sitters are fully vetted 

We manually vet every single pet sitter profile on our platform, and only the very best and most experienced pet sitters are approved (in fact, less than 25% of new applicants). Pet sitting profiles that aren’t up to scratch are reviewed and removed.

We also verify each pet sitter on our website using sms, email and geographic location so that each pet sitter on the site is above board and fully accountable. 

When signing up, Pawshake pet sitters agree to our service standards. This means you can expect a high level of consistent service, no matter what pet sitter you choose.

3. Pawshake offers a transparent review system

Every booking that has been completed will prompt a pet owner to leave a review on their pet sitter’s profile. 

This is an important part of building a safe, transparent community, as new pet owners visiting the website can read detailed reviews from real users. 

4. Each booking includes veterinary cover with no gap payment

In the very rare case of accident or illness, pet owners can have peace-of-mind knowing that their pet is covered. 

Unlike other house and pet sitting websites, we offer no minimum claim: meaning that you won't need to pay ANY gap payment if your pet needs vet care. Even the smallest incident during house sitting or any booking is taken seriously and will be covered by the Pawshake Guarantee. 

5. The Pawshake Customer Support Team is local

All of Pawshake’s staff are highly trained,  in-house, local and love pets as much as you do. 

We have a core team of dedicated and experienced customer support agents on the ground in Australia who understand the specific issues that you might need help with. If you ever need to speak to one of us, you can rest assured that we aren’t from a third-party support agency.

6. Pawshake technology makes the house sitting process smooth

We aim to match you with the perfect house sitter, which is why we are constantly working on our search function all the time. Once you’ve found your perfect house sitter, our convenient platform and app allow you to make a safe, cash-free booking.

Likewise, the Pawshake app allows you to receive daily message updates and photos from your house sitter to keep you in the loop while your pet enjoys their fun staycation.

So are you ready to find your perfect house sitter today? Head to the Pawshake website and enter your suburb to see who is nearby – there are plenty of house sitters who would love to help care for your pets.

Book a house sitter