So, I overheard my pup parents talking the other day about that dreaded word…vacation! When I hear travel, that means the pups are in tow, but vacation is a whole different story. Sadly, that means the pups ain’t invited.
Alternative dog care options when vacationing
With vacation comes major disruptions in our daily ritual. In the past, that has meant being shipped off to a kennel, a pet “resort”, or the house of a dog sitter. Each of these have their pluses and minuses. Let’s face facts, pups we can tolerate major disruptions for a short time, because pup’s love routine. You know, like stretching out on our own bed or barking madly at our favorite people on the street.
A couple of days after the vacation word was heard, and our heads were getting wrapped around the idea of going to a dog sitter, our pup parents got on a Skype call with a lovely sounding couple to tell them all about us and our house. They even picked up my sister and I and showed us off to them. Seemed very strange, but then we came to understand that they were going to try out something called TrustedHousesitters.
The sharing economy isn’t just for millennials anymore
TrustedHousesitters is a global network that connects home owners that travel with caring individuals that will come and care for your house and pets. The cool thing that our pup parents liked about TrustedHousesitters was that it was pretty much free. Yup, you heard correct, pretty much free. There is an annual fee of $139 to become a member and then you can use the service as much as you like. The house sitters don’t charge you anything to stay. So, when you compare that to between $80 – $200 per night for 2 dogs, this is a great option for longer vacations. Because our pup parents were going away for 2 weeks, our pup parents were looking at between $1100 – $2800! Oh, and no disruption to our lives, so we love that.
The people that our pup parents met through Skype were a retired couple from Arizona that wanted to experience our part of the world. They were happy to have a free place to stay so they could explore. In exchange, they promised to take really good care of us. Then my parents read us some reviews from some other travelers that this couple pet and house sat for and they sounded pretty cool.
When we finally met them, we could tell this was going to be fun. They had some treats in their pockets for us. Which helped us to quickly forget our pup parent’s suitcases lined up at the front door – those always caused us anxiety. We had a such a great time with our guests. We showed them all around our neighbourhood, introduced them to all our friends and even gave them a few cuddles on the couch…these are only reserved for besties. Who thought a staycation could be such fun.
They also took lots of pictures of us and sent them to our pup parents. I guess that made them less sad about being away from us.
Staycation with benefits
All-in-all we would give TrustedHousesitters 4 paws up. It was a win-win-win for everyone. It’s a perfect example of how the sharing economy can really work to really reduce costs and give people and pets great experiences.
Disclaimer: Bark ‘n Yapp will receive a small commission if you join TrustedHousitters
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