The High Cost of Housesitting

Three in five Americans say inflation has affected their summer travel plans. But that doesn’t mean they’ve opted to forego their trips. It just means they need to be more savvy.

To satisfy their travel aspirations while being budget-conscious, some are opting for road trips as an alternative to air travel and selecting affordable accommodation options. Others are willing to work.

The sentiment follows a recent PYMNTS report that states that consumers view travel as essential but still look for deals. That said, between the first quarter of 2022 and Q1 2023, two categories related to travel activities showed the highest increases in digital engagement. Online travel information experienced an 11% growth, while online airfare saw a rise of 14%. This surge in digital engagement indicates consumer interest in travel, and airlines are optimistic about the upcoming months, anticipating increased demand.

See also: Consumers See Summer Travel as Essential but Look for Bargains

But as prices continue to rise, 35% of consumers have made the tough choice of switching to cheaper, lower-quality goods to manage their expenses, even when it comes to travel. With that, the desire to escape and travel has proven to be advantageous for hotel reservations. For one, Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel noted during a Q4 2022 earnings call that increased reservations resulted in room nights exceeding 2019 levels across all major regions for the quarter.

See also: Booking Holdings Says Hotel Stays Finally Eclipse Pre-COVID Levels

He added that this activity in Q4 led to a record-breaking achievement of nearly 900 million room nights booked on their platforms for 2022, representing a 52% increase compared to the previous year. And more recently, in March, AirDNA reported that travelers created a new record by making unprecedented bookings for short-term rentals, which amounted to 21 million nights reserved for future stays.

But even with cheaper bookings, the booking receipt has to get paid. So, how are consumers doing it?

Some Are Swapping Their Home Digs

The concept of unlimited house-swapping is becoming popular among travelers. HomeExchange, a company based in the United States, has witnessed a noticeable growth in membership levels during the first quarter. With a year-over-year increase of 77%, the membership base has reached 110,000 members.

Moreover, the platform has experienced a substantial rise of 63% in the number of exchanges conducted through its services.

But if house swapping isn’t in the cards, labor might be in exchange for a place to stay.

Consumers Opt To Work During Their Vacations

“I took care of three cats and 20-plus plants while I was in Morocco, one dog in Tokyo, one dog in Kobe, and two cats in South Korea,” said 30-year-old freelance designer Lillian Smith who has worked as a house-sitter in various countries such as France, Morocco, Japan and South Korea.

By paying $169 in an annual membership to TrustedHousesitters, a platform that connects homeowners with trusted in-home sitters, she has saved over $11,000 on accommodation expenses alone, despite still needing to cover the costs of plane tickets.

Compared to 2019, TrustedHousesitters has reportedly experienced a significant surge in new member sign-ups, increasing by 130%. Moreover, there has been a doubling in the number of requests from owners seeking U.K. sitters on the platform.

Nomador, a housesitting platform headquartered in Paris, has also seen a substantial increase in new sitters joining the platform. From the fourth quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2023, there was a notable surge of 60% in new sitters registering on Nomador.

But working on vacation has its legal implications and, if not properly planned, can be filled with horror.

Not for Everyone

According to TrustedHousesitters, its sitters typically face minimal immigration issues when housesitting. However, in certain countries like the U.S. and Britain, housesitting has been viewed as work rather than a tourist activity and has resulted in situations where a work visa is required instead of a tourist visa.

The U.S. State Department said tourists are “not permitted to accept employment or work” while in the country. However, tourists can seek to switch a tourist visa into a nonimmigrant temporary work visa.

Still, there’s confusion over whether or not housesitting is work.

New York-based immigration attorney Afia Yunus commented to Reuters that as long as homeowners do not require work and compensation solely for that work, housesitting cannot be considered unauthorized employment under the Immigration Nationality Act. Yunus added that even platforms like Airbnb might involve certain responsibilities, such as taking out the trash or performing basic tasks related to staying in the home.

However, after Yunus made this statement, many individuals turned to Reddit to share their perspectives.

“I like to think that I’m an immigration lawyer “who knows their stuff” , and I disagree with the advice in the article, Reddit user epmlassie said.

Another user, Material-Appeal3756 said, “is [this] just further evidence that the conversation is so disputed that two lawyers the one in this thread and the one in the article are interpreting the law differently. Again, makes me think you need to get a good lawyer so you can visit the U.S. again or sue THS if you believe you are in the right.”

One TrustedHousesitters user, Madolline Gourley, and the writer for One Cat At A Time, shared her personal experience with the company, highlighting an incident where her use of the service resulted in her deportation from the United States.

“It’s been a long, very frustrating few months following my deportation from the United States. United States Customs and Border Protection says unpaid house sitting is work, and tourists need a work visa to do it on their travels. TrustedHousesitters says U.S. immigration got it wrong,” said Gourley in a post.

“TrustedHousesitters has known about what happened at LAX minutes after it happened. I emailed them to say I’d been refused entry to the United States because I was told I had the incorrect visa to undertake unpaid house sitting on my sight-seeing holiday/vacation,” Gourley continued.

But for others like Nicki Grihault, the experience with TrustedHousesitters has been rather pleasant.

“We have done weekends and month-long stints, and looked after pets from a budgie to an adorable pair of rescue donkeys, but mostly dogs and cats. With constant attractive profiles coming online, housesitting can become addictive,” said Grihault in a submission to The Guardian.

Grihault, however, does note that checking in advance whether a work visa may be required for an international destination country is key.