🐕🐈 How Animal Lovers Can Get Free Vacation Accommodations​ (AARP Article)

How Animal Lovers Can Get Free Vacation Accommodations (and a Car).

 

Travelers looking to pet sit find sites, apps to save on trips.

 

By Cari Shane, AARP. Published July 10, 2024.

 

For the past six ski seasons, I’ve dog sat for a retired couple I met during an 11-minute gondola ride at Keystone Resort in Colorado. I had stopped for a few runs while on my way to catch a flight home after my first official dog sit near Beaver Creek Resort using the travel app TrustedHousesitters.com (THS). Always one to chat on a ski lift, I told the couple about my dog sitting ways. Turns out, the Rubins’ son was getting married in Mexico and they were looking for a dog sitter for their rescue pup, Nora, a shepherd mix.

 

Since that short but fateful conversation, every winter the Rubins give me a free house, free car and, as I like to say, a free dog when they are away. It’s a direct barter with them, as well as other pet owners I’ve met through THS. I’ve discovered that, at 58, I’m an in-demand dog sitter; after all, between dog walks, skiing and work, I let the dog owners know I’ll have little energy to throw a rager; plus, I always vacuum before I leave.