How to Find a Pet Sitter: 10 Best Pet Sitting Services in 2024

The world is there to be enjoyed and explored, but if you don’t have many friends and family that are close by to look after your fur babies while you’re adventuring, what do you do? Your best option is to find a pet sitter who can take care of your pets and your house. This option allows your pets to carry on with their usual business in their own homes.

There are plenty of pet sitting services online, but you need to pick the one you trust most. You are about to hand over the keys to your house and put your fur children in the hands of someone else, after all. We know how stressful this decision process is, so we’ve provided you with information on what to look for to make the best decision for your lifestyle, home, and pets. And, we’ve listed 10 of the best pet sitting services this year.

Keep reading to see a quick comparison of our favorite services, then we discuss how to find a pet sitter, and finally, we give you our in-depth reviews of the 10 best pet sitting services out there today.

 A Quick Comparison of Our Favorites in 2024

	Image	Product	Details
Best Overall		Trusted Housesitters	The app makes communication easier Sitters have access to 24/7 veterinary access Sitters are verified, reviewed, and vetted through background checks	Visit Website
Best Value		Wag!	Offers a variety of related services Sitters are vetted, screened, and insured You can have the sitter stay in your home, or your pet can stay at theirs	Visit Website
Premium Choice		Rover	Face-to-face meetings are free Rover has a large network of pet sitters There are many other related services to use as well	Click to Save $20 + Use Code Petkeen20
		Care.com	Caregivers of all types can be found on this platform You can pick the type of sitter you want with the filter options Background checks are done during the platform's screening process	Visit Website
		Fetch! Pet Care	Available for any pets In-person meet up beforehand If you're happy with the sitter, you'll stay paired up for future sitting	Visit Website

The 10 Best Pet Sitting Services Reviewed

Trusted Housesitters is known to be a community of pet lovers that are eager to care for your fur babies when you’re away. To sign up with the service, you need to add in your details, share some photos and briefly describe your pets and home—it’s that simple. Pet sitters from the site will then reach out to you, you can look through their reviews and proven track record, and then you can make contact through messages and a video call.

What makes this service stand out from the rest is that they offer an annual membership, allowing you to travel as much as you want throughout the year without having to pay for the cost of a pet sitter each time.

All the sitters on the site are verified, reviewed, and vetted through background checks and verifications. They have access to 24-hour vet advice so that your pets are always safe. Trusted Housesitters also has an app where you can look through sitter profiles, book your dates, and communicate with the sitter while you’re away. Due to all these factors, Trusted Housesitters is our best overall pet sitting service option for 2022.

Wag! has a variety of pet care options, including pet sitting. What is great about their pet sitters is that they’re happy to look after your pet in the comfort of your home—or theirs. This allows your pet to have personal care without the added worry of letting someone stay in your home. All pet sitters on Wag! are vetted, screened, and insured.

Wag! also has an app that allows you to book a service, monitor your pet through GPS, communicate with sitters, and receive videos and pictures while you’re away. You may struggle to find local sitters, though, depending on where you live. Also, note that for each additional pet, you’ll have to pay an additional fee.

A trusted company that many people know and love is Rover. They offer dog boarding, house sitting, drop-in visits, doggy daycare, and dog walking. They have an excellent reputation, and they offer one of the largest networks to help you in your search.

Once you’re on their app or website, you can go through the list of nearby pet sitters in your area and pick the one you trust the most. You can then schedule a free meeting that takes place at your house so that you can see how your pets respond to them. If you’re happy with the sitter you’ve met, you can book and pay to secure them for the dates that you are away.

Sitters are reviewed and approved before Rover accepts them into their company.

Care is an all-rounded service that aims to simplify your life by not only offering pet care but childcare, senior care, housekeeping, daycare, and tutoring. The number of pet sitters on their site is much lower than Rover’s; however, you may find the perfect sitter with fewer options to sift through.

Once you find yourself on the pet sitter page, you can choose the type of sitter you want by going through the filters. You’re able to choose the pay rate range that you’re comfortable with, along with the years of experience you’d like your sitter to have. Profiles with names, photos, experience, and prices will come up, and you can scroll through them.

All sitters complete a background check in the screening process, but it’s important to do your own research before booking someone. Care offers a membership to access their services, which are the Basic Membership and the Premium Subscription. Pet sitters are guaranteed to respond within 3 days of your job posting.

Fetch! Pet Care is an option for any pet, regardless of their species. They offer many services that may come in handy in the future, such as dog walking, overnight care, and a pet taxi, which takes them to all their appointments.

If you don’t have the time to pick a pet sitter for yourself, Fetch! is a great option because they do it for you. You need to provide the service with your details and job requirements, and they’ll link you up with one of their sitters that best match your needs and can handle your requirements. You’ll have to meet up before you hire them, and if you don’t see them as a great fit, you don’t have to choose them. If you do, you’ll be given the same sitter every time.

Pet sitters on this platform go through quite a bit to be selected. Background checks, interviews, and personal information are required.

PetBacker is used in 50 countries, allowing you to find a sitter wherever you are. However, although they’re so widely accessible, they claim to only hire 30% of applicants, which indicates that they’re very strict in their hiring process. This gives you peace of mind, and you’ll know that whoever you do choose from this site is of a high standard and worth trusting—however, your own research is always necessary.

PetBacker strives to keep its clients happy and will work with you to find the five best sitters that can work around your requirements. They’ll also help you find a new sitter if the one you booked cancels last minute. They have a great app that aids in the hiring process and also allows you to track their activities.

HomeCarers was launched in 2000 and has years of experience to its name. They not only care for your home but your pets too. The house sitters will live in your home while you’re away to deter home burglaries, maintain your pool and garden, and give your pets the attention and medical requirement they need.

The site matches you with potential sitters based on your filters. However, their sitters aren’t required to go through a background check, and the screening process is your responsibility, which may be concerning to you since you’ll be entrusting your home and pets to them. It’s also on you to phone the references the sitter has provided.

Pet Sitters International (PSI) provides both pet owners and pet sitters with plenty of useful information on their website as they aim to grow and develop the industry in an educational way. They offer pet sitters classes on excellence in pet sitting practices, and pet parents information on the hiring process. They also only display profiles of pet sitting services or sitters that are members of their organization, of which they have around 4,000 professionals.

You simply need to send in your zip code, and PSI will send you the information of all their members in your area. You don’t contact them through the PSI; instead, you’ll contact the sitter directly. PSI will provide you with information such as whether that sitter or company is insured, certified, and has done a background check. They’ll also indicate what training they’ve completed.

Sitting for a Cause is like most other pet sitting services, except that they give back. Every quarter, 50% of the profits (made from the fee that the pet sitters pay to be on the site) go towards animal-related causes.

As with most other services, you need to create an account to view the sitter’s profiles, which is free. You can then post a job on the site, describing your pet’s needs and your requirements, again for free. You can invite sitters to your job posting or wait for sitters to apply to it instead. You’ll be able to go through their information and choose the one you trust most. You can then discuss meeting up with them in person.

The database is limited, and sitters aren’t vetted as Sitting for a Cause acts as a type of job board.

PetSitter.com is unique in regard to its rates, as the pet owner can choose the rate that they wish to pay the sitter, as long as it meets the minimum wage or is higher. You’re also able to view all the profiles without making an account.

This site acts in a similar way to a job board and doesn’t help with the hiring process, and all payment agreements and methods are solely between you and the sitter. This can put both you and the sitter at risk. They don’t have an app, but they do have safe communication measures in place with their TELESAFE system.

How To Find a Pet Sitting Service

Finding a pet sitting service is as easy as typing it into your search engine. The hard part is choosing the right one. Truthfully, as with every service, there is no perfect option. You’ll still need to go through each one and determine what features you like and which you don’t and base your decision on that. However, trust goes a long way. If you trust the service and the pet sitters they offer, you’ll feel a bit more comfortable leaving your pet’s care in their hands. Let’s look a bit deeper into the world of pet sitting.

Why Use a Pet Sitting Service?

A pet sitter is a person that stays in your home and looks after your pets while you’re away on holiday, on a work trip, or attending to an emergency. It’s safer to find a pet sitter through a pet sitting service because you know that each person is experienced, verified, and reviewed. You can learn a lot about a pet sitter by what people say about them, which can motivate you to choose them or skip over their profile.

As scary as it is to entrust your home and pets to someone you don’t personally know well, it’s a safer option than asking a neighbor or friend to come over on a daily basis to feed and check on your pets. People that aren’t experienced may miss vital signs that your pet is injured or ill in their quick scan of your house and refill of the pet bowl. Other risks are that they may become too busy at work and aren’t able to pop over to your house—or they may be consumed by their own sudden emergency.

Finding a local pet sitter on Facebook or through word of mouth may be a cheaper option, but they’re probably not verified, have little experience, and only a handful of reviews—if any. It’s risky to trust a lone ranger because if they are negligent with your pet there is no one to report them to, and the next person will be oblivious to your bad experience. Unfortunately, that “next person” might be you.

Not only are Pet Sitting Services a safer option, but they’re a faster one too. If you go on one of the many websites, you’ll be able to see the profiles of experienced pet sitters that are near you, how much they charge, what else they offer that may appeal to you, their qualifications, and reviews about their service. You can read through a few and pick the one you trust most instead of having to do research for hours and interview numerous candidates, which could take days or weeks.

The Benefits of a Pet Sitter

Having a pet sitter can be very beneficial. Firstly, if you go away often, you have someone to reach out to that will know your home and pet’s needs. You could go through your schedule and book them for all the dates that you’re away in the year. Knowing that your pet is catered for will reduce your stress.

Another reason why a pet sitter is a great option is that your pet gets to stay at home. Taking them to a boarding facility takes them out of their environment and exposes them to things they may not be familiar with, such as other barking dogs, noises, unfamiliar smells, and exposure to other pets that may have aggression issues. All these new factors can be very stressful to a pet.

When a sitter comes to your house, they only have your pets to care for, so your pets will receive their full attention and personal care. Because they’ll be staying in your home, you know that it’s not left unoccupied and vulnerable. If anything goes wrong, the pet sitter can sort it out or at least inform you about it. You’re also able to leave specific instructions for the pet sitter, along with medications your pet may need and their feeding schedule.

Lastly, most pet sitting services allow you to have in-home consultations before hiring. Take this extra step and have the pet sitter come over so that you can explain everything you’re expecting from them and note if there’s a connection between them and your pets. If your pets respond well and are happy around them, you can feel comfortable knowing that your pets will enjoy their company. If your pets act out, look uncomfortable, or are afraid around the pet sitter, it might be a good idea to look for someone else.

The Difference Between Boarding and Pet Sitting

Having a pet sitter come and stay in your house has many benefits, but if you’re not comfortable entrusting your home to someone else, you could consider pet boarding. If you choose the pet boarding option, you’ll have to drop your pet off at the facility before you leave on holiday. They tend to be less expensive than pet sitting services, and the employees are professionally trained. It’s also a great environment for your pets to socialize and interact with other pets and people.

There are a few downfalls to pet boarding. Firstly, your pet won’t receive personal care as they would with a pet sitter. They’re also placed in an unfamiliar environment, which could be stressful, and due to the social setting, they’re exposed to potential illnesses.

Conclusion

Trusted Housesitters is our top recommendation for a pet sitting service. They have an easy-to-use app and unlimited travel freedom due to their annual membership. If you’re reluctant to pay an annual membership, Wag! and Rover both have an extensive database and 24/7 veterinary access for your fur babies.

Hopefully, our reviews and guide have helped you find the perfect pet sitting service for your needs!

See Also:

• How to Start a Pet-Sitting Business in 11 Steps
• How Much Does Dog Sitting & Dog Boarding Cost in the UK?

Featured Image Credit: atyana Vyc, Shutterstock