Accommodation is often one of the biggest expenses when travelling. Expensive accommodation was the reason behind our outrageous bill from a few days in Dublin – we simply searched too late and there was nothing else available. So always book your accommodation well in advance. And if you want to save on accommodation entirely, you can actually find free accommodation around the world. How? Read on to find out.
10 Websites for Free Accommodation
We’ve compiled 10 tried-and-tested websites where you can find free accommodation or accommodation for free in exchange for a small favour.
1) Couchsurfing
A long-standing phenomenon is Couchsurfing – sleeping on a couch at a fellow traveller’s place. I don’t think there’s anyone left who hasn’t heard of this way of travelling.
2) Hospitality Club
Hospitality Club may not have as polished a website as Couchsurfing, but it’s been running for years. Here too, you can find a couch or bed at fellow travellers’ homes – people who love meeting other globetrotters.
Want to Stay Somewhere Longer? Try House Sitting or Pet Sitting
If you’re flexible about location and dates and want to stay somewhere for a longer period, try house-sitting (which often also includes pet sitting – looking after someone’s pets). This way, you’ll get real comfort and the chance to live like a local.
All you have to do is take care of the house – sometimes that means mowing the lawn, watering the plants, or feeding the animals and walking the dogs. On these websites, you’ll find houses all over the world – from Peru to Spain to Australia.
Most of these sites charge a membership fee, and at first glance it might seem like a lot. For example, the most popular one, Trusted Housesitters, costs $119 per year. But even if you only house-sit for a week, that works out at $17 per day.
That’s cheaper than a hostel in many countries. If you were to travel like this for a month, the daily cost works out at just $3.80. And that’s an absolute bargain.
3) House Sitting Abroad: Trusted Housesitters
If you ask people which website is best for finding houses and pets to look after, in most forums you’ll find Trusted Housesitters recommended.
However, it’s relatively expensive – the annual fee is $129.
4) Housecarers
Very popular for its low price yet decent range of listings is Housecarers. It’s often recommended by bloggers who live like this for months at a time around the world. The annual fee is $50.
5) Aussie Housesitters
A website focused on house sitting in Australia. So if you’re looking for free accommodation Down Under, give this one a try. It typically costs $84 per year.
6) Housesitmatch
This website was once recommended to me by a friend from England, and I haven’t heard much about it since. Probably because it’s very popular among Brits. The annual fee is $85.
7) Nomador
A lovely website for finding house-sitting opportunities, because you don’t have to pay to browse the listings, and you can even respond to three of them for free.
So if you’re selected, you get accommodation for free. However, here’s the catch – not many people are lucky enough to land the very first listing they apply for.
The annual fee is €79.
Other websites: Mind My House
Free Accommodation in Exchange for Work: Volunteering Abroad
A very common way bloggers travel is by helping families around the world with work in exchange for food and free accommodation. With some families, you can stay for days or even weeks. You get to explore the area, and in return you spend part of your trip working. Sometimes that means helping in the garden, with house repairs, or with animals. Other times it could involve cleaning rooms in a hostel or looking after children. This is essentially volunteer work in exchange for free accommodation and food – a brilliant deal for budget travellers.
8) Free Accommodation in Exchange for Help: Workaway
Workaway is a database of people and organisations looking for volunteers to help with various tasks. The work is truly diverse – you might find yourself on a farm, looking after a large property, babysitting, or pruning trees.
The way it works is that you work a few hours a day, 5 days a week, and in return you receive food and accommodation.
Access to the database costs €23 for two years.
9) Helpx
Helpx is a similar database to Workaway, with the added bonus that you can also volunteer and live on a boat!
Access to the database costs €20 for two years.
10) WWOOF
A very popular website, known by virtually everyone heading to New Zealand. The work usually involves helping locals on small farms or with smallholdings.
Again, you get accommodation and food in exchange for roughly 4–6 hours of work per day.
The price for database access varies by country, ranging from $0 to $72.
How to Volunteer – A Guide by Travel with Blondie
Our friend and avid traveller Markétka made a video about how to become a volunteer. She talks about several of the websites you’ve just read about and shares tips and advice on how to increase your chances of being accepted by a host. You can find Markétka on Instagram or on her website.
3 Tips to Get Selected for Free House Sitting
To be chosen by a host for house sitting, you need to inspire as much trust as possible on the website. So take the time to fill out your profile properly.
First Impressions Matter
Choose a photo that radiates positive energy. You should be smiling broadly, and the photo should be sharp and clean. If you wear glasses, keep them on in your photo. Photos with pets often make a great impression, especially if you’re applying not just for house sitting but also for pet sitting.
Criminal Background Check
A criminal background check is easy to obtain and it’s a great way to convince a host of your credibility.
References
References are important. If you’ve looked after someone’s house or dog (or even children), list it as a reference. The more references you have, the greater your chances of being selected.
Travel Bloggers Share How to Save Money While Travelling: 7 Best Tricks
Tips and Tricks for Your Vacation
Don’t Overpay for Flights
Search for flights on Kayak. It’s our favorite search engine because it scans the websites of all airlines and always finds the cheapest connection.
Book Your Accommodation Smartly
The best experiences we’ve had when looking for accommodation (from Alaska to Morocco) are with Booking.com, where hotels, apartments, and entire houses are usually the cheapest and most widely available.
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance
Good travel insurance will protect you against illness, accidents, theft, or flight cancellations. We’ve had a few hospital visits abroad, so we know how important it is to have proper insurance arranged.
Where we insure ourselves: SafetyWing (best for everyone) and TrueTraveller (for extra-long trips).
Why don’t we recommend any Czech insurance company? Because they have too many restrictions. They set limits on the number of days abroad, travel insurance via a credit card often requires you to pay medical expenses only with that card, and they frequently limit the number of returns to the Czech Republic.
Find the Best Experiences
Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can book guided walks, trips, skip-the-line tickets, tours, and much more. We always find some extra fun there!
