We get it. You have finally booked the trip, and now you are lying awake thinking about the bins, the plants, the pool and the fact that a dark house with a full letterbox may as well have a sign on it. House sitting solves a problem most families do not name out loud until the week before they leave: an empty home is a job somebody has to do, and you cannot do it from an aeroplane.
Having someone stay in your home while you travel is not a luxury for large houses. It is the difference between coming back to a holiday you actually enjoyed and coming back to a fortnight of small disasters. Here is what the service covers, what it costs, and how to set your home up so it runs itself while you are away.
What house sitting actually covers
The simplest way to think about it is presence plus upkeep. Somebody sleeps in your home overnight, so the lights go on, the car in the driveway changes, and the place looks lived in rather than left. Alongside that, they keep the ordinary rhythms of the house ticking over.
What that includes is agreed with you before you go, and it typically covers things like:
- Bringing in mail, parcels and the bins, and putting the bins out on the right night
- Watering indoor and outdoor plants, and the vegetable patch if you have one
- Opening and closing blinds and rotating which lights are on, so the house does not run to a timer pattern
- Keeping an eye on the pool, the water, anything that leaks or overflows
- Being there for a delivery, a tradesperson or a service visit you could not reschedule
- Leaving the house clean and tidy for your return
If you have pets, say so when you book. We will confirm exactly what your house sitter can take on before anything is locked in, rather than leaving you to find out at the airport.
Why an empty house costs more than you expect
Most travel problems are dull rather than dramatic, and dull problems compound.
A letterbox stuffed with catalogues is the clearest signal on the street that nobody is home. A garden that has gone three weeks without water in a Queensland spring may not come back. A pool left alone turns green faster than most people believe, and the cost of correcting it usually exceeds what the house sitting would have cost in the first place. Add a fridge that fails quietly, a hot water leak nobody notices, or a storm that takes a branch through a fence, and the maths tips quickly.
Then there is the part that does not show up on a bill. Asking a neighbour to do all of this is a genuine favour, and favours come with a running tally in your head. Plenty of parents spend a chunk of their holiday texting apologies about the bins. Paying somebody means the job is simply done, and nobody owes anybody anything when you get back.
What house sitting costs
Our house sitting is available in Queensland with a 24 hour minimum, billed per night and inclusive of GST.
- Monday to Thursday: $110 per night
- Friday to Sunday: $165 per night
- Public holidays: $145 per night Monday to Thursday, $215 per night Friday to Sunday
A 2% service fee applies to every booking, and everything is set out on our pricing page alongside the rest of our household services.
It is worth pricing the alternative honestly before you decide it is an extravagance. A pool service call out, a lawn recovery, replacing the plants and a day of your own time putting the house back together after a trip tends to land in similar territory, and none of it buys you the security of an occupied home.
Who is actually staying in your home
This is the question that stops most families, and rightly so. Handing over keys is a bigger act of trust than almost anything else on this list.
Every house sitter with The Care Collective is screened before they are ever placed with a family. Only around the top 20 per cent of applicants make it through our process. Each holds a current Working with Children Check as well as First Aid and CPR certification, and we follow up their references ourselves rather than taking them at face value.
Just as importantly, they are employed by us. They are not contractors we introduce you to and step away from. That means they are insured through The Care Collective, accountable to us, and you have an agency to ring rather than an individual’s mobile number. That distinction matters more than almost anything else in this arrangement, and the full vetting sequence is set out on our screening process page.
How to set your home up before you go
A good handover takes about twenty minutes and saves both of you a week of messages. None of this is about assessing your house sitter. It is about making your own home easy to run.
Write one page, not a manual
Keep it to a single sheet on the kitchen bench: your mobile numbers, your dates and flight times, a local emergency contact, the GP or vet, and the bin night. Add the alarm code, which doors lock oddly, where the water mains and the fuse box are, and the wifi password. Anything longer than a page does not get read.
Walk the house, out loud
Show rather than list. The window that sticks, the tap that drips if you do not turn it hard, the gate latch, the pool pump switch, the plant that dies if you water it as much as the others. Ten minutes of walking beats two pages of writing.
Deal with the perishables
Empty the fridge of anything that will turn, take the bins out the morning you leave, and run the last load of washing through so nothing sits damp in the machine for a fortnight. Small things, but they are the ones you smell on the way in from the airport.
Say what is off limits
Which rooms are not in use, whether visitors are alright, where you would prefer they sleep, whether the good car stays untouched. Being direct up front is much easier for everyone than hinting and hoping.
Travelling with children, or without them
House sitting looks after the building. Families travelling often need something for the people too, and the two frequently overlap.
If you are going away without the children, care is the bigger question and it is worth planning first. Overnight babysitting runs from 7pm to 7am and starts at $275 per night for one child, and for longer trips an ongoing arrangement usually works better than a string of separate bookings. Our post on overnight babysitting for weddings, work trips and early flights covers how those nights run in practice.
If the children are coming with you, the house is the only thing left behind, and house sitting is the whole answer. Many families book the sitter for a night or two either side of the trip as well, so the place is aired and tidy on the day you land rather than the day you left.
And if the trouble starts before you have even packed, that is normal. The washing, the school admin and the grocery run do not pause for a holiday. A personal assistant can take the pre trip list off your hands entirely, which is often the difference between leaving calmly and leaving frazzled.
Frequently asked questions
What is the shortest house sitting booking you take?
There is a 24 hour minimum, so a single night is the smallest booking. Plenty of families use exactly that for a wedding, a concert in Brisbane or a long weekend away.
Will the same person stay for the whole trip?
That is what we aim for, and consistency is much better for your home. For longer trips we will tell you clearly at booking if more than one carer is involved, and you will know who they are before you leave.
Do you offer house sitting outside Queensland?
House sitting is a Queensland service at present. Our babysitting and nannying reach further, across the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Northern New South Wales and Sydney. Ask us about your area on 0451 394 018 and we will be straight with you.
What happens if something breaks while I am away?
Your house sitter contacts you first, and us second. Because they are our employee rather than a contractor, there is an agency behind the arrangement, so you are not depending on one person’s judgement alone at eleven at night.
Go away properly this time
You booked the trip so you could switch off. Let somebody else hold the keys, the bins and the watering can while you do. Tell us your dates and your suburb through our contact page, or book now, and we will match you with a house sitter who treats your home the way you would. If you would rather talk it through first, ring 0451 394 018. We are here to lighten the load, right down to the letterbox.
