Explore the World by House-Sitting: Travel Tips with Belinda Coker

Join Shannon Bednarova and guest Belinda Coker as they explore the transformative power of travel for women in midlife, focusing on house sitting, slow travel, and reconnecting with nature and faith. Discover practical tips, inspiring stories, and how to embrace a more immersive, affordable travel lifestyle. by house sitting.

Belinda talks about her company, The House Sitting Collective, which offers on-line courses to equip travelers with the qualifications necessary to responsibly and safely care for homes, pets, plants, etc. in exchange for accommodations in some of the most beautiful locations around the world.  Belinda also teaches members how to create a winning profile that showcases their reliability and positive reviews.

Belinda also shares some great stories about some wonderful homes in which she has stayed in exchange for caring for chickens and gathering eggs, dogs, or watering plants. Some of these include English mansions and a 400-year-old mill in Scotland.  Learn how you can take part in this wonderful travel lifestyle and save a lot of money on lodging, food and other expense while doing so!

The House Sitting Collective
https://housesittingcollective.com/
10% discount code - hstravel for A Lady Well-Travelled listeners

DISCLAIMER: All opinions, recommendations and experiences shared on this podcast are solely those of the creator and/or her guests.  Please do your own research and consult the appropriate professionals before making any decisions based on content shared on this show. 

Thank you for listening!  I welcome your feedback and suggestions or you simply let me know if you are enjoying the show. You can reach me at Shannon@ALadyWellTravelled.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Hello and welcome to A Lady Well Traveled. I'm Shannon Bednarova. I'm your host and creator. I'm so delighted that you've chosen to join us today. I'm thrilled to introduce our wonderful guest. Her name is Belinda Coker. She has traveled extensively around the world. She's hiked across Greenland. She's done a lot of really, really amazing things. She's also started the House Sitting Collective, and we're going to be talking about that in just a moment. So, Belinda, please say hello to our listeners. Hello, and I hope you're all having a wonderful day. Absolutely. When you and I were doing our preliminary meeting, hashing out what we wanted to talk about during our podcast, we both learned that we had a lot in common with regard to traveling as women and in midlife and how we rediscovered our lost selves through traveling. Can you share what you have learned through traveling about yourself and how traveling can be just a wonderful friend, a therapist, and a way to get back to God and to nature? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

So let's let's go back to midlife. I mean, midlife can be quite a scary time because I actually refer to it as middle essence because you've got emotional, you've got physical, you've got hormonal changes that you also have like when you are um going through adolescence. But we also have identity transitions as well. You know, we might have been a mother for so long, and then suddenly our children have flown the coop, or we might have been in corporate for so long, and then suddenly we don't have a job anymore. Right. And so many things can happen to us. For me, when I I turned 55, I looked in the mirror and I realized that I had been wearing a mum hat, um, a wife hat, a corporate hat, and I hadn't worn a Belinda hat for a very, very long time. And I kind of felt that I had really lost myself. I had lost myself in body as well. I felt like I, my self-care had had disappeared. And so what I feel that that travel does to you is it encourages you to step outside your comfort zones and to make decisions and solve problems on the move. Yes, we can all all make decisions in the home. What are we going to have for dinner? What new car are we going to buy? What am I going to wear today? All that kind of, you know, stuff, which at the end doesn't really matter. But, you know, when you when you're actually traveling, you are making quite substantial decisions sometimes. And that can really put you out of your comfort zone and really challenge you, but but in a good way. And then when you're meeting other travelers and engaging with local communities, that provides a connection and inspiration and a sense of a shared experience that you don't have with your local coffee club, with the girls that you walk with around every Wednesday at 10 a.m. When you're out of your comfort zone and you start meeting other people, it just expands your horizons in such a way that it almost makes you feel alive again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

I think that's just so important. You've shared with me that you're a person of faith as I am. Yeah. One of the things that we've talked about, being in nature and hiking, walking through the forest or on the beach or in the mountains or in some kind of beautiful part of God's creation is so profoundly healing to us as women or to all of us. Why do you think that is?

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Okay, well, my favorite quote is actually John Muir. Um, I'd rather be in the mountains thinking about God than in church thinking about the mountains. And that's just me. When you look at going into a park, back garden, anywhere, and you look at a leaf, it's an extraordinary amazing, complex organ of nature that functions as a miniature self-repairing solar factory. Literally, that's what a leaf is. And, you know, beyond their beauty, leaves are the primary engines for life on earth. Now, if that can't give you the fear of God, what else can? I mean, it is just the most a leaf. A leaf is just amazing. So when it comes to traveling, Philip Yancey, who was the editor of Christianity Today, he's he gave this amazing analogy. Always think back to it. Okay, so when we're stuck in our daily rhythm and we tend to treat God like a bank manager, right? You know, you know, everything's going amazing. Ah, you see him across the road, give him a wave. Okay. It hits the fan, you're in his office, down on your knees. And and but when you're traveling, you constantly stop and admire the world, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and you reflect how amazing this planet is. Traveling or at least slow travel just makes us do that. I love being in a different country and listening to a family through the open window, sitting down and have dinner. They'll that they'll be talking about, you know, they'll be talking in a completely different language. But it's just amazing to just see the the world in its entirety and not just your little world that you live in.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

You know, and I I think it forces us to slow down and to look at the world with new eyes. Yeah. You know, maybe the eyes of a child, because we we stop and we see the beauty and we see the realness, the authenticity of the world around us. Right. We take things for granted so often. We don't recognize the beauty of the tree outside or the gloriousness of the lawn or the beautiful flowers that we see every day. I think when we travel, we we do actually pay more attention to what we're seeing and we appreciate it more because it's new and it's fresh. I so agree that it does make us more aware of our creator and what was put in the world for us to enjoy every single day. And I think your analogy of the bank manager was very, very good. Very astute. I do too. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

You know, and and you know, we've all been, you know, we we've all done it, you know, cool to some degree. It it's just it is just so important to, you know, to sit back and and just and just see, just look and experience and you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Yes, absolutely. And know that you believe person gains confidence in themselves by simply taking action. Right. So maybe that is the first step into the unknown, and it doesn't have to be a gigantic step. No, just some kind of action. Doesn't have to be a monumental thing. So can you tell me how this brings lasting change in a person?

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Yeah, absolutely. I think confidence shows up after you do. And so when you when you take that first step, like lots of people, especially when they get to middle age, it's they're in a comfortable place. Everything is comfortable, their house, everything is comfortable. And then for them to actually step out and do something which is uncomfortable can be quite scary. But when all you need to do is just to take a tiny step. And once you've done that, go, well, that wasn't so bad after all. I think I can take the next step. And that can be as simple as simple as maybe going to another city for a weekend and just going out and seeing a show or something like that. A lot of people they they feel they can't travel because they don't want anyone to go travel with or you know, they um financial burdens or they might they might have uh you know people at home that they need to take care of. But sometimes you need to look after yourself and you do need to be able to just take a break. Now, as we were saying before, we can we can swap the word hike for the word walk because walking in amongst nature as opposed to walking around your suburban street is actually is far more beneficial for you in physia uh physiologically as well as just psychologically. So um yeah, I I just think just take one more step and you will your confidence will gain in momentum. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Just simple things like going out to dinner or to lunch by yourself. A lot of people are horribly afraid of doing that. And I find it something that's take a great book, go out and enjoy, go have a picnic on the beach by yourself.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Those that people that are too scared to do that, I've got a great solution for you.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

In that vein, you and I have talked about a lot of wonderful things that can help people build their confidence and especially as they're getting older and stepping outside of that box. We want to really focus on today is a wonderful venture that you have started. Uh, Belinda, I want you to tell us about the House Sitting Collective. This is a program that connects people who love to travel with wonderful real homes and a lot of locales. I want you, in your own words, to tell people exactly what it is and why you came up with this idea.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Okay. First of all, I'll I'll talk about what is house sitting. House sitting is when you go and stay in somebody else's home while they go away on vacation, but you treat it as a vacation yourself and you end up staying in a nice home. Normally they are nice homes, and you can actually choose where you want to go as well. And so your accommodation is free. And most of the time it's looking after a cat or a dog or a bird or chickens in the garden or something. I've had a house sit before where I just looked after, you know, six chickens in the garden. All I had to do was collect the eggs every day. It was great. So what it is is it's it's staying in somebody's somebody's house while they go away looking after their pets or their plants or the house, and you and you treat it as a holiday, or for some people, especially right retirees who do it full-time, as myself and my husband do now. While we've taken early retirement and we hike a lot, but in between hikes we house it. We actually house it throughout the UK and Europe as well. So we stay in these lovely big houses in between our hikes.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

That is so cool. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

It is this uh for the for anybody who just as pricked up before when I said just a couple of days in a in a nearby city and go out and see a matinee or something like this, this is for you, especially if staying alone in a hotel scares you or if you're financially strained, this uh could be for you.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

How can house sitting change the way that people experience a destination compared to staying in an Airbnb or a hotel?

SPEAKER_02 11:49

So when you're in a hotel, you are in in a small room with a bed and chair in the corner, desk and bathroom, of course, and it's costing you, right? You're also paying a f of deposit. When you're house sitting, you have a natural flow of a house. So I've stayed in some very, very big houses, so uh, but you have a kitchen, you have a living room, you have a bathroom, you have a bedroom, and when you actually cooked a meal, you can then just go and curl up by the fire and a glass of wine or whatever. It it's actually it feels like a home. It doesn't feel like a sterile hotel. The other good thing is well is you have a full kitchen. Some of the kitchens I've stayed at have got all the appliances that I would have in my kitchen at home. And that is just and it's so nice to be able to go to the store go to the grocery store, get some chicken or something, put it in the air fryer. There's a lot of things that you don't have when you're in an Airbnb. Sometimes you're lucky to have a saucepan in a frying pan. Suddenly your restaurant bills have been basically removed from the equation. This is very good for people who have diet restrictions as well. I mean, I know that finding a vegan restaurant or anything like that, you you can end up paying a fortune. For some reason, vegan restaurants are incredibly expensive. I don't know why. I know get less, but pay more. I know. Yes. Yeah. But um you can go somewhere and experience it in another place and experience life or holiday in another place and still have all the conveniences of being at home. And you don't pay for any accommodation and you're also cooking at home. Of course, that's going to bring your bills down straight away. And the other thing is from a safety point of view, a lot of solo people traveling sometimes feel a little bit unsafe or uncomfortable traveling alone. And this can be a great way of finding somewhere to go. And you've got the house with security. You might have a nice dog that's going to bark like crazy every time somebody comes to the dock. And then, of course, you've got the tactile uh oxytocin hit of stroking a pet. And that can be wonderful for anyone who's suffers from anxiety or um, you know, some people who may be slightly neurodivergent, you know, having a pet can be very, very calming. And, you know, it's really nice to actually have a dog. I'm house sitting at the moment in a gorgeous British mansion. I'm in the library right now, but I've got a gorgeous dog that I'm taking for beautiful walks and on the hills in Suffolk in the UK. It is just stunning. And yet that exercise as well. If I don't want to walk, I need to keep my exercise up because I hike. If I don't want to walk, I'll get a house suit with a cat or goldfish or chickens of hair.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

It's kind of up to you, a bird or whatever. Yeah. I love that. So that's it. Yeah. All right, we've talked about the saving money aspect of the accommodation. So are you not having to pay anything for these accommodations in trade for you house sitting and taking care of the pet and the plants and the chickens possibly. Tell our listeners how much they can realistically save.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Okay. So first of all, you've you haven't got your you haven't got your accommodation costs. So that's that's a big one. Uh your your Wi-Fi and your electricity and those sorts of costs are covered as well. In the USA and Canada, uh, you can usually get um the use of the car. That's not as common in the UK and Europe because the insurance is usually put to the person, not the car. Whereas in the Canada and the USA, people's insurance is for the car, so it doesn't matter who's driving it. So car hire all of a sudden isn't isn't usually an option. And the other one, big one, is food. And we mentioned before, well, okay, uh, an Airbnb has a kitchen, but it might have pepper and salt and if you're lucky. So most homeowners are more than happy for you to use, you know, the oil and the spices, and you know, you just need a little bit of flour or something like that. You know, they're more than happy for you to use, you know, use basic pantry items, you know, staples. So all of a sudden, you know, making a meal can be a lot easier. I mean, I've made I've made meals in Airbnbs and it you really are restricted, you know. That's that's a big one. So your accommodation and car if you're in north North America and also New Zealand and Australia, usually you can use the car as well. Shopping at a local market. We do quite a lot of house sitting in Spain. And so we would be able to go down to the local marketer where the locals shop, so you're not in a touristy area and you're not buying what tourist playing tourist prices or inner city supermarket prices, you can buy where the locals shop. That itself is quite a substantial cost saving.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Exactly. Now, when you are staying one of these wonderful places, do they leave you a guidebook or an assistance book? I know a lot of times at an Airbnb, they'll leave you a book that will say, We recommend this, you know, these restaurants, and then we recommend that you go here to shop, and we recommend this is where you go to do X, Y, and Z. Do some of these homes also give you that kind of guidance insofar as what you do?

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Some people are a little bit they're very much, here's the house, I've got to go see you and go to our finding it, figure it out, yeah. Other people just write, you know, tons and tons of information, but we actually have forms on our website to uh for all the emergency contact numbers, where your nearest hospital, pharmacy, doctor, dentist, and all that sort of thing. I'll just give you an example of where I am right now. I mean, I've literally got a whole list of walks in the area, right next to a lovely cafe, but I've also had the neighbors drop in and invite me over for coffee as well. Across the road, I've got this lovely, I think he's about 96 years old. His name's John. He used to be an architect. My gosh, I have learned so much about British architecture. It's just it's just incredible. Love, I love the people that I've actually spoken to and met, has been pretty neat.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Yeah, that's that's fantastic. You've told us that you've been in the British Isles, Europe, America, Canada, Spain. What other destinations are available to house sit in? Now are we talking about some that you've always dreamt of, like bucket list places? Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

So I have have house sat throughout the U um uh throughout Europe. I've I've house sat in Germany and France and Spain and Portugal. There are house sets available. There's certain apps where you can get these house sets, and I have them listed on my website. They're they're great places to go to find your house sets. And you can filter it by where you want to go. There are there ones all over the world, predominantly America, North America, and I'm in uh and I'm including Canada, the USA, and Mexico in that whole continent. Then you've got and then you've got Australia, New Zealand and British Isles, and the whole of Europe. I haven't really looked outside of that, and but I have seen them pop up every now and then. I have loved every country. I have I have literally loved, loved them all. I spent a lot of time on Vancouver Island. Oh my gosh, that is the most gorgeous island. Oh, how neat. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

That's fantastic. So for anyone who is listening in our audience right now, there are so many options, is what Belinda's telling us. She's saying a lot of places that you've ever dreamt of going, you can probably find um a house sitting opportunity in in pretty much anywhere you might want to go. So that's great to know. Tell me what does slow travel through house sitting look like? I know that's kind of a trendy term right now. Slow travel. It's a bit like slow cooking. Well, it's like slow cooking and slow everything. But I think there's something I always like to call it immersive travel. Yeah. To me, that's maybe a more descriptive term. We always laugh. We say you're not griswalding it through and just everything is rush, rush, rush, rush, rush. Yeah. I've got to see everything that this city has to offer in two days. Where you're taking your time and you're sitting in the cafe or you're lingering over dinner, or you're, you know, just take a day to sit in the park or on the beach or whatever it is. Tell me how you can use your house sitting adventure to further your slow travel or your immersion immersive travel experience.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

Well, I suppose the the first thing is that you are living like a local. And so you're you're you're walking the same streets that the locals walk, your the local cafes, the local bars, the local restaurants, you know, everyone loves that the concept of the local restaurant because it must be much better than the than the restaurant in the in the touristy city, and it probably is. But you know, also there's there's things like you know, and this is for people who you know who are regular church goes. Some people just don't want to go on holiday because they don't want to be away from their church. They and that that is actually very, very important for people. But I have treated um as a great opportunity to explore what churches in other countries and it's kind of fun. And I've met some lovely people that way, so and just exploring how this a local community lives. Elsewhere. And especially if you you can speak a bit of Spanish, but you're not that great. You have to make yourself known, uh understood. That can be great if you're wanting to brush up on your Spanish. I mean, I got myself into a little village uh near the Black Forest in Germany, and not one person spoke English, not Thailand. And it they had this gorgeous little restaurant kind of bar down in the village. That was all that there was, just this one restaurant and bar. It really had the quintessential big German lady with the bear things coming up. I make him grossen beeren. And it was and and um and it was cash only. And I had no cash. You know, let me let me have the bear and you know, and it ended up that she knew where I was staying, and she said, I'll just get the money from him later. That's fine. You have this dear. But it really is quite lovely, especially if you're in a small village. Everybody knows everybody. I've had pies baked for me.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Oh ma! That's so nice.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

Bought over. That was actually in Wisconsin. This lovely lady came over with this pie. I mean, you know how Americans are really good with their pies.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Yep, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

How sweet was that?

SPEAKER_00 23:15

It's lovely. Well, and I love speaking of churches, I know one of the things that I really enjoy is because the churches in Europe and Great Britain tend to be so gorgeous and they're so ancient. Going into a church and participating in a service, yeah. Um, I may not even understand the language, but I do understand that our God and our Christ is being worshipped and the music is so beautiful. I've heard the nuns sing at sacraur, and that is just one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. Yeah. You don't necessarily have to understand or uh speak the language to have a beautiful, beautiful worship service. You can just enjoy yourself no matter what. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Who do you say tends to thrive with the house-sitting lifestyle when they're traveling?

SPEAKER_02 24:10

That's a great one for solo travelers. But also if you want if you wanted to do one with a girlfriend or your husband. I've actually done one with a girlfriend once. I was going off to to do one. It was the one in France actually. We got notified and said, you know, would you like to come? And I said, Well, yes. I was supposed to be meeting a girlfriend, and I said, Look, you know, do you want to come and do this with me? And it was at the base of Chamony down uh uh Mont Blanc, and it was just absolutely beautiful, and we just had went for lovely hikes all the time and it was wonderful. So quite often you don't have to do it by yourself, and also retirees, it's a great way to travel because it's not expensive. A lot of retirees really are watching their pennies, and this is a great way to not feel like you're missing out on life. It is a it is a wonderful way to experience the golden years. And the other one is people who are a little bit anxious, maybe they're a little bit neurodivergent, and being able to be in a home which is away from a loud, busy place on restaurants or hotels where everything can be a little bit hectic and going into somebody's home can just be very calming. I also think it's great for middle-aged people as well, because for once we can do something for ourselves. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

I think that's very important as well. Now, I noticed on your website that you have an entire course on house sitting. Can you talk about that? Because I might think, well, gosh, I know how to take care of a house. But then when you think about it, that's a lot of responsibility for someone because you're going into a complete stranger's home. Um, and you need to know the what you're getting involved in. Now, I know there's probably a certain type of etiquette. There has there have to be rules. Can you talk about this course and why you would recommend that for people who are interested in house sitting?

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Absolutely. Um, in in my course, I have three courses and I've got the big foundation course which goes through absolutely everything. Go into how to build your profile. I teach people how to use power words in such a way that it evokes trust so that the homeowners will be able to just read it and pick you above other people. The house sitting um world is is growing exponentially. I think 12% last year per annum. Uh by 2030, I think it was going to be worth about 30 billion or something like that. And I mean it's huge.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Yes, there's there's tons of competition out there, and we have to sell ourselves if we want to be a house sitter, because I think it's a two-way street, isn't it? Because the people who are looking for house sitters are going to be looking for people that they view as trustworthy, reliable, competent.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

You know, and reviews are so important. My course actually teaches you how to get the great reviews. Everything that you need to do to get the five-star reviews. And the five-star reviews means that you get invited. Like people constantly contact us and say, Can you can you come here? Can you get can you come to Chamonix in France? Yeah. Right. How wonderful. Yes. It's it is important. It's important to be able to write your profile. I also teach how to write your applications. Your profile is like your shop window. Your application is like somebody actually walks into the shop, and that's when you sell yourself to them as I can take care of your pets. There's an app that we use called Trusted House Sitters.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

Um sometimes a sit can literally go in in 20 minutes. It's it's that fast. Wow. I I get the best way to do it. Um, the the high profile ones, the ones like a weekend in New York. Um, you know, there are a lot of young people that are wanting to do this as well. And one of the one of the um popular things on my course is I can actually sell my courses as as a gift. I've had a lot of people saying, Oh, I'm just going to get this for my niece as a cr as a Christmas present because she's feeling a bit directionist in at the moment. A lot of young people don't actually realize what it takes and what you need to do. I think our generation, we know how to keep a house tidy, but it's still good to be able to get the basics down.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Mm-hmm. That is very important. That was one of the things I was gonna ask is yeah, is it just you're having to instruct people how to keep a house? Yeah. What do they need to do to make sure everything is neat and clean and better than it it was left before you got there? Yeah. My mom always said to me, you know, you want to make sure you're the perfect house guest so you get invited back. And yeah, because that's the way you get invited back. And I would assume that is what you need to think about when you are house sitting for someone. Belinda, you talked about how important it is to get good reviews. So your profile is like your Facebook page or your Instagram page, and you're looking for like a Yelp or a Google review so that people know that you're reliable, you're trustworthy. You want the invitations, you want the people to actually come and look for you. But let's say I'm just starting out. I've never really house sat before.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

How do I build that? How if I've never actually sat for a house, how do I build that? How do I help people know that I am somebody that they would want?

SPEAKER_02 30:03

A lot of your skills are actually transferable. For example, uh whatever you did it for a job, right, education. Even uh if you're young, you know, you have pets or yeah, and you might have babysat for somebody, you might have gone and watered somebody's plants, anything like that. A lot of that is transferable. And when it comes to reviews, you can also get reviews from your employer, you may be your landlord or church elder, um, anyone like that, any any mentor or person of good standing can also give you a personal review. But there's a really good hack as well. Okay. And it's called the the the weekend sit hack. Yeah. Two-day sits, usually in towns or cities, sometimes take it quite hard to fill because they're only for two days. And a lot of a lot of the more experienced sitters, they don't want a two-day sit. They want a week, two weeks, three weeks. I'm here for five weeks at the moment. Right. And they're quite hard to fill. So they're very easy for an inexperienced house sitter to be able to get in, and that's all you need. You just need your first sit and you get a great review, but it's called the weekend sit hack.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Oh, yeah. That's a great thing for our listeners to understand is they can get started that way and get some reviews. Yeah, absolutely. Perfect. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

Can I just go back to the reviews too? Um a lot of the apps actually allow you to review the homeowner as well.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

So this is really important because you, as the sitter, can actually start check out the homeowner's reviews. And if they have h ever had any unreasonable expectations or they've cancelled at the last minute, or for no reason, obviously emergencies do happen. But if there's anything, any red flags, you can spot them before you even apply. This is really good. It's a it's a great system.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

Yes. And I would think it's like Airbnb, the renters as well as the host. Uh everybody gets a review. I think that helps people to stay honest and hopefully everyone tries to be as conscientious as possible. Yeah. I think that's a good system. Now, do house sitters, if you become one, do you have to purchase insurance or be bonded uh to work or house sit against any potential losses?

SPEAKER_02 32:28

No, you don't. Um this might change in the future as this becomes uh bigger and bigger. One of the things reasons why I started this house sitting collective to sort of try and create a proper, uh, a proper um sort of educational unit to try and regulate it a little bit, because you know, you see some horror stories and poor homeowners on Facebook going, my gosh, I had this woman in here and the f the pets weren't fed, and you know, all sorts of all sorts of horrible things like this. And this is why um going through an app is is a lot more secure and it's a lot more safe and also and also uh having this knowledge of what you should do and and things. But I I think um right now it's it's the reviews are the big ones. So um if if say say hypothetically, if you're a homeowner, you would see my my um profile and you'll go, oh my god, she's amazing, you know, because I have don't have one negative review at all. And you know, if you were a homeowner, um, you know, I would say, oh yes, I want to come and look after your dogs because everyone says what an amazing house it is, how nice you are, how well behaved your dogs are, and all that sort of thing. Don't get me wrong, I have had to write a a bad review about a homeowner once, but I also did it in a very diplomatic way.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

Where there was uh room for improvement kind of thing on a on a report. Yeah. You know, because y you're not there to be nasty. No. But also, you know, uh there's been a couple of times when I haven't mentioned that uh anything on the on the review, and I've sort of said to them, look, you know, you really need to uh t tell people that your dog has got a behavior issue or whatever it is. Whatever it is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

And I agree with that because I have to write lots of reviews of hotels and restaurants. I always try to look for positive things and then say, and here's the room for improvement. I'm I might suggest that you try X, Y, and Z. Yeah. But almost always there's something positive to say and try to give kudos when you can because I think people appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Can you tell us about some of the places that you visited? You were saying the place that you're uh in right now is a gorgeous mansion in Suffolk. Yes. But can you tell us? Have you ever been in any homes uh where you house at for someone who may have been famous or infamous or uh any homes that you may have been in that have historical value that you might want to share with us?

SPEAKER_02 35:20

No, most of the house sets I've been in have been very boring. You know, maybe the old 200-year-old lovely mansion. Well, that's neat. We have a um we have a regular house sit up in Scotland that is a converted mill. The original, it's totally modern inside, but the outside mill is 400 years old. And it's and it sits on a river, a burn, because it's Scottish for burn. Of course, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

And the bridge is um over over 500 years old. And that sort of, you know, trickles down beside the house. So I think I think mostly it's the places I've been. Sure. But they really have been quite lovely. And I think Spain was very, very special as well. We stayed in this beautiful large house just out of Barcelona. And we were able to go into Barcelona quite frequently. It was amazing. When you think about how many times we went into Barcelona, if you were to take that many days and how much accommodation it was to do that. And actually, just before talk about being able to go and do stuff while you're on a house search, because this is actually quite important. You are there to look after a pet, but homeowners totally expect that you will want to go off and do X, Y, Z. But if you if you've got more sort of senior dogs, you really have to make sure you're there for the medication and that sort of thing. We often sort of try and take a dog with us if we're going to go into places, but most of the time a d a dog can be left four or five hours. Cats can be left all day. You know, cats don't really don't care. When I was on Vancouver Island, I actually took a dog on an overnight camping trip, hiking camping trip, and it was just it was so much fun. I obviously with the owner's approval. You can take the pet along as well. But we were literally in Barcelona, you know, two or three three or four times a week. It was that we were that close.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

That's wonderful. And you know, speaking of pets, you know, when you say it's often part of the deal, I love pets. I think that's wonderful. I've I would think that would add to the experience because when you come home and have a pet to love on and take care of, I think that's fantastic. So do you find that's the case as well when you travel?

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Absolutely. It's very, very grounding. And if somebody's um has had a maybe a traumatic experience or uh they they might not be in as good a place as they were they're healing. But having a dog or a cat there, just a stroke and just to love on can be therapeutic. So therapeutic. It really is.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

It really does add to the experience. Absolutely. I just, you know, if somebody even had horses because I love horses, just love all animals. In high demand.

SPEAKER_02 38:23

Yeah, often see them. Adore that. Often see them, um, you know, sometimes there's one for, you know, needing someone who can feed just feed a horse.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Um and and muck out stalls. I can do all of those things. I mean, because I'm comfortable with all kinds of animals. I know some people would not enjoy that, but maybe they could take care of plants or a garden or like water the flowers outside and yeah, that kind of thing. How cool though. Yeah. So if somebody's interested, because I am, boo, that sounds so exciting. Tell me how do I get started? What do I do?

SPEAKER_02 39:00

Well, it if you go to our website, we've got a lot of information. We we do have free information as well. Um, if you want to take that step further and and and take a course, it you're you will make up that money uh by doing house sits. It's like for the for the cost of a few cups of coffee or a couple of meals, it really will um give you a great return. That's that's one way of you know of doing it. There are Facebook groups for house setting. I have concerns about finding house sits on Facebook. Okay because you you can't vet people. I think maybe just go to our our website where we do have a blog, we have some great information. Then of course we've got our courses as well. We also have free information which which is very useful and wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

All right, so tell everybody, spell it out for us.

SPEAKER_02 39:56

What is your website? Okay, so it is the House Sitting Collective, which is houseitting collective.com.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

All one word, right? Yes, dot com or dot org. Dot com.com. Fantastic. Okay, so you can find basically all the information that you're gonna need to get started in house sitting. You're gonna find out information about courses, about setting up your profile, how to professionally present yourself so that people who are in the market for someone to sit for their house while they're away, they're gonna find you and they're gonna say, wow, I really like this person. This person looks awesome. And I really want to hire them to come and sit with my house or with my pets or whatever. And then they'll also be able to sign up for classes to know exactly how to be the perfect professional house sitter that is gonna get invited back time after time after time. And Belinda is gonna be able to teach you how to do all of those things. Is that right, Belinda? Yep, absolutely. I love that. Wow, this has been so wonderful. I can even believe we have been together for almost an hour.

SPEAKER_02 41:22

And also I forgot that we do have a discount code for all of you listeners. Thank you. So please tell us about that. So we there's 10% off all of our courses for you using the code. That's H for Hotel, S for Sierra Travel.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

Okay, so that's fantastic news. Thank you so much. As Belinda mentioned, she is gonna offer any of you out there who are interested in getting started in house sitting to go to the house sitting collective website, and she's gonna give you 10% off any of her courses if you use the code HSTravel. Thank you, Belinda. This is awesome. I just appreciate all the time you've spent with us. We've had a great time, and uh I'm excited because I want to learn more about this and get involved and understand how I can be a part of this growing professional lifestyle. Yeah. I am thrilled that you came on today on The Lady Well Traveled to talk with us. I hope you'll come back because I want to talk with you about all the other wonderful things that you do. Thank yous to all of you who have tuned in. And for those of you who would like to get in touch with me, you can always reach out at Shannon at a ladywelltraveled.com. That's Shannon at Aladywelltraveled.com. And there's two L's in traveled. And I want you to remember that you can refer us to your friends and family, anybody that you think would benefit from listening to us. We're looking to transform your travel experiences into something much more enjoyable and to bring you closer to God. And I want you to remember that God created this beautiful, beautiful world just for you and me. All you have to do is get out there and see it. So until next time, bye-bye.