Home sitting in Paris: who is actually in your home?

“Home sitting” means that someone moves into your home while you are away, to look after the place and the animals who live in it. The phrase says nothing about the only thing that really matters: how many hours that person actually spends there. One sitter may sleep in your flat and leave at 8 am. Another may drop in for half an hour morning and evening. A third may live and work there from Monday to Friday. All three arrangements go by the same name, and they are worth very different things to a 20-year-old cat, to a dog who cannot manage a full working day alone, or to an empty flat in August. We are Leisan and Vincent, a couple who work remotely. We look after your animals in your own home, we sleep there every booked night and we work there during the day. Here is how to compare the Paris profiles on that criterion rather than on the advertised price.

What “home sitting” means, and what it does not

The phrase travels with two close neighbours that people mix up constantly. House sitting is first about the property: you look after the house, and the animals come with it. Pet sitting is about the animal, in your home, at the sitter’s place or through visits, with or without a night on site. Home sitting sits between the two and shifts meaning depending on who uses it. Some agencies call home sitting the minding of an empty property, plants and post included, with no animal at all. Exchange platforms call home sitting the arrangement where someone stays free of charge and looks after your cats. We call home sitting living in your home for the sake of your animals.

None of those definitions is wrong. The trouble starts when you compare two listings that use the same word for two different realities. Home sitting without animals exists: someone in the flat, post collected, plants watered, rooms aired. Home sitting with animals adds a daily routine, meals at fixed times, a litter tray, walks, sometimes prescribed medication. The second takes far more hours on site than the first, which is why the question of hours comes before the question of price. For the full picture of the business models, our article on house sitting in Paris covers exchange, subscription and paid service.

The phrase also says nothing about vetting, experience or method. Those are questions to ask, not promises to read.

Who does home sitting in Paris

Three families of profiles share the Paris market. They do not target the same absences or the same households.

Retired minders from specialist agencies

This is the original model. Homesitting-Homesitter claims more than 37 years in business with retired minders, and Goldenday also positions senior minders. The idea is simple: someone with no office hours moves in, often for long stretches, and the home stays lived in. On paper, this is the profile most likely to be around during the day.

The questions are straightforward. Does the minder stay in the home during the day, or only at night? Do they take animals, and which ones? What exactly is the financial arrangement, and who receives it? Ask for the answer in writing before you commit.

Private sitters from platforms

Two very different mechanics hide behind that phrase.

Exchange platforms work as a swap: the sitter is housed, and you pay nothing for the care itself. TrustedHousesitters runs on an annual subscription and sitters do not invoice for the sit. Nomador also works by subscription, with a Découverte plan advertised at around 79 € a year or 29 € for three months. PartirTranquille follows the same principle: the home sitter is housed, with no payment involved. We know this model from the inside, since our 39 verified reviews are published on TrustedHousesitters and Nomador.

Paid platforms sell a service by the night or by the visit. Figures recorded in September 2026: Rover advertises an average of 25 € a night in Paris for in-home care, puts cat sitting between 18 and 26 € a night and in-home care between 20 and 33 € a night, and prices a 30-minute visit at roughly 13 € in Paris. Pawshake advertises “from 25 € a night”. Yoopies advertises “from 11 €/h”. Tobalgo puts French pet sitting between 15 and 45 € per booking. Cat in a Flat, Animaute, AlloVoisins, Ringtwice, Blooming Pets, Lulu dans ma rue, GoPetSit and Mon Chat Serein also operate in Paris.

In both cases, the person coming to your home is a private individual with their own life: a job, classes, other sits, a trip to continue. Their daytime presence depends on them, not on the platform.

Dedicated pairs or couples

Two people for one home. The appeal fits in one sentence: when one goes out, the other stays. In a busy household that means four hands instead of two, and our densest sit brought together five cats and three dogs in Hua Hin, Thailand. The limit is the mirror image: a pair is a single diary, and it fills up quickly.

Profile	Presence at night	Presence during the day	Length accepted	Payment involved	Animals accepted
Retired agency minders (Homesitting-Homesitter, Goldenday)	yes, the minder moves into the home	ask, and get it in writing	positioned on long absences	ask the agency	ask
Private sitters on exchange platforms (TrustedHousesitters, Nomador, PartirTranquille)	yes, the sitter is housed	varies with the sitter	set by the listing	none for the care, subscription on the platform side (Nomador: around 79 € a year or 29 € for 3 months)	those stated in the listing
Private sitters on paid platforms (Rover, Pawshake, Yoopies)	depends on the booking type	often drop-ins rather than presence	per night or per visit	Rover: 25 € a night on average in Paris; Pawshake: from 25 € a night; Yoopies: from 11 €/h (recorded September 2026)	depends on the sitter
Dedicated pair working remotely (us)	every booked night	most of the day, while working	up to five weeks completed (Montmorency, 31 December 2025 to 6 February 2026)	cat offers depending on duration, paid supplements	cats, dogs, rabbits, hens, axolotls, frogs, sugar gliders

Daytime presence, the criterion that settles it

Put the question another way: out of twenty-four hours, how many is someone actually inside your home?

Two thirty-minute visits come to one hour out of twenty-four. Night-only cover, on the agreed schedule, works out at around ten hours, most of them spent asleep. Someone who lives and works on site covers the day as well as the night. The phrase “home sitting” stretches across all three without distinguishing them, and that is precisely where two similar-looking offers part company.

That arithmetic matters for two reasons.

The first is detection. Across more than fifty sits, three needed a trip to the vet: a dog with a hot spot, a cat who stopped using the litter tray, and a check-up after an operation that predated the sit. A cat who stops using the tray does not announce it. You notice because you are there, and because the owner has written down what normal looks like in their home. We are not vets: we observe, we tell you straight away, you decide, and we call the vet you have chosen. The full escalation routine is in our vet emergency plan.

The second is rhythm. An animal used to a busy household lives differently when the flat stays empty twenty-three hours out of twenty-four.

Here is the honest limit of our arrangement: we work. We are in the home, but not available non-stop. A dog who needs three hours of activity a day will not get them between 9 am and 6 pm. He will get his walks, company, a lived-in home and play breaks around meetings. Being present is not the same as entertaining all day. If your animal needs constant attention, say so at the meet-and-greet: that is the moment to check the fit, not after the booking.

One question separates most candidates: “How many hours a day will you be in the home, and when?” Write the answer into the instruction sheet and test it during the meet-and-greet. The rest of the selection criteria are set out in our guide to choosing a pet sitter in Paris.

Beyond two weeks, everything changes

A week away can be handled by almost any arrangement. Beyond two weeks, three things shift.

The home becomes a place to live in again. Bins go out, post is collected, plants are watered, litter is replaced, rooms are aired, things are maintained, and the flat is handed back as it was found. A thirty-minute daily visit does not do that work. Our guide to preparing the Paris flat lists what to sort out before you leave.

Stays of 1–7 nights are always paid, with a €50 minimum per stay. Special offer: one cat free from 8 nights, up to two cats free from 15 nights, for stays of up to 180 nights. Additional cats, other animals and special treatments remain chargeable. A 15% discount applies from 30 nights, replaced by 20% from 91 nights. Over 180 nights, contacting us for a personalised quote is mandatory.

Availability becomes the real bottleneck. Long sits are booked early, and a candidate who will take five weeks is rarer than one who will take five nights. We have done them: five weeks in Montmorency, from 31 December 2025 to 6 February 2026, three stays in Villennes-sur-Seine between October 2025 and April 2026, and a sit in Médan in March 2026. Ask every candidate for their real departure date, especially if they are travelling: a long sit does not survive a vague diary. On our side, if a booking has to be cancelled, we ask for at least one month’s notice before the start of the sit.

How we work

There are two of us, Leisan and Vincent. More than fifty sits completed, in France and abroad, and 39 verified reviews published on TrustedHousesitters and Nomador. In the Paris region we have sat in Paris (Gustave in 2025, Betty and Yoma in 2026), Les Lilas, Saint-Maurice, Fontenay-aux-Roses, Montmorency, Villennes-sur-Seine and Médan.

The sequence never changes. A meeting first, in person or by video call, before either side commits. Then a written guide: meals, walks, litter, prescribed treatments, plants. Keys handed over in person, or by whatever protocol you set. Then every night on site, remote work from your home, and usually daily photos on WhatsApp, at a rhythm you adjust. We do not smoke and we do not drink alcohol. We would rather there were no cameras in the home; if there are, we need to know where they are.

We have looked after anxious animals, cats aged 20 and 21, rabbits, hens, axolotls, frogs and three sugar gliders. Species-specific detail sits in our guides to cat sitting, dog sitting, rabbits and small pets and multi-pet households.

Our limits, so you can decide quickly: there are only two of us, the diary fills up, our arrangement is built around overnight stays, and we do not offer drop-in visits as a standard service (visits, walks and daytime cover are looked at case by case). We cover Paris and the near suburbs, and further afield depending on the case: see the pages by arrondissement and by suburb. To compare with the other formats, read visits, boarding or overnight care, the overview of pet care options in Paris and the general guide to in-home pet sitting.

Frequently asked questions

Are home sitting and pet sitting the same thing?

No. Pet sitting covers care for the animal, which can happen in your home, at the sitter’s place or through drop-in visits. Home sitting means someone moves into your home. A home sit may or may not involve animals, and a pet sit may take place entirely somewhere other than your home.

Is home sitting free?

Stays of 1–7 nights are always paid, with a €50 minimum per stay. Special offer: one cat free from 8 nights, up to two cats free from 15 nights, for stays of up to 180 nights. Additional cats, other animals and special treatments remain chargeable. A 15% discount applies from 30 nights, replaced by 20% from 91 nights. Over 180 nights, contacting us for a personalised quote is mandatory.

Can home sitting happen without animals?

Yes, and that is the sense several agencies use: someone in an empty property, post, plants, an eye on the place. We work with households that have animals. The home is covered because we live in it.

How many hours a day does a home sitter stay in the home?

There is no rule, which is exactly why you should ask and then get the answer in writing. We sleep in the home every booked night and work remotely from it, so we are there for most of the day, without being available non-stop for play or stimulation.

How long a sit will you accept?

Stays of 1–7 nights are always paid, with a €50 minimum per stay. Special offer: one cat free from 8 nights, up to two cats free from 15 nights, for stays of up to 180 nights. Additional cats, other animals and special treatments remain chargeable. A 15% discount applies from 30 nights, replaced by 20% from 91 nights. Over 180 nights, contacting us for a personalised quote is mandatory.