House sitting in Paris: exchange, platform or service?

Three house sitting models operate side by side in Paris, and they carry neither the same price nor the same obligations. Pure exchange: a traveller looks after your animals, stays in your home and charges nothing for the stay, while access to the site is paid by subscription. Retired house sitters: an organisation introduces someone who is housed in your home rather than paid a sitting fee. Paid service: an independent sitter or a platform profile charges by the night, the visit or the hour. Exchange suits long trips planned months ahead. Retired sitters suit owners who want continuous occupation and accept working through an organisation. A paid service suits late dates, short trips and animals that need close attention. We are Leisan and Vincent. We come from the first model and we work in the third.

House sitting, home sitting, pet sitting: three words, three realities

The three terms turn up in the same Paris listings, usually as if they meant the same thing. They do not, and the confusion gets expensive the moment you compare two quotes.

House sitting is about the home

House sitting means looking after the house. The home is the object of the arrangement: someone lives in it while you are away, takes in the post, waters the plants, puts the lights on in the evening and occupies the place. Animals are almost always part of the deal, but they come attached to the home, not the other way round. This is the vocabulary of the international platforms and their listings.

Home sitting is the same idea in French usage

Home sitting is the form most French organisations use. The meaning is identical: a person lives in your home. Those organisations tend to stress the caretaking side, the security of the property and unbroken occupation, more than the animal care itself.

Pet sitting is about the animal

Pet sitting means looking after the animal. Nothing about it implies a night in your home. Cat care can be two twenty-minute visits a day and still be pet sitting, quite legitimately. Rover itself separates in-home sitting from the 30-minute drop-in visit, priced at around 13 € in Paris (checked in September 2026, prices advertised by Rover).

The question that settles it

Do not ask which word the sitter uses. Ask how many nights they sleep in the home and how many hours they spend there during the day. That one question sorts the offers better than any vocabulary. Our guide to care formats sets out what each arrangement means for the animal.

The three models operating in Paris

Behind the words sit three different economies. They decide the price, the vetting, the length of stay a sitter will accept and how solid the commitment really is.

Pure exchange

The principle: you provide the home, the sitter provides their time. Neither invoices the other. TrustedHousesitters runs on an annual subscription, and the sitter does not charge for the stay. Nomador also runs on a subscription, with a Découverte plan advertised at around 79 € a year or 29 € for 3 months (checked in September 2026, prices advertised by Nomador). PartirTranquille states that the home sitter is housed, with no payment involved.

That model selects a very particular profile: people who travel, who work remotely or who are free with their time, and who are looking for accommodation rather than income. It also builds public records, review after review, that follow a sitter from one stay to the next.

Its limitation is structural. Sitters choose their destinations and dates weeks or months ahead. A listing posted for next weekend rarely finds anyone, and since no money passes between the two sides, cancelling costs neither party very much.

Retired house sitters

Several French organisations place senior or retired sitters in your home. Homesitting-Homesitter claims more than 37 years of activity with retired sitters. Goldenday likewise positions senior sitters. The sitter is housed, and the brief is first of all continuous presence in the property.

This is the model that promises the steadiest occupation: somebody lives in your home, all the time, often for long periods. It is also the one that runs through an intermediary, with a contract and terms set by the organisation.

We found no detailed public price list from these organisations in September 2026. So ask in writing what you pay, to whom, and exactly what the amount covers.

Paid service

This is the most visible market in Paris. Rover advertises an average of 25 € per night in Paris for in-home sitting, and publishes equivalent pages by town, with the same 25 € per night average in Boulogne-Billancourt. Rover puts cat sitting between 18 and 26 € a night, and in-home sitting between 20 and 33 € a night. Pawshake advertises "from 25 € a night". Yoopies advertises "from 11 €/hour". Tobalgo places French pet sitting between 15 and 45 € per booking. All of these figures were checked in September 2026 and are attributed to each of those sites.

The Paris market also includes Cat in a Flat, Animaute, AlloVoisins, Ringtwice, Blooming Pets, Lulu dans ma rue, GoPetSit and Mon Chat Serein, with very different positioning and formats. This is the only model that comfortably absorbs a near date, a three-night trip or a need that lands in peak season.

The comparison table

Criterion	Pure exchange	Retired house sitters	Paid service
Who pays what	Platform subscription; the sitter charges nothing for the stay. Nomador: Découverte plan advertised at around 79 €/year or 29 € for 3 months (checked in September 2026)	The sitter is housed; PartirTranquille states no payment is involved. No detailed price list found from Homesitting-Homesitter or Goldenday in September 2026	Priced per night, per visit or per hour. Rover: advertised average of 25 €/night in Paris; Pawshake: "from 25 € a night"; Yoopies: "from 11 €/hour" (checked in September 2026)
Vetting	Public profile, review history built stay after stay, direct messaging, then a meeting you arrange yourself	The organisation introduces the sitter; the process is theirs, so ask for it in writing	Platform profile and reviews, or a direct relationship with an independent sitter you meet before deciding
Insurance	Ask who covers damage to the property and check what your own home insurance says	Ask the organisation for the signed contract and the cover it carries	Ask the sitter about public liability cover and exactly what it includes
Commitment	A private arrangement with no money between you: cancelling stays cheap on both sides	A contract with the organisation; read the cancellation terms before signing	A written agreement or quote, with terms set by each sitter. With us: at least one month's notice before the stay begins
Overnight presence	Yes by design: the sitter stays in the home	Yes by design: the sitter is housed	Varies. Rover separates in-home sitting from the 30-minute visit at around 13 € in Paris (checked in September 2026). With us: every booked night
Typical length	Long trips, arranged weeks or months ahead, based on our fifty-plus stays	Long periods, to be confirmed with the organisation	From a few nights to several weeks. Our documented stays run from a few nights up to five weeks, from 31 December 2025 to 6 February 2026 in Montmorency

What each model actually commits you to

The table gives you the shape. Here is what changes inside your flat once the door closes.

Vetting and verification

In an exchange, vetting rests on a public record that builds slowly. A sitter active for several years carries dozens of named reviews, written by owners who left them alone in their homes. That is slow to fake and easy to read. In return, you run the interview, you ask the questions and you make the call.

With organisations, vetting is delegated. You save time and you lose direct contact with the sitter's own history. Ask to see the background of the specific person who will come, not the organisation's general presentation.

In a paid service, everything depends on the channel. A consumer platform shows a profile and reviews; an independent sitter shows what they choose to show. In both cases the useful check is the same: a meeting before anyone commits, and a conversation about concrete situations. Our guide to choosing a pet sitter lists the questions that get people talking, and the meet and greet page explains how to run one at home.

Insurance and liability

This is where the most nonsense circulates, so let us be plain: we publish no level of cover here that we have not verified ourselves. What we can give you are the three questions to ask before you hand over keys, whatever the model.

Who answers for physical damage in the home, and up to what amount? Who answers for vet fees incurred while you are away, and who pays them up front? What does your own home insurance say about a third party staying in your home during your absence? Get the answers in writing, before the stay. A vague answer is an answer.

Commitment and cancellation

A model with no money in it is a model with no penalty. That is comfortable when you are the one cancelling, much less so when the other side cancels three days before your flight. It is the fundamental trade-off of the exchange model, and it is better looked at squarely than discovered late.

A paid service creates the opposite commitment: there is an agreement, a price and terms. With us the rule fits in one line: a cancellation needs at least one month's notice before the stay begins, in both directions.

Whatever you choose, write down the dates, the arrival time, the departure time and the key handover protocol. A lot of stays that go wrong are not really care failures, only calendar misunderstandings.

Real presence in the home

This is the criterion that decides everything else, and the one nobody spells out in a listing. A 20-year-old cat on medication, a dog that cannot hold on for eight hours, a rabbit whose water intake needs watching: none of these are judged on a number of visits, but on hours of presence.

Ask the question in hours, not in words. How many nights slept in the home? How many hours during the day, and at which times? Someone who works elsewhere all day is not as available as someone working from your living room. Neither is better in the abstract, but one of them fits your animal.

In households with several animals that arithmetic becomes decisive: see our page on sitting for multiple pets.

Where we come from and how we work

We are Leisan and Vincent, a couple who work remotely. We started out in the exchange model, on TrustedHousesitters and Nomador, and built up 39 verified reviews there across more than 50 stays, in France and abroad.

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.

Our price list, line by line

Item	Standard nightly rate, for stays from 8 nights
Stay base, including the first cat if present	€25
Each cat from the second onward	+€5
Each small dog under 10 kg	+€10
Each dog of 10 kg or more	+€15
Each rabbit, ferret, bird or other small animal	+€3
Each large animal	+€15
Each animal on a special treatment	+€5

Special offer: care for the first cat is €0 instead of €25 per night from 8 nights. From 15 nights, care for the first two cats is €0 instead of €30 per night. The offer removes the €25 base and, from 15 nights with at least two cats, the €5 second-cat supplement. Without a cat, the stay base remains chargeable. Other supplements are still payable. The simulator applies the rate for your chosen duration.

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.

Set that against the averages quoted above: Rover advertises 25 € per night in Paris, Pawshake "from 25 € a night" (checked in September 2026). The gap is not a marketing move. It is a direct inheritance from the exchange model.

How a stay works

We sleep in the home every booked night, and we work remotely from it, so we are there for most of the day. We ask for written instructions before you leave: meals, walks, litter, prescribed treatments, plants. We arrange a meeting in person or by video call before either side commits, and keys are handed over in person or according to whatever protocol we agree. We usually send photos every day on WhatsApp, at whatever rhythm you set. The instructions checklist shows what we ask you to prepare.

We are not vets. We observe, we tell you straight away, and we contact the vet you have chosen. Across more than fifty stays, three needed a vet visit: a dog with a hot spot, a cat that stopped using the litter tray, and a follow-up appointment for an operation that predated the stay. We have given drops and oral treatments, applied balm, fitted cones, and tracked meals, water and litter closely. We have looked after anxious animals, cats of 20 and 21, and a household of five cats and three dogs in Hua Hin. We have also looked after rabbits, chickens, axolotls, frogs and three sugar gliders. The emergency plan sets out how we escalate.

We do not smoke and we do not drink alcohol. We prefer there to be no camera in the home; if there is one, we need to know where.

Our limits, stated plainly

We are two people, not an agency: our calendar is limited and fills up early. Our usual arrangement is overnight stays; drop-in visits, walks and daytime care are considered case by case, with no availability assumed. We cover Paris and the near suburbs, and further afield depending on the request. Our documented stays in the Paris region are in Paris, Villennes-sur-Seine, Médan, Montmorency, Les Lilas, Saint-Maurice and Fontenay-aux-Roses. See the arrondissement by arrondissement breakdown and our suburban coverage.

How to choose for your own situation

Two companion pieces go further. To compare the providers one by one, the ten pet care options in Paris reviews them model by model. If your question is mainly about budget, what in-home pet sitting costs in Paris sets out the market rates and our own grid line by line.

There is no best model in the abstract. There is yours, and it follows from three variables: notice, length and level of care.

You are leaving in more than three months, for two weeks or more

Exchange is built for this. Post early on TrustedHousesitters or Nomador, read the accumulated reviews, do a video call, and accept that the process takes time. You will only pay the subscription. In return, keep a fallback in mind, because nothing financial binds your sitter to the dates.

You are away a long time and want continuous occupation

Organisations placing retired sitters are designed for long absences with the property permanently occupied. Ask for the background of the specific person, the contract, the insurance and the cancellation terms, in writing, before you commit.

You are leaving in three weeks, for eight nights

Exchange will probably not keep up with that notice. You are in paid-service territory: a consumer platform or an independent sitter. Compare the all-in price rather than the headline price, and insist on the number of nights actually slept in the home.

Your animal is on medication, elderly or noticeably anxious

Price stops being the deciding factor. Hours of presence and precision of instructions take over. Write out the full routine, the dosage and the thresholds that should trigger a call, then ask the sitter to repeat it back during the meeting. Our cat sitting and dog sitting guides set out what the document should contain.

You are still weighing up the formats

Start with the general in-home care guide, which connects the formats, the steps and the preparation. The page on preparing your Paris flat handles the logistics.

Frequently asked questions

Is house sitting really free?

In an exchange the sitter charges nothing for the stay, but access to the platform is paid. Nomador advertises a Découverte plan at around 79 € a year or 29 € for 3 months, and TrustedHousesitters runs on an annual subscription (both checked in September 2026). So "free" describes the absence of a sitter's invoice, not the absence of cost.

What is the difference between house sitting, home sitting and pet sitting?

House sitting and home sitting both mean looking after the home, with someone living in it; home sitting is simply the form French organisations use most. Pet sitting means looking after the animal and implies no night in the home at all: a visits-only arrangement is still pet sitting.

Why does your price list start at 0 € for two cats?

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.

Do you really sleep in the home, every night?

Yes, every booked night. We also work remotely from the home, so we are there for most of the day. This is the question we would encourage you to put to any candidate, whatever the model: how many nights slept in the home, and how many hours of daytime presence.

What happens if the animal falls ill during the stay?

We are not vets and we do not diagnose anything. We observe against the routine you have written down, we tell you straight away, and we contact the vet you have nominated. You decide. The Paris region has emergency services open around the clock, such as Centre Hospitalier Vétérinaire Frégis, VetinParis, Vétérinaires 2 Toute Urgence, and VetoAdom for home visits. We do not publish their phone numbers, which change: note them down yourself in your instructions.

How far ahead should I book, and how do cancellations work?

Our calendar fills up early, because there are only two of us. We always confirm after meeting in person or by video call, never before. For a cancellation, give us at least one month's notice before the stay begins; we hold ourselves to the same rule.