We love to highlight the innovative businesses within our community! Today, we’re excited to shine a spotlight on TrustedHousesitters. This Brighton-born company has been transforming the travel experience for pet lovers around the world since 2010. Read on to learn more about their inspiring journey and unique approach.
Tell us a bit about your company…
TrustedHousesitters is the leading travel solution for pet people; a global community whose love of pets and travel enables home sharing and pet caring all over the world.
The service was founded in Brighton, UK in 2010 and has over 200,000 members in more than 140 countries, responsible for 10 million nights of pet sitting. A subscription gives unlimited access to short and long term sits with no further money changing hands. Sitters explore the world while staying in real homes and enjoying the companionship of pets.
Meanwhile, owners enjoy freedom and peace of mind by prioritising their pets’ wellbeing at home with a trusted companion.
What problem do you solve or what difference do you make for your clients?
We sit across two marketplaces; pet owners who are seeking trustworthy pet care whilst they go away and pet-loving travellers who are looking for an alternative way to see the world.
For our pet owner members, or ‘pet parents’ as we call them, there’s a worry that moving a pet from their home environment, whilst their family is away can cause stress. Family members aren’t always on hand to look after an extra pet and boarding facilities can be distressing for animals, so TrustedHousesitters match pet-loving sitters to keep pets happy in their own home, whilst keeping the home safe, too. Not only is the pet well looked after, but the peace of mind for owners is heightened, too.
For pet sitters, we find pets that need care to match their lifestyle and travel plans. Whether it’s a digital nomad looking for a peaceful setting to work remotely in the company of animals, or perhaps somebody who is looking for adventure and wants to share their time with a furry companion. Our platform has a huge range of pets, all who have different needs and who would be suited to different sitters. The concept is simple, keep a pet safe and happy, in return for a place to stay, with no money exchanging hands!
We strive to create the win-win-win, with pets, pet parents and pet sitters all benefiting from our unique proposition.
How would you describe the culture within the business, and how does this contribute to its success?
The culture at TrustedHousesitters is very purpose driven. The whole team works remotely, across the UK, Europe, Brazil and Canada, with multiple opportunities throughout the year for staff in the UK and Europe to get together in ‘real life’. We made the move to a remote-first business in March 2020 and haven’t looked back. All levels of the business are treated equally and hard work is rewarded throughout the year!
First and foremost, each member of ‘Team Trusted’ is a pet person, so ultimately, we all want what’s best for the pets at the core of our business. It doesn’t matter if you sit on the Membership Services team or work in back-end engineering, keeping pets and our members front of mind in all that we do contributes to the platform growing and improving month on month.
How do you invest in the development and well-being of your employees? What makes your company a great place to work?
All employees are equipped with everything they need to work effectively, from wherever they are in the world. Alongside this, we keep the dialogue open throughout the year, not just for annual reviews. We regularly survey all staff and act quickly on anything that needs to be changed or looked into. Our monthly surveys currently have an 88% participation rate and we’re scoring 50 eNPS, which benchmarks us as a truly best-in-class employer.
Staff wellbeing is incredibly important to us too, after all, if your team isn’t supported, how can you expect them to perform at their best? We offer private healthcare and support to employees, as well as weekly yoga classes, cycle initiatives and budget for continued learning and development.
In addition, every June we celebrate Wellness Month. We provide additional resources, set challenges, host training sessions and “wellness sessions” such as meditation, all to take time to focus on the wellbeing of our employees.
We are also in the process of creating Progression Frameworks for each of our internal teams, focusing on creating growth and development opportunities for our employees, alongside continually reviewing all benefits to best support employee wellbeing.
What are the top achievements and successes you’re most proud of?
In addition to seeing our membership numbers grow month on month, we’re also really proud to see that our employee numbers increased by 53% in 2023 and we’ve already grown by 8% this year! The TrustedHousesitters team is incredible, and it is amazing to see how they work seamlessly together, despite often being apart physically.
Last year, we were recognised by Escape The City for putting people and the planet on par with profit and TrustedHousesitters earned a spot in The Escape 100. This improves recruitment as it shows what our team really think of us, across a range of areas, including equality, pay and wellbeing.
Above all, we are proud to continually put pets first, providing a platform that improves the lives of pets, their owners and pet-loving explorers around the world. A 2023 survey revealed that 97% of our members said TrustedHousesitters improved their lives, how can we not be immensely proud of that?!
Is there any other work you’re doing in the community that you’d like to share?
TrustedHousesitters supports animal rescue centres and shelters through formal international partnerships. Previous local activity has included supporting Raystede Animal Centre in Lewes, on its improvement projects with TrustedHousesitters volunteers. Fundraising efforts included sponsored Brighton Marathon entries and TrustedHousesitters was recognised as Corporate Fundraiser of the year on two occasions as a result of this.
As an organisation, we have also worked with local branches of the RSPCA, Cats Protection & Blue Cross. TrustedHousesitters has a strong relationship with Dr. Marc Abraham OBE, a multi award-winning vet, author and campaigner. We support his campaigning activities through our social media and work to bring together other local businesses to form an alliance to help rescue centres in their work to improve animal welfare and support local communities.
In September last year, Toni Finnimore and her team at Brighton-based organisation, The Social Society created what felt like TrustedHousesitters very own wellness festival, with workshops ran by local charities Same Sky, Rescued by Love Project, and The La Di Da Society – plus a keynote talk by Dr. Marc Abraham OBE.
Also in September 2023, TrustedHousesitters sponsored a ‘Shaun’ instalment as part of the Shaun By The Sea art trail, in aid of Martlets, a charity that helps those affected by terminal illnesses. Local artist David Bennett painted the model sheep in a unique, zebra design, fondly giving it the name: ‘Zebaa’.
We have now officially partnered with The Social Society, who will be supporting TrustedHousesitters on all of our volunteering days in 2024, with opportunities to volunteer our time with local charities four times a year.
Are there any upcoming projects, goals or ambitions that you are particularly excited about?
Over two thirds of our new members tell us that they found out about us through word of mouth. Knowing that our existing community is so keen to share the word makes us incredibly excited, so we are driving to create new things for them to talk about!
Our strategy revolves around embracing this virality to grow our community worldwide, so all of our upcoming projects and goals are centred around this growth.
When did you first come across Silicon Brighton? What’s the relationship and how do you benefit?
TrustedHousesitters has been a strong supporter of Silicon Brighton since its inception. During the first Covid-19 lockdown, Silicon Brighton organised regular online breakfast chats with tech leaders from across the city. It acted as a great way to continue to network, despite the country being ‘closed’ and it even acted as a bit of a self-help group as we tried to navigate the new, difficult situation that all business leaders found themselves in!
Our relationship remains very strong and we continue to benefit as a result of the great work Silicon Brighton does to make Brighton a thriving tech hub.
Considering your involvement in Silicon Brighton and community-building, what does the concept of ‘community’ mean to you? How important is it for the tech industry?
We are a business based on community. It’s a considerably more powerful way to build than having transactional supplier-customer relationships. I see with every interaction with Silicon Brighton, many parallels with our business – a willingness to help and support others and a philosophy that the world is a better place for all if we share and collaborate.
Anything else you would like to promote to our community? (Hiring, socials, website)
TrustedHousesitters is currently hiring multiple positions, across departments, as the company continues to grow. All open positions are advertised on the careers section of the website, with full pay transparency for every role.
Our social media channels continue to grow, with a community of over half a million across all channels, including Instagram, TikTok and more. It’s always brilliant to see members showcasing why TrustedHousesitters works for them, whether that’s a happy pet and well looked after home whilst their owners enjoy a vacation, or a pet sitter exploring a totally new part of the world with a furry (or feathered, or scaly) sidekick to enjoy their adventures with. Check out our website, and careers page.
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