Blog Post Categories
We Won the 2026 UK Pet Industry Award!
Entering the online world of housesitting some 12 years ago, a UK pet industry award seemed like an impossible dream. Now in 2026 we have somehow achieved this accolade with a shaggy dog origin story of playing cat and mouse with IT web developers, nearly going to the dogs after Brexit and Covid and finally hitting our stride with an excellent virtual team based around the world. Read on to learn more.
We Won the 2026 UK Pet Industry Award! (And Other Things I Wouldn’t Have Believed 12 Years Ago)
We are beyond thrilled to announce that Housesitmatch.com has just won the 2026 UK Pet Industry Award for Best Pet Sitting Network.
Photo courtesy of Lamia Walker
Holding this trophy is a surreal, incredibly proud moment. But if you had told me twelve years ago that we would be recognized as the best in the UK, I would have politely asked what you were drinking—and poured myself a double. Because getting to this stage has been less of a graceful ascension and more of a chaotic, wonderful, dog-eared twelve-year obstacle course.
To celebrate this win, I thought it was only right to share a little bit of the Housesit Match origin story. Bear with…
Two Friends and a Clueless Web Developer
The seed for this network was planted by myself and a good friend living in Perth, Australia. We were both working on other projects to pay the bills, but frankly, her other projects were much more exciting than mine. So, I became the one focusing on building the website and getting the word out.
Our first hurdle? Our inaugural web developer, a friend of a friend, knew exactly as much about building this kind of marketplace website as we did. Which is to say, nothing. It took us three rounds of IT partnerships to finally find the whip-smart tech team we work with today, thank you Emanuel and Mike for getting us to where we are today!
And eventually, my friend’s exciting Australian projects took her full attention, so I bought her out and ploughed on ahead singlehandedly.
From Central Paris to a Spanish Golf Course
Despite the early tech hiccups, the concept worked. By networking online, we built a genuinely friendly, interactive community of housesitters and homeowners, some of whom started working with us in the marketing team. Suddenly, we had sits popping up all over the UK, Europe, the US, the Caribbean, Costa Rica and Ecuador for heavens sake!
By engaging with our customers directly, and provide additional human support when needed, I started meeting fantastic people from all walks of life. I’ll never forget the Icelandic security guard who asked for my help securing his first housesit because he was determined to travel as much as possible in retirement, and never to spend another Winter in Iceland. Around the same time, a minor royal from Central Europe approached me through a friend who was aware of our services. Her butler was refusing to be seen walking the dogs in public, making his role as a petsitter a non-starter.
I matched her with our Icelandic snowbird. He secured a month-long December holiday in a house on a Southern Spanish golf course with a heated pool and gardens to enjoy, complete with the complimentary housekeeping and catering services provided by the dog-phobic butler. Not bad for an £89-a-year housesitter membership!
Photo courtesy of Bragi Jonnson
Less Hockey Stick Growth and More a Table Tennis Bat of Doom
Our initial growth was fantastic; this early success would indeed have been worthy of a UK pet industry award. We were looking at a beautiful, hockey-stick-shaped upward curve. We won the Guardian Small Business Network Award and David and I flew to Australia thanks to the prize they awarded us. Our Winning Prize – Two free tickets to watch the Australian Open semi-final with the flights and hotel rooms thrown in to accommodate us over the week!
Then, came the disaster of the Brexit aftermath. As Anglophone expats in Europe moved back home and time restrictions were enforced on travel across borders, that hockey stick flattened out into something resembling a table tennis bat. Flat and much shorter than expected.
Not long after, we had the once in a lifetime pleasure of a global pandemic. As a consequence, the world ground to a halt, and travel you may remember was strictly forbidden—which, as it turns out, is a not insignificant issue for a business driven by travel bookings. We were nearly annihilated.
Yet, we still had a strong domain authority. So I looked at the assets we had left and pivoted. We built up our blog with advertorials, securing digital marketing clients just to keep the lights on while the world stayed at home, reading and streaming voraciously online with little else to do. I kept sending our newsletter and blog traffic remained high.
Cashing in a Pension & Conscripting my Family
As travel slowly awoke from its pandemic slumbers, so did we. I decided it was time to go all-in. I cashed in a pension and started building a brand new, all-singing, all-dancing housesitting platform. We bumped up our safety checks on all members, before they even have access to the site. It felt better and more secure than ever.
Demand for housesitters returned —so much so that I had to enlist the support of my friends and family. We were all dispatched on housesits in various fantastic places just to ensure our homeowners’ needs were met while the network got back on its feet.
I sent my husband to the wilds of Berkshire to dogsit various pooches. My son was billeted to various out posts in and around London; sometimes they were long term sits, sometimes short. My daughter chose to go dogsitting in Bristol and Cornwall in English West Country to reunite with University friends while helping her mum. My team also filled in where and when they could. Thank you to Ellie, to Deborah, to Karen, to Mark and Kayleigh, Maria and Tiera. Thank you all for your support over the years.
At various points in this challenging period, would drive off in a cloud of dust to petsit all over France, Scotland, Wales and England and anywhere else I was needed where my old jalopy would take me writing blogs about my experiences and sharing them with you all. And so our faithful customers stayed loyal, and told their friends and relatives. And we began to grow again. Many of our customers have become personal friends.
The View of HouseSit Match from Today
Now 12 years later, I am finally able to work full-time on Housesitmatch.com without relying on external consultancy work. We are live on a brilliant new platform packed with features for sitters, owners, and combined accounts. We have an active affiliate program, an “Excellent” 4.9/5 rating on Trustpilot, and now, a shiny 2026 UK Pet Industry Award on the desk.
Delighted with our UK Pet Industry Award
We won this UK Pet Industry award because our platform is safe, reliable, and solves a genuine problem. But we really won this award because of you—our community. To every homeowner who trusted us with their beloved pets, and every sitter who stepped up to care for them (whether you’re an Icelandic security guard or not): thank you.
Here is to the next 12 years. We promise to keep matching, to keep improving, and to keep supporting our pet owners, dog phobic butlers and housesitters alike.
Join our Community Today
Housesitting isn’t just about free accommodation; it’s about the freedom to explore new places with a local’s perspective. By joining a trusted housesitting platform like Housesit Match as a housesitter, you unlock a world of affordable travel that is both satisfying and deeply rewarding.
With a 4.9/5.0 rating on Trustpilot, our members agree that we offer the best support and security for our happy housesitters and homeowners alike.
FURTHER READING
At Housesit Match we like to share useful blogs and practical advice about housesitters, housesitting and pet sitting. We hope you find this small selection of our blogs such as this one on our UK Pet Industry Award and our shaggy dog origin story of interest.
Housesitter in Nottingham – A New Adventure
Happy Housesitters on French Leave
London calling – London house sitting
Join to Find a Great Housesitter
