Magazine

Minding Houses and Boats: Another Kind of Life

Caretaker couples, country estates and harbour boats, and which of them is a real job

In short: Minding houses, estates and boats is often a pure swap without pay: you live for free and look after things in return. Paid jobs with housing exist as caretaker on an estate, estate manager, campsite manager or yacht crew. Job & Stay only lists jobs with pay and accommodation, free of charge. Anyone who asks for money upfront is not genuine.

At seven the terrace is still cool. I water the tomatoes and then the rosemary, then I walk once around the house and check the shutters. The owners have been away three weeks, an envelope sits in the letterbox, and the cat lies on the one patch of sun in the stone hallway.

Later I sit outside with my coffee and hear nothing but the cicadas. It is not my house, and yet the morning is mine.

An imagined voice. People who look after a house for a while describe it much like this.

Minding means: someone is away, and you are there. You make sure the house looks lived in, the garden doesn’t die and the animal gets its food. Sometimes it is an estate with horses, sometimes a sailing boat in the harbour that wants airing and checking.

The best part sounds like a holiday: no rent, a roof, often a garden or a view of the sea. You know the two questions every applicant asks. What do I earn? Where do I live? When you mind a house, the second is almost answered. The catch is in the first.

~~No rent~~But pay?

What lies ahead of you

HouseAiring, collecting post, checking shutters, keeping an eye on the alarm. Plus the small repairs the owner doesn’t want to put off.
GardenWatering, mowing, looking after the pool. Nearly every day in summer, less in winter, but never not at all.
AnimalsDog, cat, horses, hens. They want food and someone who is there, even at six in the morning.
BoatChecking lines, testing battery and bilge pump, rinsing the deck. In a storm, going down to see whether anything has come loose.

The honest line: a lot of it is not a job

Anyone searching for house-sitting finds two worlds. In one you swap care for a roof. No pay, but a bed and sometimes a view others pay admission for. For travellers with savings that can be a fair deal. It doesn’t pay a single bill, though.

In the other world you are employed or hired, with pay, a contract and clear tasks. Only this second world is what you find with us. On Job & Stay every job says what you earn and where you live.

Our yardstick

Pure swap

Paynone

Accommodationyes

Rent savedyes

In your account at month’s endnothing extra

Paid job

Payagreed

Accommodationyes

Written contractyes

In your account at month’s endyour pay

Only this is what we list

With loose one-off jobs you are often self-employed. Then you handle registration, taxes and insurance yourself. Get advice first.

Real jobs with a roof: estate managers, caretakers, wardens

Some advertisements don’t belong to a swap site but to an employer. In October 2026 an owner was looking for a caretaker couple for an estate in Portugal’s Alentejo, four hundred hectares with a suckler herd and a main house to be cooked in and looked after, plus garden, fruit and hens. Both partners were to get a contract of their own.

On an estate in Lower Saxony the post was simply called caretaker, with a service flat right on the grounds. In Britain campsites look for warden couples for the season to run reception and look after the pitches, paid by the hour, with a flat or a static caravan on site. Often a couple is asked for outright. If you arrive as two, you have an advantage here.

These ads are not on our site yet. Jobs like these will be added as soon as employer, pay and accommodation have been checked.

Two horses look out of the stable, hills and a cottage in evening light behind them

Minding boats, and the job on board

Small jetty on an island with a moored boat

Minding a boat in the harbour

Checking lines and fenders, testing pump and battery, rinsing the salt off the deck.
This usually comes for a berth on board and rarely with pay. Ask before you travel.
Somewhere a halyard clatters against the mast. Some people fall asleep to it, others never do.

Crew on a yacht

A real profession, with contract and pay, food and a bunk on board.
You usually need basic safety training to the international STCW standard (Basic Safety Training) and a medical certificate of fitness for sea service.
The days are long, the cabin is small, it smells of polish and salt. What you earn depends on boat and position, so we give no figure here.

How to spot a fake offer

Where villas and sea views lure, fraudsters are never far. Four things should stop you at once.

Money up frontWhoever wants money before you have seen a contract wants your money, not your help. Never pay a deposit, an agency fee or travel costs in advance.
A villa too good to be truePool, sea view, five rooms, no duties. Fake ads use real photos. Search the picture with a reverse image search and ask for a video call in which the owner stands inside the house.
Pressure“Only today”, “many interested”, switching to WhatsApp quickly. Serious employers give you time.
No contractWithout a written agreement on tasks, period, pay and insurance you don’t set off.

Before you say yes

LiabilityWho pays when something breaks? Ask about the house’s insurance and about your own liability cover.
AnimalsSay honestly what you can do. A horse is not a dog, and a cat on medication is not a job to do on the side.
PapersAs an EU citizen you can usually work freely in the EU, elsewhere you mostly need a visa. Ask the employer early.
LanguageEnglish takes you far. A few sentences of the local language open the neighbourhood to you.

Job & Stay asks every employer about pay and accommodation and takes no commission. Your application goes directly to the business. We ask nothing of you.

A stranger’s house and a day of your own

There is this feeling of waking up in a house that is not yours and still having a day ahead of you that is entirely yours. It doesn’t come to everyone. Some miss their own flat after two weeks, their own kettle.

Try it for one season, with a contract and pay. Then you know. The jobs below are not all minding jobs, there are not that many yet. What they share is that they are by the water or in the countryside, that you live there and that someone pays you for it.