twenty fifth Apr 2025
Studying Time: 15 minutes
Until you be a part of the Navy or work for an airline, you’ll in all probability wrestle to earn cash whereas travelling.
Scrounging free flights and resort stays is getting more and more tough within the post-lockdown, post-‘influencer’ world, and even skilled journey writers now wrestle to journey the world at no cost like they used to.
However there are nonetheless some methods to recoup the price of your vacation, from renting out your property and driveway to taking care of another person’s pet whilst you sightsee.
Minimize by means of the hype and uncover what suggestions do and don’t work now, with our knowledgeable information.
Proceed Work on Vacation
OK, OK, so being on vacation means taking annual depart or time away out of your freelance job. However if you happen to can negotiate working at the very least a few days per week remotely whilst you’re away, you received’t eat into your depart days or vacation fund fairly a lot. With distant work so frequent in a post-Covid world, it’s simpler than ever to barter an extended vacation general, if you happen to can prepare to work remotely a couple of days per week.
Converse to your boss about how you can work whilst you’re away, and ensure clear boundaries are set about if you find yourself working and if you find yourself on vacation. In case you are travelling to a rustic that has an workplace to your firm or purchasers, think about providing to spend a day finishing up in-person conferences (and a few smooth-tongued workers may even use this to ask for bills in direction of air journey and a resort for a portion of the journey).
Freelancers can often work from wherever, which implies it’s simple to up sticks for per week or two with out dipping into your financial savings an excessive amount of. Working a few hours a day ensures the earnings continues to roll in, however you possibly can benefit from doing it by a seaside or in a lovely historic metropolis! And bear in mind, if you happen to can tie your journey to work someway, equivalent to a analysis journey, a few of your bills could be offset in your Self Evaluation.
Earn Cash Renting Out Your House
Renting out your own home out whilst you’re away is a straightforward – and fairly profitable – approach of recouping the value of your vacation, particularly if you happen to reside in a vacationer hotspot.
Airbnb has clearly cornered the market in informal vacation lets, however there are a complete host of apps and web sites on the market you could sign-up to, together with Vacation Lettings, Vrbo, and Reserving.com, all of that are fairly simple to create and handle an inventory on.
Common rental websites like Spare Room or Monday to Friday are one other great way of discovering individuals who may desire a full two weeks in a metropolis, the place, let’s face it, most Airbnb friends solely need to keep for a day or three.
Which website is greatest?
Spare Room and Monday to Friday tenants are often younger adults or enterprise individuals searching for a stopgap whereas they discover extra long-term lodging. Websites like Reserving.com and Air BnB allow you to checklist for short-term lets, which may give you extra cash if you happen to’re going away at a peak time.
There are only a few legalities to examine earlier than letting out your property, like whether or not it is advisable up your insurance coverage. Airbnb, as an example, covers you for as much as $1m in insurance coverage, however your personal dwelling insurance coverage supplier may additionally want you to pay a small payment to incorporate renters to your coverage.
In case you have a mortgage, it is advisable examine if it’s okay with them too, as not all lenders mean you can supply your property out for short-term lets.
House Swap
Should you don’t need to hire out your property – or doing so would imply costly adjustments to your insurance coverage coverage – you can think about a house swap with a buddy or vetted individual, as an alternative. That is the place you turn houses for the time period: you reside of their home, they reside in yours. This was made in style with the Christmas movie, The Vacation with Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz. We are able to’t assure you’ll discover the love of your life, however you may uncover an inexpensive strategy to usually go to a spot that you simply love!
There are fully free dwelling swap companies, however going by means of an company like HomeExchange with a small annual payment means you should have extra safety insurance coverage and different assist as a part of your membership. House swaps prevent a lot cash on journey, it may be a strategy to discover the world on a restricted price range – so paying an company payment, the place individuals are vetted to hitch, could be effectively price it.
Lease Out Your Drive
In case your mortgage dealer doesn’t mean you can allow you to hire out your own home, or perhaps you simply don’t fancy having another person keep in your house whilst you’re not there, you can all the time hire out your empty driveway as an alternative.
Having a automobile in your drive can even do extra to maintain away would-be burglars than that corridor lamp on a time swap ever may! You can even make a good whack by merely letting another person park in your property for per week or two. Once more, the quantity you can earn will depend on the place you reside – if you happen to’re reside in an enormous metropolis or close to a main sporting venue, like Wimbledon or Aintree the place parking is a serious downside throughout sure weeks of the yr, your drive will clearly be extra in-demand than if you happen to reside on Dartmoor.
There are a great deal of firms that specialise in driveway leases, together with JustPark.com, ParkOnMyDrive.com, Stashbee.com and YourParkingSpace.co.uk. You’ll additionally discover individuals listings their driveways on Gumtree, Fb and different less-specialist websites, so it’s price checking on these too to see if you happen to may earn extra by promoting on one in all them.
Establishing an account solely takes a minute or so, and the websites then both take a small minimize from you, the leaser, or, within the case of JustPark.com, add an additional fee on to invoice which the individual renting your drive pays.
How a lot can I cost to hire out my drive?
The three cities most in-demand by space-shy parkers are London, Edinburgh and Brighton, the place parking close to the centre sometimes goes from £15 a day (if you happen to exclude the chancers charging £50+). Even within the suburbs, the going-rate begins from £10 a day in Brighton, rising the nearer you reside to bus routes.
It could not sound an enormous quantity, however added up over a fortnight, you can (conservatively) look to make between £70 and £135 renting out your parking house – and that’s assuming you checklist on the very backside of the market. Most of these drives should not in probably the most in-demand components of Brighton, like close to the seaside or station.
It’s an identical story with different touristy cities like York, the place metropolis centre parking has simply rocketed in April 2025, to a whopping £4.85 an hour in metropolis automobile parks (up from 80p an hour only a month earlier than!).
Will I earn extra in different cities?
Should you’re fortunate sufficient to reside in central London, Edinburgh, or York, your drive pays for various Magnums. You possibly can simply make £20+ a day for every parking house. Should you’ve a double drive or double storage, you’re taking a look at £40+ a day – which provides as much as £560 in income throughout your two-week journey away. Have house for 3 automobiles? You could possibly earn £840 to place in direction of your spending cash.
Clearly, you’ll need to examine together with your dwelling insurance coverage supplier to make sure that renting out your driveway or storage doesn’t have an effect on your coverage, and any further money you make over £1000 in a yr should be declared to HMRC in your tax return.
Can I Make Cash Pet Sitting?
In addition to renting out your personal home/drive to make some cash, you can attempt getting paid to remain within the place you’re staying – or, on the very least, keep there at no cost. Most individuals don’t pay for home sitting anymore – except you’re required to additionally take care of pets.
The plain approach to do that is by providing your companies as a home sitter. Not everybody can get a home swap, equivalent to those that hire their houses reasonably than personal them, however you possibly can nonetheless register on a home sitting website to remain in somebody’s home at no cost.
There are a selection of the explanation why somebody would need you to remain of their home rent-free.
An rising variety of individuals personal a couple of property or spend lengthy intervals of time away on enterprise, and would reasonably pay somebody to take care of the place than danger being burgled.
Housebreaking charges are highest throughout vacation intervals, which, let’s face it, might be if you find yourself searching for someplace too. Hiring a house-sitter additionally makes monetary sense for dwelling house owners with a number of beneficial contents, like priceless artwork and memorabilia, so having you on-site may really assist decrease their insurance coverage premiums.
What does house-sitting contain?
Home sitting is usually very simple. Your job is to maintain issues dust-free and tidy, maybe carry on prime of the backyard and water any vegetation, and, in fact, you could be required to take care of a pet too.
There’s fairly a requirement for many who are good with canine, cats and different animals, given many pet house owners don’t need to ship their pets to costly kennels and catteries, so if you happen to take pleasure in strolling and grooming animals, and could be trusted to maintain them alive for 2 weeks, you’ll be superb.
Not all house-sitting firms pay, however you’ll save lots of of kilos on accommodations and B&B by taking up the roll of unpaid dog-walker/night-watchman once you’re not off exploring the native vacationer websites.
How do I register?
Most the principle home sitting web sites cost would-be sitters a small payment to register on their website. HouseSittersUK, as an example, costs £29 a yr for entry to its portal, which, as its web site factors out is ‘a fraction of the worth of an evening’s resort lodging’. As soon as registered, you possibly can then start trying to find dwelling house owners within the space you’re hoping to remain, and chat immediately with them to barter what they need and want from you. In the event that they pay, they are going to sometimes point out this within the advert, however you possibly can all the time ask about any remunerations or bills once you message them. In the event that they’re asking you to take care of pets or be conscious of explicit errands that might value cash, be sure to have in writing that they are going to cowl any bills incurred (like pet food).
Can I house-sit in a foreign country?
Should you’re searching for lodging overseas, MindMyHouse.com has listings throughout the US, Canada and Mexico, which account for over a 3rd of all adverts, in addition to heaps in the remainder of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.
Once more, you must pay a small yearly membership payment of $29 (roughly £25) however there are many good wanting listings in unique locations. After all, the house house owners are typically searching for assistance on particular dates (often once they themselves are going away), so if you happen to’re seeking to go to California, for instance, it could make sense to lookup who’s listed in that vacation spot – and when they’re searching for house-sitters – and, organising your journey round that, reasonably than reserving your flights first after which being disillusioned once you uncover there aren’t any Californians searching for house-sitters the fortnight you’re going to be there.
Can I specify what I’ll and received’t do?
The fascinating factor about this website is home sitters and residential house owners signal an settlement detailing precisely what’s and isn’t included within the settlement, overlaying every thing from cost (or in any other case) to the state of affairs concerning utility payments, damages, and any chores/duties. The contract additionally ensures your keep, though every occasion can cancel the settlement as much as seven days earlier than you might be because of arrive, so there’s all the time an opportunity you will have to seek out various lodging in the event that they cancel greater than per week out.
One other in style website is Trustedhousesitters, nevertheless its becoming a member of payment is much more costly, ranging from £119 a yr for a ‘primary’ membership. Should you go down this route, it is probably not a foul thought to improve to the £129 ‘customary sitter’ membership, which incorporates unintentional and third occasion legal responsibility insurance coverage, in case something goes fallacious throughout your keep. The premium membership of £249 is good for these wanting to deal with sit greater than yearly (it’s nonetheless cheaper than a resort!) because it consists of sit cancellation cowl.
Should you apply for 5 home sits and aren’t profitable with any of them, the usual and premium plan features a refund in your membership value.
Can I cost a payment to deal with sit?
Though funds should not the norm, you could be capable to negotiate a small payment if there are pets to take care of or every other extra duties, so positively give it a attempt if you happen to really feel you deserve a small each day quantity.
One girl we all know of at MoneyMagpie usually makes £50 a day as a house-sitter. She solely spends the night and night time in the home, earlier than going to work the following day.
The explanation for this excessive fee of pay is the truth that the proprietor of the home has seven canine.
It will value at the very least £10 per canine per day to place these canine into kennels. By paying £50 to a house-sitter who is aware of the canine, the proprietor saves £20 a day.
Usually, although, pay is minimal and begins at £10 a day. Some sitters ask for a meals allowance of £10 a day, very like an worker can do when having to journey for his or her firm. These sitters will typically ask for 45p per mile for gas, once more very like workers receives a commission for utilizing their personal automobile for work. Each of these funds are non-taxable, in contrast to any precise remunerations, which ought to be declared to the taxman if you happen to meet the minimal threshold.
One other instance of when a Magpie has been paid to deal with sit was when the individual had a house enterprise that required a number of sending and receiving parcels. They paid £10 a day to cowl the journey to the submit workplace, and to verify the Magpie stayed at dwelling throughout the set supply occasions to absorb parcels.
In case you are extra targeted on incomes cash reasonably than simply discovering someplace free to remain, you’re in all probability higher taking a look at a specialised pet-sitting website, though you in all probability must be an actual animal lover to hassle making use of to those. Most house owners aren’t going to go away their beloved pooch with any Tom, Dick or Harry.
How do I turn into a pet-sitter?
The pet-sitting platform Rover doesn’t cost you to register and as an alternative takes 15% of any cash you make, very like Airbnb does. Lots of the sitters on its website are professionals who both personal boarding kennels and catteries, or run skilled canine walkers companies, they usually clearly cost large bucks. That stated, there are others who supply a extra conventional house-sitting service, which is clearly most well-liked by many pet house owners whose animals are too nervous or outdated to go to a kennel or cattery, so that you may be capable to undercut the professionals, and web your self an honest payment to assist offset a few of your different vacation prices. In case you have a police DBS examine and may get references from different pet house owners testifying to your dog-whispering prowess, you’ll additionally severely increase your possibilities of getting chosen.
Once more you’ll discover listings throughout the UK on Rover, in addition to in in style vacationer locations just like the US, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and Norway – the place accommodations are notoriously costly.
Should you plan to take care of somebody’s pet, you actually must look into getting public legal responsibility cowl, in case the canine bites somebody whilst you’re out strolling them, as an example. {Many professional} house-sitters take out public legal responsibility insurance coverage even when they by no means take care of pets. You by no means know what kind of any blow-back you may get from the house proprietor if issues go fallacious, so it’s all the time higher to be protected than sued!
Get Free Meals and Lodge Stays as a Thriller Diner and Customer
There are many companies on the market that make use of individuals as thriller customers for accommodations and eating places. Some pay however most supply merely the bills again of the meal or lodging. They may typically stipulate whether or not it is advisable order a selected factor, ask for assist (equivalent to ‘might I’ve an iron dropped at my room?’ to check room service), and different such issues. You have to to allocate a while to finish the duties – however it can end in free stays and meals.
What is going to I’ve to do?
Usually, thriller diners are given a easy questionnaire to fill-in after their go to, asking them to fee how pleasant the employees have been, how clear and presentable the restaurant appeared, and different maybe brand-specific questions, like did the meal arrive inside a sure time after ordering.
A lot of college students and retired individuals do thriller buying or thriller eating work as a part-time job, however if you happen to’re actually solely fascinated by doing it every now and then to cowl these dinners away, you can attempt signing up for a website like MysteryDining.
Whereas most individuals who use the app evaluation eating places of their native space, it let’s you replace your preferences if you happen to’re travelling, which means you possibly can choose to evaluation eating places and accommodations, for instance, whilst you’re elsewhere within the UK. They even have some worldwide partnerships, which means you can eat at no cost whereas on vacation in components of Europe, the Center East and America.
Can I receives a commission for opinions?
MysteryDining doesn’t pay you for every evaluation, however affords ’capped reimbursements’ – ie. cash to pay for the meal or resort room you’ve been requested to evaluation. It really works on a tiered system (with bronze, silver, gold and platinum ranges, relying on what number of opinions you’ve accomplished). Not surprisingly, the very best gigs, like resort stays, spa visits, meals at high-end eating places, and afternoon teas, are reserved for individuals with extra expertise – which you achieve, initially, by reviewing lots of ‘fast service’ eateries, like Pret A Manger.
If residing it up at no cost isn’t sufficient, you’ll find paid gigs right here, though they require a bit extra dedication and energy, and, are frankly, extra of a job than one thing you possibly can simply casually do whereas having fun with a much-needed break.
Make Cash Promoting Your Vacation Pics
Should you’re travelling someplace a bit distinctive or off the overwhelmed monitor, nevertheless, and are a very good beginner photographer with a DSLR digital camera, you may as effectively give it a go, because it’s stunning how few photographs the photograph companies have of huge swathes of Africa, as an example.
What kind of photographs will promote?
Clearly there’s little or no demand for brand new photographs of Desk Mountain or Kruger Nationwide Park. However you’d be shocked at simply how few photographs there are of different comparatively mainstream African locations on most image libraries.
As an illustration, if you happen to sort ‘fisherman + Gabon’, ‘hyenas + Namib-Naukluft Nationwide Park’ or the title of a seaside in Zanzibar or Mozambique into a photograph library search bar (like an image editor seeking to illustrate a narrative would do), only a few photographs will possible come up.
Even when there are a couple of related photographs on the website, there’s a very good probability people who these images will have already got been used by the image editors at specialist publications (and even mainstream media homes), which means your snap could possibly be precisely what they’re searching for subsequent time they search a kind of phrases.
Should you’re going even additional off the vacationer path to go to kin in Nigeria, for instance, then you can actually clear up. You’d be shocked at how few good photographs there are of a rustic of 200 million individuals!
The place do I join?
There are many on-line companies. Some in style websites embrace:
While you register your particulars, the location will often ask you to ship between 5 to 10 images so it might probably take a look at the standard and sort of images you ship them. In case your images don’t conform to the location’s necessities, they are going to be rejected.
If this occurs, don’t fear – simply attempt once more, taking their feedback into consideration. Generally it could simply be as a result of they have already got too lots of the form of photograph you’re sending.
After your footage have been checked and cleared you’ll be notified once they go reside on the web site, often after about 24 hours.
Then there’s nothing to do after that besides wait till individuals purchase your images. As soon as your account reaches a sure restrict you will get your palms on the money.
Authorized points to think about
There are a couple of authorized points to think about earlier than you add any pics on to a photograph library. As an illustration, footage of identifiable homes or fashions (any one that is within the photograph) will generally want a launch type. That is signed by the mannequin or home proprietor to quote that their permission has been given so that you can revenue from their private belongings. Every web site has a launch type so that you can obtain if you happen to want it.
You also needs to keep away from taking footage of automobile registration plates, firm logos (these could be Registered Commerce Marks) and something that could possibly be thought-about inflammatory (racist graffiti, for instance). You want to examine the legal guidelines of the nation you might be in to establish what you possibly can and may’t take images of in a public house, too.
Journey for Free by Being a ‘Group Chief’
Lots of journey firms supply a reduction if a big group is reserving collectively. These embrace main manufacturers like Virgin Holidays and Eurostar, which will give giant teams of 10 or extra a ten% low cost. The observe can also be frequent amongst specialist tour ops that prepare snowboarding journeys, strolling holidays, biking excursions, golf breaks and safaris. These specialists typically permit the tour ‘chief’ or one that organized the group reserving to journey at no cost, as a thanks/incentive for organising the journey and to encourage them to rearrange extra sooner or later.
Should you arrange a bunch vacation for buddies or household you can be rewarded to your effort by pocketing that low cost your self (agree it with your pals first in fact).
Not solely will the travelling be cheaper, you may then be eligible for cheaper entry into points of interest, too. These could also be museums, amusement parks and so on. It’s primarily simply one other approach of shopping for in bulk.
Earn Cashback on Flight and Lodge Bookings
The opposite simple strategy to make free cash in your vacation is by paying for as a lot of your journey on a credit score or debit card that pays you a refund each time you spend. Even higher if you may as well buy by way of a cashback website like Quidco or Topcashback, to stack the rewards.
Lots of financial institution playing cards are actually de facto ‘reward playing cards’ that pay you each time you employ your card to purchase items and companies. Usually this reward money is a flat share fee, which you earn every time you employ your card. Different banks might group up with particular firms, which regularly change on a month-to-month foundation, and supply a refund or further a refund every time you purchase one thing with one in all their companions that month.
Clearly, if you happen to’re travelling overseas, the small payment you earn every time you spend will (often) be offset by international transaction charges, however you can make a good chunk of cheddar if you happen to use a reward card to e-book flights, pay for a bundle vacation, or if you happen to e-book accommodations and different vacation necessities by means of a UK web site earlier than your journey begins.
Earn Avios factors once you spend
A substitute for utilizing cashback is to earn Avois or Virgin Reward factors in your each day spending to avoid wasting all year long, for discounted flight, airport lounge, and resort prices. The British Airways bank card and Virgin Reward card supply these – however take a look at others like Amex Rewards as they might even be a part of a factors scheme.
You possibly can typically get further bonuses too, equivalent to a free companion voucher when you’ve earned a sure stage of factors – which means you possibly can take a buddy or associate in your journey at no cost, too.
