Free holiday or visa chaos? Housesitting firm accused of misleading advice after claims of deportations

Gemma Bailey, whose housesitter was interrogated at the UK border after coming from the US to look after her cat. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Observer

It is billed as a cheap way to travel the world – staying for free in strangers’ homes in exchange for looking after their pets. But the world’s biggest housesitting company has been accused of encouraging its members to flout visa rules by providing misleading travel advice.

In some cases, members of TrustedHousesitters were detained and deported after arriving for international housesitting jobs without work visas, leaving them out of pocket and facing difficulties travelling in future.