Actually they did include pets, there was one swap that had three dogs, and another with a cat and two ferrets, it turned out well though, they were very well taken care of, but yes I would not trust a stranger either unless they were from PT, see this could work rather well if people who wanted to do it, swapped houses on PT, looked after each other's pets and had a relatively cheap holiday., I am not game, but there are other's who seem to quite like the idea.