A fashion student has saved £3,000 on travel costs by staying in people’s homes across Europe as a pet-sitter. Soriah Abraham, 19, has been to places like Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands looking after people’s pets.
Soriah says that she got the job after seeing a video of people using an app which allowed them to stay in homes around the world for free as long as they looked after the owner’s pet. Soriah, who is originally from the United States, joined the app when she started studying her fashion degree at the University for the Creative Arts in Surrey last year.
At first she did home-sits around London to build up her reputation, which then allowed her to secure stays abroad during the summer holidays. After completing her first year of university, Soriah has enjoyed a series of European breaks- and says all she has had to spend is £400 on travel, food and the ‘occasional’ hotel.
Soriah, who is from Salem, Oregon, said: “I have two cats back home and I missed them. I wanted to build up my reviews before I went for the crucial (stays) in the summer. I spent about £400 for food, and the occasional hotel.”
Soriah did her first house-sit in November 2022 and started using the app in June to support her travel around Europe. She went to Stuttgart to look after two cats, before returning to London and then jetting off to Bern, Switzerland, to look after another cat.
“I could eat their perishable food and use their bikes,” she said of that stay. “It was gorgeous, and the cat was super independent.” Soriah later came back to London again before staying at a house in Amsterdam with her mum to look after a dog. The teenager, who has also travelled to Dublin to look after rabbits, says she would ‘definitely recommend’ pet-sitting to people.
Source: Manchester Evening News
