For most of the last decade Austin was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, adding people faster than it could build anywhere to put them.
Every one of those arrivals left a social life somewhere else. A lot of them have not rebuilt it. That is the market.
Roavi is not a tour company and you are not a guide. People pay for your time and your company -- dinner, a concert, an afternoon walking somewhere, someone to talk to. That is a real trade with a long history: platforms built on exactly this have operated across the United States for well over a decade.
The Austin version of this
Transplants, in enormous numbers. People who moved for a job at a company that moved here, often from California, often alone or as a couple who now only know each other. They have money and no Saturday plans.
The festival gap. SXSW, ACL, F1, and a football calendar that takes over the city. Every one of those brings people who have a ticket, a hotel, and nobody to go with. That is a very specific and very biddable need.
The queue problem. Austin's food culture runs on waiting -- barbecue lines that start before opening, restaurants with no reservations. Doing that alone for three hours is miserable. Doing it with somebody is the point.
People who will not go out alone. Same as everywhere, more acute in a city where the default social unit is a group of six on a patio.
What a booking looks like
Barbecue and the wait that comes with it. A show on Red River or at the Continental Club. Barton Springs in the afternoon. A walk round the lake. A long dinner on the east side. Someone's first week in town and they want to feel like the move was not a mistake.
You are not guiding anybody. Most of your clients live here.
Seasons
The local base runs all year. On top of it: March is chaos in the best way, October has two ACL weekends, F1 fills November, and the football calendar takes several Saturdays. Those weeks book out early and pay well because demand spikes and supply does not.
August is hot enough to flatten everything. Plan for it.
Rates
$30-55 an hour, usually as an evening block rather than counted hourly. You set the number and keep all of it -- no commission, and Roavi never touches the payment.
Starting
A photo, a few sentences that sound like you, your rate. Ten minutes and free.
"Renting a friend" in Austin
That is the phrase most people type, and it comes from RentAFriend, which has run this exact model in the United States since the late 2000s. Fifteen years of a company being paid to introduce people who want company, without a regulator ever taking an interest -- which is the clearest answer there is to anyone wondering whether this is a real thing to do.
It is the same idea here. The differences are money: RentAFriend charges you a listing fee before anyone has booked you, and Roavi does not charge you anything, take a commission, or touch the payment. We wrote the two up side by side in RentAFriend vs Roavi.
Type it in March and you are one of a great many people in this city looking for someone to go to a show with.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much can you earn?
$30-55 an hour is typical, with evenings usually taken as a block of three or four hours. Austin pays well for a southern city and the bar for going out is high.Do I need a licence or any qualification?
No. Being paid for your company is not a regulated activity anywhere in the United States -- platforms built entirely on it have run here for well over a decade. There is nothing to apply for and nothing to pass.When is it busiest?
Two patterns on top of each other. A steady local base all year, and sharp spikes around SXSW, ACL, F1 weekend and the football calendar, when the city fills with people who have a ticket and nobody to go with.What do people actually want to do?
Eat, mostly. Then live music, a swim, a walk. Austin's social life is not complicated -- the difficulty is doing any of it alone, which is the entire reason someone books.