Los Angeles has the oldest reputation in America for being lonely in a crowd, and the reputation is earned by geography rather than by character.
Four million people in the city, thirteen million in the county, spread across an area you cannot cross in an hour. Almost everybody came from somewhere else. Nobody lives near anybody, and a spontaneous evening is close to impossible -- everything here is planned a week out and cancelled the day of.
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.
Who books
People who came to try something. Acting, music, writing, directing, a startup. They arrived with a plan and no friends, work irregular hours, and their social life is other people doing the same thing at the same time, which is not most of the time.
Everybody else who just moved. In LA that is an enormous population.
Project people. Productions, contracts, projects that bring somebody in for three weeks or three months into a short-term rental in a neighbourhood they do not know.
What a booking looks like
Dinner somewhere that is not a chain. A hike at Griffith or Runyon at a normal hour. A show at the Bowl or a small room in Echo Park. A beach afternoon. Driving somewhere together, because the driving is half of LA and doing it alone is the part people hate. A long coffee with someone in their fourth month who is beginning to wonder whether the move was a mistake.
The driving is the whole logistics problem
Say where you are and how far you will go. West side, east side, valley, South Bay -- these are practically different cities on a weekday evening, and the most useful thing on your LA profile is an honest range.
It is also why bookings here run as blocks. Nobody drives forty minutes for a ninety-minute coffee, and both sides know it.
Rates
$35-70 an hour, usually a three or four hour block. You set your rate and keep all of it.
Starting
Photo, a few sentences that sound like you, your rate, and your side of town. Free, and about ten minutes.
"Renting a friend" in Los Angeles
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.
Searched constantly, in the city that has been famous for being lonely in a crowd since long before anyone could search anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much can you earn?
$35-70 an hour. LA is one of the stronger rate markets, and evenings are usually booked as a block because the driving makes short bookings impractical for everyone.Do I need a licence?
No. California does not regulate being paid for your time and company. Nothing to apply for.Who books it?
People who moved here to try something -- acting, music, writing, tech -- and have not found a circle. Recent arrivals generally, which in LA is most of the city. And a steady flow of people in town for a few weeks on a production or a project.What about the driving?
It shapes everything. Put your side of town and your real range on your profile. In LA, whether you will drive to the other side of the city on a Wednesday is a more important fact about you than almost anything else.