If you live somewhere tourists visit, you already have the thing they are paying for. You know which street is worth walking down, which restaurant is for locals and which is for photographs, and how to get across town at six in the evening. That is the whole product.
This is a guide to whether it is worth your time, written by the person who built the platform. It includes the parts that put people off, because finding that out in month three is worse than finding it out now.
What the job actually is#
A traveler messages you. You agree on a day, a rate and roughly what they want to see. You meet them somewhere public, spend a few hours walking them around your city, and they pay you.
That is it. There is no script, no flag, no group of forty. Most meetups are one or two people who arrived somewhere new and would rather see it with someone who lives there.
Three things follow from that, and they are the reason some people love this and others quit after one message:
- You meet strangers. Not virtually. You will stand on a corner waiting for someone whose face you know from a photograph.
- It is the weekend. Tourists are free when you are. This eats Saturdays.
- You are the product. Nobody books "a tour". They message you because your profile sounded like someone they would want to spend an afternoon with.
If none of that appeals, there are side hustles that pay similarly and let you stay home. This is not one of them.
Who it suits#
The people who do well are not tour guides. They are usually someone who already shows visiting friends around and enjoys it, who likes their city enough to have opinions about it, and who answers messages promptly.
Being interesting about one thing beats being available for everything. A profile that says "I'll show you around" competes with everyone in the city. A profile about food, or nightlife, or the neighbourhood you actually live in, gives someone a reason to pick you.
What you can earn#
Most Local Friends set somewhere between $15 and $60 an hour, and pick their own hours. Rough shapes:
- Part-time, two or three meetups a month: $200–500 a month
- Regular, three or four a week: $800–1,500 a month
- Full-time in a busy tourist city: $1,500–3,000 a month
These are typical ranges based on the rates Local Friends set for themselves, not a guarantee. Roavi does not book meetups for you or promise a number of travelers. What you actually earn depends on how many visitors your city gets and how many of them message you.
If you want the arithmetic rather than the ranges, what Local Friends actually earn works through it properly, including the scenarios where it comes to very little.
The honest version: in a low-traffic city with a new profile, the first month can be nothing at all. Tourist volume is the single biggest factor and it is the one you cannot fix by trying harder.
What it costs you to start#
Nothing. There is no fee to list, no license, and no certification.
You are not running a formal tour, you are showing someone your city, so the bureaucracy that applies to tour operators does not apply here. Worth a sentence of your own research though: a handful of cities regulate paid guiding regardless of how informal it is, and that is on you to check where you live.
How to start#
- Make a profile. Photo, a few lines about you, and what you are actually good for.
- Set your rate. Look at what others in your city charge and start near them.
- Say when you are free. Weekends only is a perfectly normal answer.
- Reply quickly. Someone deciding between three people usually picks whoever answered first.
It takes about ten minutes. The profile is the part worth spending time on, because it is the only thing a traveler sees before deciding whether to message you.
Before you decide#
Two more worth reading, both more specific than this one:
- Side hustles for people who like meeting people, if the social part is the appeal rather than the obstacle
- How the platforms compare, if you are weighing this against the alternatives
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need a licence to be a local guide?
In most countries, no — not for what this actually is. Roavi Local Friends do not need a guiding certification anywhere Roavi operates, because you are not selling a packaged commercial tour; you are spending time with someone and agreeing directly what that looks like. Japan removed its exclusive-practice rule in 2018, for example. Running structured commercial tours as a registered business is a different activity with its own rules in most places, and it is not what this is.How much does it cost to start?
Nothing, and this is the genuine difference from most side hustles. No equipment, no inventory, no course, no vehicle. You create a free profile, set your rate, and Roavi takes no commission on what a traveller pays you. The optional Verified badge at US$9.99 a month buys visibility and nothing else — it is not required to list, be messaged or earn.How long before I earn anything?
Longer than most articles admit. Listing does not generate income; travellers have to find you and write to you first, and plenty of people earn nothing in their first few weeks. What shortens it is entirely within your control: a real photograph of your face, a bio with something specific in it, and answering messages the same day.Is this a good side hustle if I have a full-time job?
It is one of the better ones for that, because the work is weekends and evenings — exactly when travellers are free and you are not. There is no shift, no minimum and no penalty for declining. The constraint is not hours, it is that demand arrives when tourists arrive, so a city with a strong season will be lumpy rather than steady.What kind of person is this actually for?
Someone who likes their city and likes talking to strangers. That is most of it. You do not need history knowledge, a qualification, or perfect English — you need to be genuinely interested in the person in front of you and honest about what you do and do not know. People who treat it as a performance burn out; people who treat it as showing a friend around do not.