How I Make Money Showing Tourists My City on Roavi

A year ago I was doing food delivery on the side, driving around alone for hours, staring at a phone mount, making maybe $15-18/hour after gas. It paid the bills but I hated it. I wanted something that still fit around my regular job, but that didn't feel like sitting in a metal box by myself every night.

How I Stumbled Into This Side Hustle

I was scrolling around looking for something more social than app-based delivery gigs when I came across Roavi. The idea was simple: travelers visiting my city wanted to hang out with an actual local instead of just doing the tourist checklist, and I could get paid for showing them around.

Signing up took about 10 minutes and didn't cost anything. I filled out a profile, added some photos, listed the neighborhoods and spots I actually know well, and set my rate.

My first meetup was nerve-wracking going in. I kept overthinking it like it needed to be some kind of formal tour. It wasn't. It turned out to just be hanging out — coffee, conversation, walking around. The traveler was more relieved than I was that it wasn't awkward.

What I Actually Do During a Meetup

This is the part people usually get wrong when they picture the job. It's not a tour. I'm not memorizing historical facts or walking backwards narrating things. I just take people to my favorite spots and talk about my city the way I would with a friend visiting from out of town.

A typical outing looks something like:

• Coffee at the place near my apartment where I actually go every week
• A walk through my neighborhood, pointing out the stuff guidebooks never mention
• Lunch at a local spot, not a chain, not something aimed at tourists
• If it's evening, maybe a bar or a rooftop spot with a good view

There's no script. Some meetups are mostly food-focused, some are more about walking and talking, some end up being three hours of just genuinely good conversation about where they're from versus where I'm from. Most meetups run 2-4 hours, and I've learned to just let the conversation set the pace instead of forcing an itinerary.

How Much I Make

I charge $35/hour, which is right in the middle of what most Local Friends on Roavi charge. A typical meetup runs about 3 hours, so that's roughly $105 per outing.

Here's how that adds up:

• 2-3 meetups on a weekend = roughly $200-315/week
• Monthly, depending on the season and how many I book = roughly $300-800

That range moves around a lot. Summer and holiday weeks bring more travelers to my city, so I get more requests. Slower months, I might only do one or two meetups. But there's no ceiling I'm bumping up against — it's purely a function of how many meetups I take on.

The part that actually matters most to me: Roavi doesn't take a commission. Whatever I charge, I keep. Signing up and creating a profile is completely free, and it stays free whether I do one meetup a month or twenty. The only optional cost is the $9.99/month Verified Local badge, which I added a few months in once I wanted a bit more visibility on my profile — nobody made me do it, and I earned plenty before I ever paid for it.

If you want the fuller math on how the earnings actually scale as you take on more meetups, I broke that down in more detail in this post on the tour guide side hustle.

Tips for New Local Friends

A few things I wish I'd known before my first meetup:

• Your profile photo matters more than you'd think. Look approachable, like someone a stranger would want to grab coffee with — not a corporate headshot.
• Be specific about what you can show people. "I love my city" tells a traveler nothing. "I know the best hole-in-the-wall taco spots and the quiet hiking trail locals actually use" gets you booked.
• Respond fast. A lot of travelers are booking last-minute, sometimes the same day. The faster you reply, the more requests you land.
• Price a little lower at first. I started under my current rate just to build up a few solid reviews, then raised it once I had some trust built.
• Have a few go-to routes ready. I keep 2-3 different plans in my back pocket depending on the vibe — one food-focused, one more nightlife, one more outdoorsy — so I'm not scrambling when someone books.

If you want the exact step-by-step for getting your profile set up, I wrote up the whole process here: how to become a Local Friend on Roavi.

The Best Part Isn't the Money

Honestly, the money is nice, but it's not why I keep doing this. I've met people from a handful of different countries at this point, and some of the conversations have stuck with me longer than most conversations I have with people I already know.

I've also found new spots in my own city because a traveler asked a question I didn't know the answer to, and I went and found out. I've discovered restaurants and trails I'd walked past for years without ever trying.

A couple of the people I've shown around have turned into actual friends I still text with, months later. That's not something a food delivery app was ever going to give me. It beats sitting alone in a car staring at a GPS, by a wide margin.

Want to Try It Yourself?

If you're the kind of person who already gives visiting friends the "real" tour of your city — the spots that aren't on any list — this is basically that, except you get paid for it. It's free to join, there's no commission on what you earn, and you set your own rate and your own schedule.

Sign up as a Local Friend on Roavi