RentAFriend vs Roavi: Which Pays More in 2026?

If you've searched "make money as a local friend" or "get paid to hang out with people," RentAFriend has probably come up. It's been around for years, it's the biggest name in paid platonic companionship, and it's worth knowing about. It's also worth knowing what people actually say about it before you hand over a signup fee.

This isn't a hit piece. The underlying idea — people will pay a local for company, conversation, and a guided experience — is real and it works. The question is whether RentAFriend is the best version of that idea for you, especially if what you actually want to do is show travelers around your own city. Roavi is also active on Roavi.com, so it's worth comparing the two directly.

RentAFriend Has a Reputation Problem

RentAFriend runs on a simple model: you pay a fee to list yourself as a "friend" for hire, reportedly around $24.95, and then you wait for people to find and message you. That upfront cost is the first thing that trips people up. You're paying to be listed, with no guarantee anyone books you.

Once you look past the signup fee, the reviews get more mixed. A few patterns show up again and again across forums, review sites, and social posts:

• Low and inconsistent traffic. Many reviews report going weeks without a single message after signing up, especially outside major cities.
• A dating-adjacent feel. The site is technically platonic-only, but a lot of users describe messages and profile browsing that feel more like a dating app than a companionship marketplace.
• A dated experience. The site design and functionality don't feel like they've kept pace with newer platforms, which adds to a sense that it hasn't been meaningfully updated in a while.
• No niche. RentAFriend is general-purpose — you might get a local looking for a museum buddy, a lonely retiree, or someone visiting from out of town. You don't know who's going to find your profile.

None of this means RentAFriend is a scam or that nobody makes money on it. It means the model — pay first, get listed in a general directory, hope for traffic — has real, well-documented friction. If you're specifically interested in meeting travelers and showing off your city, that friction matters even more, because you're competing for attention in a directory that isn't built around that use case at all.

How Roavi Is Different

Roavi starts from a narrower, more specific idea: connect travelers visiting a city with a local who can show them around, casually, for pay. That focus changes a few things in practical ways.

It's travel-specific. Every person messaging you on Roavi is a traveler who's already decided they want a local's perspective on the city you live in. You're not sorting through a mixed bag of companionship requests — you're talking to people who want exactly what you're offering.

The positioning is cleaner. "Local Friend" describes what you're actually doing: showing someone around, sharing recommendations, being a friendly local presence for a visitor. It reads less like a dating-adjacent listing and more like what it is — local hospitality with real earning potential.

There's no fee to join. Creating a Local Friend profile on Roavi is free. You don't pay to get listed, and Roavi never takes a commission on what travelers pay you directly. The only paid option is an entirely optional $9.99/month "Verified Local" badge for people who want extra visibility and trust signals — it's never required to join, get listed, or start earning. If you want the full rundown on how to get started, see how to become a Local Friend on Roavi.

Roavi brings you customers instead of just listing you. Rather than sitting in a passive directory waiting to be found, Roavi actively markets to travelers who are planning trips, meaning demand is being generated on your behalf, not just hosted.

Meetups are handled with real structure. Messaging happens inside the platform, traveler profiles are visible before you agree to anything, and the actual meetup details are worked out and agreed on by both people ahead of time. Nobody shows up blind.

For a closer look at what showing tourists around actually looks like day to day, this breakdown of getting paid to show tourists your city is a good next read.

Side-by-Side Comparison

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Earnings ranges are rough and will vary a lot by city, availability, and what you're offering — treat them as a ballpark, not a promise.

Who Should Use Which?

RentAFriend might make sense if you want general companionship gigs that go beyond tourism — event dates, museum companions, people who just want company that isn't specifically travel-related. It's a broader net, for better or worse.

Roavi makes more sense if you specifically want to meet travelers, show off the city you already know well, and get paid for local knowledge you already have. It's a narrower use case, but it's exactly the one most people searching for this kind of side hustle actually have in mind.

Some people reasonably try both — there's no rule against having a profile on more than one platform, and RentAFriend's fee is a one-time cost, not a recurring one. But if you're only going to invest time in one, match the platform to what you're actually trying to do.

Other Alternatives Worth Knowing

RentAFriend and Roavi aren't the only names in this space. A few others come up often:

• Airbnb Experiences — lets you host structured, bookable activities, but requires more setup, scheduling, and a formal "experience" listing rather than a casual hangout.
• ShowAround — a travel-focused local guide platform, closer in spirit to Roavi, though with less name recognition and smaller traveler traffic in most cities.
• ToursByLocals — geared toward semi-professional tour guides, often expecting more formal tour structure and, in some cities, licensing.

Roavi's advantage for casual, no-license-needed local hangouts is that it doesn't ask you to build a formal tour product or get certified — you're just being yourself, showing someone your city the way you'd show a friend. For a fuller platform-by-platform breakdown, check out this comparison of the best platforms for local guides to make money.

Try the Travel-Focused Alternative

If the appeal of RentAFriend was always "get paid to hang out with people and show them around," Roavi is built specifically for that, minus the signup fee and the general-directory grab bag. Sign up free, build your profile, and start connecting with travelers who are already looking for someone exactly like you.

Sign up as a Local Friend on Roavi