Basics:
Tours by Locals helps local tour guides market and sell tours of their own making
Expected pay: You set it
Husl$core: $$$$
Commissions & fees: 20% – 25%
Where: Nationwide
Requirements: 18 or older and be able to enter into a legally binding contract; pass a phone interview; background and reference checks; submission of documents establishing your tour guiding credentials (if any); and provide a tour experience that’s not repetitive of other adventures that Tours by Locals offers in the same town
Tours by Locals Review:
Tours by Locals allows you to create and price a tour of your town that’s designed to fit your interests and skills. You can, for instance, design a food tour; a hiking exploration; a historic tour. You name it.
Potential tour guides set the itinerary and price, based on the amount of time your tour is likely to take, your expenses and the profit margin you want to earn. You also determine how many people can participate in each tour.
How it works
Guides are invited to apply to list their tours on the site. You’ll fill out an application that talks about your experience, whether you’re licensed, where you operate, etc. The site then evaluates your application based on whether it needs guides in your market. And whether other guides in your market already provide tours like yours.
Tours by Locals rejects new tour guide applicants if they are offering tours that would compete with tours offered by existing guides. Thus, if you design a tour that’s unique, it’s likely to remain unique here.
In their words: “We are committed to the success of our Tour Guides. Therefore, we may not accept additional Tour Guides in a particular area if we feel that the demand is satisfied by existing Tour Guides.”
Local only
Notably, too, this is not a place to advertise your ability to take a group to a foreign land. As the name implies, tours by locals arranges tours by local guides only. You are not allowed to offer tours in an area that is not local to where you live and work.
Commissions and fees
Guides pay nothing to sign up and there are no recurring fees for listing your services on the site.
However, if your tours book, the site will take a commission out of your earnings.
The site usually takes 20% – 25% off the top. However, the site’s guide contract says that Tours by Local’s commission rate will be established on a guide-by-guide basis when you sign your guide agreement. Thus this standard commission rate may vary.
Guides are paid weekly and can choose among a variety of different payment services, from direct deposit to Payoneer.
Marketing and booking
In exchange for the booking fees, Tours by Locals advertises your service on their site and provides support when you have trouble with a customer or need advice.
Recommendations
Thousands of tourists have raved about guides they’ve found on this site. We, however, were unable to find any comments from the guides themselves. Consequently, we had to lean on Tours by Local’s contract, which is worker-friendly, when giving the site a Husl$core.
We believe this site offers a good opportunity for local tour guides to market their services and build a clientele without breaking the bank. Also check out Viator, which offers a similar service. Guides can sign up with both sites. And since neither site charges fees to list, we think this is the best approach.
*Updated 2/2/2023
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