Search for a guide. Offer for guides. And ride the world at someone else’s expense
What is the essence of our proposal?
Our offer is addressed to private guides who are interested in advertising their services on our travel site. We suggest that you post information about yourself and your services on the site absolutely free!
As an example, we suggest you take a look at what it might look like. This page is just an example and does not represent a real guide.
Why can cooperation with us be beneficial for you?
Our project is a little over a year, but during this period we have achieved good results. Already on our site posted:
- More 11 thousand messages (answers to popular tourist questions, tips, holiday reviews, price information) and more 5 thousand comments to these posts
- More than 1200 cities and resorts to all the most popular tourist destinations from more than 100 countries of the world
- 50 thousand photos tourist places 3 thousand video reviews about holidays in various resorts, 6 thousand cards to help tourists
Every month our site visits the order 300 thousand people. These are exactly those people who are going on vacation and want to get more information about how best to plan their vacation. Information about your services would be very helpful for them.
How it works?
1. Registration on the site
The first thing you need to do is on the site. This process takes only a couple of minutes of your time. After registration, go to your personal account, where you can upload your photo, set up an avatar and fill out the contact details section: 
At this stage, your personal page will look very modest and will not give you a result. But this is not for long, go to the next step.
2. Designing a personal guide page
Now you need to activate partner functions. To do this, use the user menu and go to the "Partnership" section. We offer our partners to decorate their personal page with a greeting text and a brief description of the services provided. To do this, use the "Edit greeting and service description" button on the partner’s main page or the "About" tab in the partner’s menu. 
Your personal page is your business card on this site. Take this step seriously.
Now that you have your personal page on our website, you can add information about your excursions that you would like to offer our visitors. To do this, go to the "Offered Services" section in the partner interface.
You can add an unlimited number of excursions to our website. Information about them will be published both on your personal page and in the relevant sections of the site. 
Already now you have done enough for our visitors to notice your offers, but you can do much more to attract the attention of potential customers to your services. It’s not difficult to do this.
The essence of our partnership is that you help us by publishing useful information for tourists, and in return we help you in promoting your services.
So, in addition to your advertising offers, you can post other information (answers to popular tourist questions, tourist tips, holiday reviews), as well as comment on other people's messages supplementing them with your thoughts. Such a contribution will do you double good:
At first, next to each of your posts and comments your name and a link to your personal page will be displayed. Interested site visitors can go to your personal page and get acquainted with your offers. 
Secondly, each of your messages increases your personal rating. This rating is very important in cases when we publish on one page offers of several guides at once. For example, when we have 30 offers for excursions in Prague from 5 guides, then the proposals of those guides who have a higher rating on our website will come first.
But do not think that the guide with the highest rating will receive all the first places in the list. As a rule, the best guide will get 1-3 first places in the general list of offers. Therefore, you do not need to be the best of the best, so that information about your offers gets on the first or second page of the section. Your offers will be visible even if you have a zero rating. In addition, for beginners, we have a bonus rating, which weakens over time.
We do not publish the rating calculation formula for each guide, and we do not explain exactly how it affects the sorting of offers in the general list, however, your activity on the site, the quantity and quality of your messages will help you in promoting your services.
Rules for posting materials
All messages on our site are moderated in accordance with the rules below. Messages that violate these rules will not be published.
1. General rules for all posts on the site:
1.3. It is forbidden to mention other guides and travel companies for organizing excursions. It is forbidden to compare your own and others' prices for services.
1.4. All messages must be written in Russian, in compliance with elementary spelling rules.
2. Rules for publishing information about your services:
2.1. At the moment, it is allowed to publish information only about individual and group excursions.
2.2. Each service you offer should have a detailed description. The minimum message size is 200 characters.
3. Rules for publishing answers to questions, tips, reviews and comments:
3.1. It is forbidden to copy messages or individual offers from other sites. Each of your messages must be unique.
3.2. Your message should correspond to the topic you have chosen.
3.4. It is forbidden to publish photos with logos of other sites or signatures. This rule does not apply to video materials.
3.5. Each published comment should contain useful information on the topic of the commented post.
Still have questions?
We look forward to a long and fruitful cooperation with you. If you have any questions, any problems or other suggestions regarding our cooperation, please contact us by e-mail: [email protected]
Guide (from the French. guide - guide on the journey, leader; from Lat. excursio - trip, outing) - the one who accompanies tourists and shows them the sights of the country, city, etc .; tour guide, professional guide. The profession is suitable for those who are interested in history, psychology, world art culture, foreign languages \u200b\u200band geography (see the choice of a profession for interest in school subjects).
Profession Features
Guide - This is one of the segments of the guide profession. The guide guides tours of a particular tourist route or facility. For example, through a museum or the most remarkable streets of a city. The tour usually does not exceed several hours, and if the guide has no other functions, his responsibility ends with the end of the tour.
Guideleads a group of tourists. He may not drive such narrow-minded excursions, trusting this mission to colleagues from museums. However, he can tell a lot during the trip himself. That is why it is often called tour guide.
Usually, guides specialize in a specific region or route, so they have good information about attractions, they can lively and fascinatingly talk about each interesting building, monument, etc., answer a lot of additional questions. The more a specialist knows, the more interesting his story will be.
With a good guide, knowledge goes beyond standard hiking trails. Even if, based on the wishes of tourists, he will have to make changes to the route developed in advance, he will not face the dirt. Provided, of course, that this is a true expert in his field.
The profession of a guide is very exciting, but responsible. The guide is responsible for customers who, in turn, are not always friendly and disciplined.
The guide should be able to understand a difficult situation, resolve the conflict and make the trip as comfortable as possible for tourists.
Workplace
Guides usually work at travel agencies or agencies. But an experienced guide can work individually. Guides who are not responsible for tourist groups can work in museums, galleries, etc.
Important qualities
The guide, like the guide, must be a very erudite and artistic person, must love and be able to speak to the public. He needs a good memory, interest in new knowledge, responsibility, poise, goodwill, readiness to communicate with a variety of people. And also good health, because the guide has to spend a lot of time on his feet and in constant communication.
Knowledge and skills
The guide should know a lot about the places in which he drives tourists. In addition, the guide needs to communicate with tourists in the same language. And if he accompanies the group to another country, to know the language of local residents.
In recent years, startups have been rapidly conquering the travel market: Uber has long been gaining a niche from a traditional taxi, and vacation rental is replacing the usual hotels. But that’s not all - with the help of online platforms, travelers can easily find a guide among the locals who are willing to introduce the country from the inside. We have selected seven of the most interesting online services and applications.
Tours by locals
Online platform Tours by locals Over the nine years of its existence, it has managed to bring together more than 2,000 guides and cover 159 countries. Only very small areas of shallow lagoons remain undeveloped, for example, Crooked Island - an island that is part of the Bahamas.
Here, travelers can either offer their guide their own itinerary or choose an existing one. For example, for those who prefer quiet and secluded places, the service offers an eight-hour excursion to the picturesque regions of the South Island of New Zealand. The journey begins at the cruise port of Akaroa with an introduction to a local guide. The program includes an examination of almost all the picturesque landscapes of the Canterbury region - in eight hours, tourists will see the Raciai Gorge, Lake Coleridge, the Porter Pass and Krastchurch mountain passes, the third largest city in New Zealand. In addition to exploring the Southern region, the program also provides for a traditional dinner. The national cuisine of the country is represented by exotic Maori dishes - fried scorpions and larvae, snails and sheep’s eyes.
There are also less intricate routes on the online platform - for example, excursions to the main attractions of Western Europe. The site has the opportunity to order both a group tour and an individual one. Accordingly, the price will depend on the choice — usually it does not exceed $ 100 per person.
Show around
The Show Around online platform is considered one of the leading travel start-ups: the service has gathered more than 80 thousand local residents under its wing and is already available in 204 countries.
Unlike a number of other similar services, Show Around performs only one function - it finds a guide. The tour route is planned after choosing a temporary satellite, there are no ready-made options here.
Perhaps the main advantage of the platform is the business cards of local guides. Here you can find literally everything - detailed information about the interests and knowledge of the culture of the region of each registered guide.
The tourist can rate his guide, as well as write a comment. “This helps the guides not to relax and creates conditions for healthy competition, which motivate people to work at full strength,” says Show Around founder Linas Sablovsky.
The average price of an excursion is about $ 15 per hour.
Show Around has long had an application for iOS, and recently a mobile service has become available for Android users.
Shiroube
The approach of the Japanese online service Shiroube is somewhat different from the rest - the tourist first selects the section of interest, for example, “Art and History”, “Nature and Adventures”, “Food and Wine”, and only then begins to look for a guide. Using the site is very simple: there is an advanced search that allows you to choose the language, age and even gender of the guide. Each guide has his own profile where tourists can see photos, main interests and offers.
There is no database of ready-made excursions here - the local guide comes up with a personal route for each client. However, the developers of the service still collect some statistics, for example, on the site lists are regularly updated with the most common locations and recommendations. So, during a trip to Shanghai, locals offer to walk along Nanking Street and try dumplings - a dish similar to dumplings, but cooked according to an old Chinese recipe.
The service is aimed at a fun pastime with visits to night clubs, various workshops and non-tourist pubs, and the price of the tour usually does not exceed $ 400 from a group of four people.
The creators of Embark.org have chosen a narrower niche for themselves - the service is suitable for lovers of outdoor activities and extreme sports. According to the developers, the platform is more focused on creating a community with one common interest - a passion for active travel. As a result, the creators managed to combine business with pleasure - to unite fans of extreme tourism and to enable non-professional guides to earn money.
This platform is good in that it makes it possible to find a person who organizes your active vacation even in the center of a big city. For example, with a guide you can try climbing in the Fontainebleau forest, the road to which from Paris takes no more than 40 minutes. Half of all offers are excursions for several days. The service offers such extreme entertainment as three-day rafting in India, kayaking in Croatia and an eight-day walk to the peak on the border of Valle d'Aosta and Piedmont in Italy. All in the company of a local guide who knows his job.
The site also has a blog where travelers talk about their impressions, which will help you choose from a variety of options that is right for you.
Prices for guide services start at $ 80 per person per day.
The Vayable online platform, created just last year, has already earned the attention of The New York Times, CNN, and The Wall Street Journal.
The service is focused on the central cities of Western Europe and the UK. The developers approached the project thoroughly: local guides will not only tell, but also teach. For example, one of the suggestions is a course on photography at night in Paris. The guide will guide tourists around the Latin Quarter and the Seine embankment, and will also tell you how to make good night portraits.
Rent a Guide
German startup Rent a Guide offers guide services on all possible types of vacation activities - from dinner in the best national traditions on the 123rd floor of the Burj Khalifa tower to a hot air balloon ride or jeep safari in the Arabian deserts. For those who love hiking, Rent a Guide will prepare tourist excursions in the capital cities of Western and Eastern Europe.
A balloon ride will cost $ 300, and a jeep safari will cost $ 45.
Airbnb, an online housing rental platform, launched the Trips project relatively recently, last fall. At the moment, the service operates in 12 cities and offers more than 500 excursions. The startup is more focused on recreational activities, which locals can talk about. For example, you can visit the violin workshop in Paris, drive a vintage car, or even take part in a marathon in Kenya.
“We want to bring back an element of magic to travel, in the center of which are people,” said company head Brian Chesky.
In addition, here you can try yourself in charity and take part in socially significant events, such as helping stray dogs and a master class on creating art objects from garbage.
Unlike other online platforms, Trips has a very functional application, so with Airbnb and its new service, you can plan your trip literally from start to finish.
05.02.18 49 096 0
And ride the world at someone else’s expense
Four years ago, I became a guide and went to work in the Indian state of Goa.
I am a journalist by training and have never planned to develop in tourism. In Moscow, I took excursions for foreigners, but it was a side job. Once a friend told me that she was flying a guide to Goa, and I realized that I wanted the same. I sent a resume, passed an interview, and then training courses in Moscow. Two months later, I already drove tours in India. I have never been there before.
After two seasons in Goa, I worked as a tour guide for two more companies: in Crete and in the Dominican Republic. Everywhere its nuances, but the work and conditions are similar.
The main task of the guide
The guide conducts excursions for the clients of a travel company. His main goal is to make everyone survive and be satisfied.
Depending on the number of people, excursions are divided into group and individual, depending on the route and themes - historical and entertaining. The ideal guide will cope with any excursion. He will be able to make 60 people laugh on the bus and make contact with his family with young children on an individual trip. He knows all the Hindu gods and the travel history of Columbus and colorfully tells how the starfish dines.
The guide is a teacher, a mass entertainer, a reliable guide and patient mentor. Tourists want the trip to justify the money and time spent. But everyone needs his own: someone wants to have fun, and someone wants to know the history of the country in detail. A good guide will find balance and conduct a tour so that everyone in the group is satisfied.
How to maintain discipline
Tourists are interested in different things: some want to walk around the museum longer, others want to go shopping. Often they are addicted and lose track of time. And when there are several stops on the tour and there is a clear schedule, even a ten-minute delay can disrupt the program.
In Greece, I took excursions from Crete to the romantic island of Santorini. We got there by a catamaran for 1000 places, which went once a day. Santorini had a program, and then free time. Each time I was nervous and prayed that no one was late or lost. Once people were delayed for a long time and the driver had to drive along the serpentine, and the catamaran almost had to jump through the water: the ladder was already cleaned.
Sometimes you want to yell at tourists and even punish the whole group for someone’s bad behavior, as in a pioneer camp. But if you do this with adults who have paid for the tour, everyone’s mood will be spoiled. I used financial arguments: I told tourists in advance how much they would be late. Tomorrow catamaran ticket - 60 €, night in a normal hotel in Santorini - 100 €, taxi from the port to the hotel in Crete - another 50 €. Everyone immediately became punctual.
It must be understood that these are only outwardly adult and conscious people. Inside, they are all children who came to rest.
The guide saves everyone
In tropical countries, something often goes wrong. Cars break down, boats are late, the weather deteriorates, rum ends. Tourists blame the guide for all troubles: there is no one else. You need to be on the side of people and try to turn the problem into an adventure.
Once our bus was stopped by the police and we stood in the mountains for two hours while they checked the documents. I didn’t hide from tourists that all this upsets me too, but explained that we cannot influence anything. Funny stories about the country and the mentality of local residents helped out, and I used the situation as a good example. This defused the situation. For two hours, the friends and I made friends, and they bought other excursions from the company.
Sometimes the difficulties are created by the tourists themselves. If the conflict arose within the group, I reminded that we are on vacation in another country and the police are inexorable here. In the event of a fight, they will not understand who is to blame.
If guests make a complaint to the guide, the most important thing is to remain calm. You learn it fast. No matter what strange questions people ask, no matter what is required, not a single muscle will flinch on the face of a professional guide. Girls like to ask if they have already married a local. Sometimes I said yes, we already have five children.
The guide solves organizational issues
The guide communicates not only with tourists, but also with contractors - drivers of cars and boats, cafe employees, event coordinators. He makes sure everyone fulfills their tasks and does it on time: he calls the driver in advance to leave the parking lot and meet the group in the square, or rush the waiters at dinner. Contractors do not speak Russian, so you can’t do without English or local language.
Sometimes a local guide accompanies the group. This is a cover in case of meeting with the police. According to the laws of many countries, foreigners are not allowed to work in this position. When meeting with the police, the local guide pretends to be his group. And the rest of the time he does his own thing.
After each tour, you need to report on how it went: whether all the guests returned to the hotels, how the contractors worked, whether there were force majeure. The report is submitted in paper or electronic form. The authorities themselves evaluate the work of the guide according to the questionnaires that tourists fill out. Usually the guide is rated excellent, but this is not an indicator. Tourists are embarrassed to put a low score, because they give profiles to the guide personally in hand.
A real assessment of the guide's work is in the remaining paragraphs of the questionnaire. Formally, the guide is not responsible for the variety of menus and the beauty of attractions. But if you submit everything correctly, tourists will receive more positive emotions and give higher ratings.
For example, my colleague arranged quests for guests in boring ancient ruins: he made puzzles, created an antique atmosphere with stories, and even frightened him, depicting a mythical monster. His excursions were the most popular in the company.
Schedule and working conditions
90% of excursions begin before sunrise and end after sunset. The guide's working day lasts 12-14 hours. From this time, an hour or two is spent in the morning to go around all the hotels and collect guests. Another hour - in the evening to transport everyone back.
The number of working days depends on how many excursions tourists bought. The guide usually works 5-6 days a week. At the peak of the season, there are 10-15 excursions seven days a week - until the body and psyche breaks. In other months, for example at the end of December, you sit without work for weeks. It hurts.
Revenue depends on the company. Some pay a fixed salary and bonuses for each excursion, others only bonuses. My employers paid 400-500 dollars or euros per month and 30-100 $ from each excursion. $ 1000-1500 came out per month.
A comparable amount can be earned on commissions in stores - official partners of a travel company. There are inflated prices, but there is a lot of choice, and the staff speak Russian. You can’t stop by during the excursion, they will be fined for this. So that the guides have personal motivation to advertise the store, the owners pay them a percentage of sales or give gifts - a bottle of good wine, natural shampoo or cashmere shawl.
There are other bonuses. Often a company pays for rental housing - a villa or apartment, where 1-2 people live in a room. Sometimes guides can eat in hotels for free. Once, during the whole season I ate at one of the best hotels on the island I lived on.
On excursions, everything that is included for tourists is included for the guide. Helicopters, yachts, riding elephants and donkeys, tasting local sweets, grilled lobsters, massages with aromatic oils, corporate parties in luxury hotels, even bungee flying - an experienced entertainment guide will not surprise you. In shops, guides are given discounts, in restaurants they give club cards.
There is a regulation that the guide must comply with: for example, he is obliged to wear a uniform and not swim at guests. But usually no one is following this. When traveling to the islands, most guides calmly sunbathe on sunbeds next to their groups.
But for being late for an excursion, absenteeism or part-time work on the side, they can be fined and even fired.
Where to look for work in tourism
The easiest way to find work in tourism is through acquaintances: they will share the post of the HR manager in the right company and put in a few words. This does not guarantee success, but significantly increases the chances. You can still ask students of tourist universities, but they themselves are usually offered not the best conditions: one room for four and a total income of $ 300 per month.
If there are no acquaintances, traditional methods remain. I got my first job as a guide by responding to an ad on the Headhunter. In order not to miss the vacancies of tour operators on this site, subscribe to the "Vacancies Abroad" newsletter.
It is useful to follow the vacancy section on the websites of tour operators themselves, for example, Pegasus, Coral Travel, Anex Tour, Tez Tour, Biblio-Globe. Many tour operators work with the host: in Russia, a client buys a ticket to one company, and in the country of arrival he is met by employees of another - local. Then you should look for vacancies in the meeting company.
There are closed groups on Facebook, for example
Going to the capital of Russia, we ask many questions: choosing a hotel, buying tickets for transport, choosing food places, but with such a question as choosing places to visit, there are certain difficulties, what to visit? What to see? - but maybe it’s worth a little change the very last question. Choosing an experienced guide is what will help to solve several problems that arise before us. An individual guide in Moscow will help us get acquainted with the cultural attractions of the capital, tell us about their features and history.
But how to make the right choice? A guide to Moscow must certainly possess a great deal of knowledge, because in Moscow there are a lot of places of interest, a broad outlook, because historical sights are usually ambiguous and you should not have only one point of view on them. To choose a really worthy guide, you need to contact a decent tour desk, where there are quite high requirements for this position, trainings and various historical seminars are constantly held with employees.
If you want to organize an excursion for a foreign guest, you need to contact the Association of Translation Guides in Moscow, the official website on which you will find a good guide who understands a foreign language. A translator guide will help a foreign guest, get acquainted with the sights of the capital and learn more about the history of our country.
With this information look:
Popular sections of the site:
