Rent a local - locals guiding travelers
Hello IH!
Last month I was travelling to Santiago, Chile to visit my girlfriend and her family. Of course, there was a lot of restrictions and requirements due to corona, that I would have no chance of figuring out myself since I don't know the language and local customs.
Luckily my girlfriend and here family did, and it got me thinking: what if I could rent a local's time to help me with issues in a country I don't know and/or speak the language.
Things are of course a bit more tricky with the global pandemic, but could this work under more "normal" conditions? Would you use it?
Feedback and criticisms appreciated!
I recall reading on reddit somewhere, that they'd reach out to students at Universities who were looking to practice their English. They also paid them to be guides for the day. Could do something along the lines of that perhaps.
I worked in travel, and I don't think this is viable. Guided local tours are already a thing. And if it's a consultancy service, people wouldn't be ready to pay for an amount that could justify the margins. Also, how can you develop expertise?
It definitely might not be viable - I'm just exploring the problem space, so industry insight is appreciated!
I don't necessarily think the monetary amount would be that high. Obviously depends on the country, but I'm not suggesting highly specialised consultants to be the ones giving advice.
What do you mean with developing expertise? The current idea would be to act as the middleman.
https://tourscanner.com/blog/find-local-tour-guides/
https://www.showaround.com/
https://www.toursbylocals.com/
https://trevolin.com/local-guides/
https://www.i-likelocal.com/
http://shiroube.com/
http://guidesfinder.com/
just a quick google
All of them focus on guided tours. Not getting help from a local dealing with a problem in that country. I'm not sure I get your point. Could you please elaborate?
"locals guiding travelers"
I guess I didn't get you originally
Instead of guiding you around, you want them to handle bureaucracy?
I know for example in Australia this is highly regulated, as in no one is allowed to give you advice regarding visas besides a registered migration agent, same would be for other issues
I am assuming many countries are like that?
I know people do consult on foreign affairs like that in social networks, so maybe you have a point about taking something that's happening and building it's own dedicated platform
first I think you have to get the proper wording
but anything like visa's, migrations and such, is highly competitive I belive..
My wording could definitely have been less ambiguous, my bad!
Well, yes, to a certain degree. Me knowing locals that knew who to call and how the system worked, help me tremendously. The thinking was that I would work like a market place where you could request a person's help and rate them, based on where you are.
Im not talking of a fully fledged legal/bureaucracy service.
Thanks for your input, greatly appreciated!
This comment was deleted 3 years ago
Airbnb offer a guided tour with a local, not having a local help you with whatever problem you might need local insight to solve.