Show travelers your city
A VietnamGo Buddy is a local friend for a day: someone who lives here and shows a visitor the city the way they’d show a friend. You decide what you show them, what it costs, and when you’re free. We find you the traveler.
What it pays, and what we charge
You set your own price per tour. The traveler pays you directly, in cash or by transfer to your own account, however you agree. VietnamGo never holds that money.
When you mark a tour complete, VietnamGo’s commission of 15% of the tour price goes on your fee account in the app. Pay it by bank transfer to the account shown there, or scan the VietQR code, and keep the reference code exactly as shown (VNG followed by 8 characters): the payment is recognised automatically within minutes. Until the fee is paid you can’t accept your next tour. If you transferred without the code, tell us in the app and our staff will match it by hand. A tour nobody closes is completed automatically 24 hours after its scheduled end.
Invite another local with your code and you both get fee credit once they have completed their first tours; invite a traveler and you get credit after their first tour with someone else. Credit is never more than the commission those tours earned.
How a booking arrives
- A traveler picks you and sends a request for a day, time and group size. You have 12 hours to accept or decline; after that it expires and the traveler is shown other Buddies.
- Or a traveler posts an open request — when, how long, how many, languages, budget. Every local who fits sees it at once, without the traveler’s name or contact, and the first to accept gets it.
- Once you accept, you both see each other’s phone number and a chat opens, with a reminder two hours before you meet.
- When the tour ends, the chat closes and phone numbers disappear from the booking. Anything after that goes through Report a problem.
- Then you review each other. Neither of you sees the other’s review until both have written one, or 14 days have passed — so nobody reviews in retaliation. Only someone who completed a tour with you can review you.
Answering matters more than anything else you do here. If your reply rate drops below 60% over five or more requests, you come off the list until you start answering again. Your profile stays — you just stop receiving requests you wouldn’t have answered.
What you need to apply
- Your public profile — a clear face photo, a short introduction, the city and general area where you meet people, languages you can speak, and what you enjoy showing travelers.
- Your offer — your price per hour and largest group size.
- A contact number — kept private until you accept a booking. We do not verify this number at this stage.
- The Buddy rules — read and accept them when you send your application.
How applications are reviewed
Our team checks that your profile is complete and suitable before it appears to travelers. You can see the status of your application, and we will explain any changes needed. Profile approval is not an identity check or a professional certification.
What we ask of you
- Be who your profile says you are. One account, your own photos, your own words.
- Answer requests, even when the answer is no.
- Turn up, on time, at the place you agreed. If you genuinely can’t, cancel as early as you can and tell them why.
- The price you agreed is the price. Not a different one on the day, and no pressure to add stops, shops or drivers.
- No commissions from a shop, restaurant or driver for bringing travelers to them. This is the one that quietly ruins a Buddy’s reputation, and we treat it as a reason to remove an account.
- Keep people safe. Public meeting points, no drinking while guiding, no driving a traveler on your motorbike unless they asked and you both have helmets.
- Anyone’s trip is theirs. No pressure, no romantic advances, no contacting a traveler after a tour unless they asked you to.
What you can expect from us
- We answer a report about a traveler within 24 hours, the same as we do for reports about Buddies.
- We do not remove a review because you did not like it. We do remove a review that breaks the rules, and you can reply publicly to any of them.
- If a traveler doesn’t show up, mark it in the app. Repeated no-shows affect their account.
- You can pause bookings at any time with one switch, and delete your Buddy profile whenever you want.
Cancellations and no-shows
No traveler money is held, so there is nothing to refund, and a cancelled or no-show tour owes no commission — but a cancellation still costs someone their day.
- Either side can cancel up to 24 hours before with no consequence beyond a note on the booking.
- Inside 24 hours it is recorded as a late cancellation and is visible to our staff. Repeated late cancellations lead to suspension.
- A no-show can be marked 30 minutes after the start time by whoever is standing there. Both sides can dispute it.
When something goes wrong
Open the booking in the app and use Report a problem — no-show, the price changed, something felt unsafe, or the tour was not what was described. It goes to a moderator, who can see both sides and the whole chat. You can raise one for up to 30 days after the tour.
If you are in danger, call 113 (police), 114 (fire) or 115 (ambulance) first. Report to us afterwards.
Ready?
Go with a Local opens city by city — Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi first. Applications are open now in every VietnamGo city. Approved profiles can be ready when bookings open there.