Our cost, explained

One fixed platform cost, carved out of the price you see and shown on every booking before you pay.

GuidesUnited takes one fixed platform cost on each booking. It is carved out of the price you already see, never added on top: the traveller pays the tour price and nothing else, and the breakdown on every tour shows what the guide earns and what we take.

The guide keeps the rest. How it reaches them depends on how they chose to be paid. If travellers pay by card through us, the guide's share sits in their Stripe account from the moment of payment and is released after the tour. If the guide takes a deposit here and the rest in person, the traveller pays only the deposit by card, the deposit is the platform cost rounded down to a whole unit, and the rest is handed to the guide on the day. Same price, same platform cost, either way.

There are no tiers, no paid placement and no charge that is not in the price breakdown. The number you see there is the number that applies.

Where the 8.75% goes

Where it goes
Payment processing Card processing and payouts, charged to us by Stripe. It comes out of our share, never the guide's or yours. 3.25%
Hosting and infrastructure One server in Geneva, encrypted backups in Switzerland, and the systems that keep bookings, tickets and messages running. 0.85%
Product and engineering Building and maintaining what guides and travellers use every day, in six languages. 2.1%
Trust and safety Reading every listing before it goes live, keeping reviews tied to completed bookings, and handling reports and support when something goes wrong. 1.3%
Helping travellers find you Search, destination pages and outreach, so guides spend less time chasing bookings. 1.25%
Total platform cost 8.75%