Trust & fairness
What is checked here, what is not, and where the money goes.
Most tour marketplaces work the same way, and it is rarely visible until you look for it: a cut of 20% to 40% is folded into the price before you see it, guides raise their prices to absorb it, and search results can be shaped by who pays the platform most rather than who runs the best tour. None of that is illegal. Taking that much to connect two people is hard to call fair, and we think the amount should be far lower, and visible, so you can judge it for yourself.
Reviews from completed bookings only
A review can only be written by a traveller with a completed booking, one per booking. No review-for-discount schemes, and we do not remove a review for being negative.
Ranking that cannot see money
Search results are ordered by ratings, review volume, response rate and response speed. The ranking code cannot read a single figure about money, and an automated test fails if anyone connects the two.
Payments through Stripe
Card details go from your browser to Stripe and never touch our servers. Cancel inside the free window and everything you paid comes back; after it, what returns depends on the tour's policy and on whether you paid the whole price or a deposit.
Guides you can check
What we check is the listing, before it goes live, and every review, which needs a completed booking. We do not verify who a guide is or what licence they hold: their reviews are the record, and there is one under every booking that happened.
Why the platform cost is 8.75%
Most tour marketplaces take a cut of 20% to 40%, folded into the price before you see it. We take one fixed platform cost per booking. It is carved out of the price, never added on top; it is shown in the price breakdown before you book; and it does not change with how much a guide sells or how long they have been here. Here is what it covers:
That is the whole cost. No listing charge, no paid placement, no charge for messaging a guide before you book, and nothing added at checkout.
Not a smaller cut. A different model.
Most tour marketplaces run on a cut, typically 20% to 40% of every booking, priced to maximise what the platform earns and folded into the total before you see it. GuidesUnited runs on a platform cost, priced to cover what running the platform costs, and shown to you in full above.
| Most marketplaces | GuidesUnited | |
|---|---|---|
| What the guide pays | Most marketplaces 20–40%, and most don't publish the number | GuidesUnited 8.75%, published, and itemised on every booking |
| When the guide is paid | Most marketplaces Monthly, after the month ends: up to five to seven weeks | GuidesUnited Per booking, released after the tour has run, or handed over on the day if the guide takes it themselves |
| How the price is set | Most marketplaces A cut, priced to maximise what the platform earns | GuidesUnited A platform cost, priced to cover what running the platform costs |
| What you see | Most marketplaces Not itemised | GuidesUnited Every booking, broken down, before you pay |
| Search ranking | Most marketplaces Can favour whoever pays more | GuidesUnited Reviews, reliability, responsiveness only |
What we don't do
- We do not rank tours by who pays us more.
- We do not charge more as a guide grows: one rate, whether you sell four tours a year or four hundred.
- We do not add anything that is not in the breakdown above.
- We do not lock guides in. No exclusivity, and no penalty for guiding elsewhere.
Keeping bookings and messages on GuidesUnited is what lets us run on one small, fixed platform cost rather than a cut. It is the same reason the breakdown above stays this simple.
It also protects you. A booking made here carries a payment record, a cancellation policy and a review that counts. One made outside carries none of the three, for you or for the traveller.
Our commitment
This is the part of GuidesUnited we're not planning to change.
1. Transparency
Every cost on this platform is visible before you pay: never a hidden cut, never a number that does not add up.
2. One cost, never a cut
What we take is priced to cover what it costs to run the platform (payments, hosting, security, development, support), not to grow with what a guide earns. It is never a lever we pull for growth, and never a factor in ranking.
3. Ranking by quality, never by payment
Reviews, reliability and responsiveness decide what travellers see first. Paying us more has never moved anyone up a search result, and it never will.
4. Guides stay independent
No exclusivity, no penalty for guiding elsewhere, no lock-in. The guide sets the price, the cancellation terms and how travellers pay them.
5. Guides will get a say
As the platform grows, active guides will be able to propose and vote on changes to how GuidesUnited works: not day-to-day decisions, but the principles above. That system does not exist yet. When it does, it will be built to protect these commitments, not soften them.
These are not a growth tactic. They are the reason this platform exists.
Your data, your call
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