How Gollo works

The best tours come from people who live there.

Gollo is a marketplace for tours led by locals. Not tour companies. Not agencies. Actual people who live in the places you want to visit — and who've been through the same verification your bank does before we let them list a single trip.

This page walks through how it all fits together.

How a booking works

1. Find something you want to do. Browse by destination, category, or ask Talk to Gollo what you're in the mood for. Every tour lists the host up front — you're picking a person, not a company.

2. Book and pay. Payment runs through Stripe. Your card details never touch our servers. You'll see the total and the tour's cancellation policy before you confirm.

3. Wait for the host to accept. Most hosts confirm within a few hours. Once they do, we send you the meeting-point address, a photo of the exact spot, and the host's phone number for the day.

4. Show up. Enjoy. Review. Meet your host, do the tour, and share what it was actually like when you get back. Your review helps the next traveller — and the platform gets better every time you leave one.

That's the whole loop.

What makes it work

• Every host is verified. ID checked, matched against their profile. See Trust & Safety for the details.
• Every booking is protected. Clear cancellation policies, automatic full refunds if a host cancels, disputes reviewed by a real person. See Cancellation policy.
• Prices are transparent. No booking fees added at the last step. What the tour costs is what you pay.
• Meeting details stay private. The exact meeting point is only shared with confirmed travellers — never displayed on public tour pages.

How hosts get paid

Every booking splits into two parts: the host's payout and Gollo's platform fee. The fee is small, disclosed to hosts before they list, and shown per-booking in their earnings dashboard. Payouts land in the host's Stripe account within Stripe's normal timeframe — usually a few business days after the tour completes.

We don't take booking fees from travellers on top. Our platform fee is our only revenue per booking, and it comes out of the host's side of the transaction. This aligns our incentives with hosts: we make more when they do more.

What we're not

Being clear about this matters:

• We're not a tour company. We don't operate tours ourselves. Every experience on Gollo is designed and led by the person you book with.
• We don't do package tours. No 12-city bus loops, no scripted itineraries, no anonymous "leave from your hotel at 8:15" pickups.
• We don't resell. Every listing comes directly from the host — we're not scraping GetYourGuide or piping in feeds from wholesalers.
• We don't hide who's behind the tour. The host's name, photo, verification status, and reviews are on every listing. You're booking a person.

If any of that sounds unusual for a "tour platform," that's the point.

Where we're going

Gollo is early. We're building toward:

• More destinations. Every city where locals are excited to share what they know.
• Deeper trust. Third-party verification audits, ratings that mean something, transparent moderation.
• Better discovery. Personalisation that actually surfaces what you'd love, not just what's popular.
• Host tooling. Everything a host needs to run a great tour — scheduling, payments, guest communication — without a spreadsheet.

If you're building something in this space, or want to be part of it as a host, get in touch.

Questions?

Anything on this page unclear, or something we haven't covered? Reach us through Help & Support in the app or by email at support@gollo.co. We reply within 24 hours.

Last updated: 3 August 2026