Travel Blogger Becca Ingle: “When you are traveling with young children, anything catered to make their life easier makes your life easier”
…I would say to create a theme and content that goes hand and hand with your day to day. Do not try to be a home blogger if you do not have home projects going on, and don’t try to be a travel blogger if you hate trips etc. I also think it’s important to outline your commitments when you are on trips that are related to influencing. In the beginning, I would offer the star and moons to hotels just to have a free stay. I found myself waking up at 6am in different cities to try to get all the shots I wanted and I would be burnt out by the end of the day. I learned my value and what I can commit to now when we head on trips with the family and it feels more like a vacation then work.
As part of my series about “exciting developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Becca Ingle.
Becca Ingle is an avid family travel blogger, born & raised in North Carolina, she has two children; Lainey age 5 and Roman age 4 that she loves bringing on trips to showcase all the fun things they do around the world. See her guides featured in @forbestravelguides and @familytraveller and her blog www.beccaingle.com
Thank you so much for joining us Becca! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Of course! We vacationed to Turks & Caicos on our honeymoon back in 2013 and fell in love with the island so much we brought both our kids back multiple times. I started getting questions from friends about our recommendations on where we stayed, what we did, etc and decided to do a full blog post on the trip. After that, I just continued to document all our travels and it all started to really take off online.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
I was working with the Kimpton Hotel in Winston Salem NC in the early days and their PR team asked me if I would like to write about my experience in @Forbes. That is where the travel connection started & I have continued to work with the editors at Forbes on all my travels since!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I received an email from a “Sephora team” for their Christmas campaign. I signed up per their email to do an online interview to be selected for the team. When I got on the interview there was no one there… and just someone typing instructions. I quickly realized it was a scam, and I learned to always check the email. If it’s not from “@sephora.com” or some made up email, it’s highly likely it’s a scam. I also learned to always have my guard up on this industry.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
I think my blog stands out because it is hard to travel in general with kids and document it on top of that. There are not many family travel bloggers out there and I enjoy show casing every aspect.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?
I would say to create a theme and content that goes hand and hand with your day to day. Do not try to be a home blogger if you do not have home projects going on, and don’t try to be a travel blogger if you hate trips etc. I also think it’s important to outline your commitments when you are on trips that are related to influencing. In the beginning, I would offer the star and moons to hotels just to have a free stay. I found myself waking up at 6am in different cities to try to get all the shots I wanted and I would be burnt out by the end of the day. I learned my value and what I can commit to now when we head on trips with the family and it feels more like a vacation then work.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I leaned on other friends that were blogging before me to get me started. One of my best friends, Emily, had a successful food blog, and I would ask her questions nonstop about how she was paid online. I would message them questions about building my website to which companies I should reach out. I think it is important to build a network with people that are in the same timeline as you to lean on and share success stories. It is also important to have supportive friends that are not in the industry as well and understand your intentions.
Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?
This year, before the virus hit of course, was going to be our busiest travel year yet. I hope to pick that schedule up as soon as this is over and bring new destination guides for families to mimic in the future. I hope to bring more video/drone footage in the future and strive for more IGTV content so my readers can see fuller picture destinations.
Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?
I am trying to help families have a clearer picture of a vacation destination before booking versus just seeing beautiful pictures online. As a mom of two kids, I want to know “does this hotel have a hot tub? Are their onsite childcare you trust? How safe did you feel staying here?” and get those questions and be fully transparent with my followers. I think it is hard to find influencers that share the rare details on traveling with kids.
How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?
Hotels might not want to work with me if I am being fully transparent when I am not happy with things. It might create some backlash on other people’s opinions on the place as well.
Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers like to travel?
I think they will be working heavily with influencers to highlight destinations and already are. I know it is going to change drastically after the pandemic and I am not sure what that will look like. I do think hospitality and travel companies will move more to app functionalities for the consumer. I have seen this very successful with four season’s resorts, where you can log into the app to check in and virtually chat with any hotel rep about your needs.
You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?
I would say it would start with from start to finish booking the trip, the communication prior and during the experience, and the memories made. My “perfect vacation experience” would be first class seats to a tropical island, with a concierge team waiting for us in our own private shuttle, to a 5 star resort that has 5 star restaurants and every on-site kid amenity you can think of. When you are traveling with young children, anything catered to make their life easier makes your life easier.
Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Especially during these times I have enjoyed being able to use my platform to give back with giveaways every week that will benefit people right now. I recently did one for an adult bike and a children’s bike at the same time, and it felt really good to know these bikes would help with peoples health/stress at such a trying time in the world.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would love to create an eco-friendly mommy and me swimwear line in the future where proceeds could go towards funds or future trips I could gift to people that cannot afford to take trips. I think a movement of more family travel would be great ☺
How can our readers follow you on social media? You can follow me @beccaingle and read all my guides : www.beccaingle.com
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Travel Blogger Becca Ingle: “When you are traveling with young children, anything catered to make… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.