Earlier this month, BabyQuip turned 5! Always a milestone for a startup, but especially so now, as we survived the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and are happy to say travel is back! Like most travel industry and hospitality businesses, we saw our business decline precipitously, down 45% in 2020 vs 2019, in a year when we expected to see rapid growth due to our Shark Tank appearance in March, 2020.
You remember that crazy month right? Just after the airing, travel came to a dead stop. We cut spending, focused on our newly acquired baby gear cleaning business, and worked on keeping our brand relevant for when travel returned.
Before sending our survey, we hypothesized about the information and results we expected to see. With travel restrictions lessening in the United States and airlines promising a safe experience for air passengers, we assumed family travelers felt more confident about packing up as they did pre-covid, along with having a strong desire to finally visit family and friends again. Keep reading to find out what we were right about!
Family Travel is Back…officially!
Starting in late February, 2021, orders started coming in strong. By March we were delivering baby gear, mainly for spring break, in popular family vacation spots such as Florida as well as most of the ski destinations in Utah and Colorado. Now almost every market is active and we’re seeing an acceleration in orders for the summer months. We’re on track to exceed 2019 levels by over 100%! With record day after record day, talk about whiplash! We are now challenged to make sure we can handle the demand…a great problem to have!
Now that travel is back, our focus has shifted to increasing our supply of Quality Providers (the independent contractors who own and deliver the baby gear) with a need to add more markets, and leveraging our enhanced position for even faster growth.
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Family travel survey results.
We surveyed BabyQuip customers who recently traveled in February and March to better understand what changed and what motivated them to travel. These were the standout results:
100% of our respondents reported that they “Felt Safe When Getting to and from (their) Destination.” This was surprising as we don’t often see 100% of anything in a survey.
In addition, 66% reported that they “Felt Safe When Engaging with Planned Activities” and 82% indicated that they were able to do what they wanted to (eat at restaurants, visit attractions, etc) at their destination.”
Vaccinations are making people feel more confident about travel.
In response to a question about their motivation to travel, 46% reported “Feeling Safe because we (or some of us) have been vaccinated.” Over 65% of our respondents reported that they or members of their family were fully or partially vaccinated. Health and having a negative test result are definitely top of mind!
Families want to travel!
In addition to feeling safe, 43% visited specific destinations like a ski resort or theme park and 36% traveled to visit family.
Top considerations when planning travel were the desire to visit a family destination (57%), better weather (39%), visiting family and friends (29%), and better activities at their destination (25%). Florida was by far the top destination during this period.
This was the first trip in a long time, with nearly 45% reporting that they hadn’t traveled in the last 12 months, and nearly 20% hadn’t traveled in the last 7 to 12 months. Not surprisingly, 75% reported that reduced travel was due to the pandemic.
Happily, over 90% expect to travel again as a family in the next 6 months.
Bring the kids!
We also asked Grandparents, who make up approximately 25% of our customers, about their experience, and over 80% indicated that family members traveled to see them! This was long overdue, with over 27% reporting that they hadn’t visited with their families in over a year, and nearly another 20% in the last 7 to 12 months.
Looking Ahead
Clearly this is a big year for BabyQuip and it’s official that travel is back. We are so excited to see the recovery of travel and help families as they get back to making memories, be it with extended family or at a beach, theme parks or national parks. During the slow time of the pandemic, we further trained our community of Quality Providers on enhanced cleaning processes, contactless delivery, and even hospitality. We hear everyday how happy they are to help families enjoy a great vacation together, without lugging all that bulky baby gear.
With the Centers for Disease Control continuously updating testing requirements with the latest information, making it easy to get test results, making recommendations on travel information, and monitoring health and safety closely, we are confident that family travel is here to stay.
Fran Maier is CEO and Founder of BabyQuip, the leading baby gear rental service for traveling families and now offering local cleaning services too. She is a serial entrepreneur and brand builder with over 25 years experience in B2C and B2B internet businesses. She is best known for her 10+ years leading TRUSTe (now TrustArc), the leading privacy trustmark and compliance provider, and as Co-Founder and first General Manager of Match.com.
Fran speaks widely on several topics relating to women in business, including opportunities for women in the collaborative economy, addressing the lucrative family travel segment, women in entrepreneurship and on boards. She serves as an advisor to many start-ups including Portfolia, Women’s Start-up Lab, Sign-up.com, Kango, and Dabbl.
Yay! So excited travel is back. Great work, BabyQuip.