Bad travel experiences never happen to me

JUST KIDDING!

Only about 25% of the trips I go on and activities I do are sponsored (which means that I write content in exchange for an experience or money). This means the majority of my travel is paid for out of my own pocket, the places I visit don’t know I’m a travel writer, and I don’t get special status when I’m visiting.

I like it this way because I’m able to share the most real experience with you, but this leaves room for the unexpected.

So, believe it or not, not everything I’ve experienced has always been awesome. Every once and a while I’ll encounter something that didn’t quite meet my standards. Whether that’s customer service, food, or travel woes.

And the more I travel, the more I get the question: “What do you do if you have a bad experience? Do you ever share it?”

And my answer is YES. If I have a travel inconvenience like a missed a train or a cancelled event I will share what’s happening on my social channels and website. This sort of stuff has to be expected and happens all the time.

BUT if I have a bad experience at a business or activity, that’s where it gets tricky as a travel writer.

So, I want to be as honest with you as possible and share what has worked for me for now. And I want to make sure I’m giving you what you want, so if you have a suggestion I’m all ears!!

First, there aren’t many bad experiences

I always do a ton of research before we visit a destination or a business. This means I’m visiting their site, reading reviews on other platforms, and trying to get a good gauge of what to expect before we even go! All this planning usually leave little room for a bad experience.

But overall, I really just think most things are pretty great. I’m a strong believer that your attitude impacts your perception on life experiences. And guess what…YOU have control over your attitude!

Second, I leave out the negatives (but only in some channels!!)

Ok, ok, let me explain this one. I’m not completely leaving them out. You just probably won’t find me talking about the negatives in EVERY channel I have.

One of my main goals of being a travel writer in Minnesota is to showcase the awesome things this state has to offer and I’m aware that people follow me because they want this insight. In order to provide you with that, I feature all my highlights and favorites on my social media channels, Facebook and Instagram, so you have easy access to them and are hopefully inspired to go try something new!

Where you WILL find full reviews of both positives and negatives is on my website. So if you want to know the full story and have never been to my site, head on over! This gives me more room to explain aa bad experience. But like I said above, there aren’t many of these.

When I talk about the negatives, I also talk about the positives

So what do I do if I have a bad experience at a local business? When I post it to my website, I’ll mention the thing I didn’t like, but always pair it with something I DID like. (I have yet to have an absolutely horrible overall experience, so cross your fingers that doesn’t happen!)

I do this because I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume positive intent. Maybe someone’s having a bad day or something’s happening in a business that’s beyond its control. So I try to be understanding that my experience probably doesn’t represent EVERYONE’S experience.

For example, if the decor in a restaurant is outdated, so we chose to sit on the patio instead, I’ll say “Try to grab a table outside, the ambience outside is better than inside and you get great views!” If the service is slow I’ll say “The food was awesome, but it took a while to get, so only come here if you have plenty of time.”

Thanks for reading the thoughts that bounce around in my head all day. This wasn’t an easy article to write so I appreciate you reading!

Now, what do you think? Should I keep doing what I’m doing? Do you care about the not-so-good experiences we have? Comment below!