Managing expectations is the only thing that’s important. Depending on what they are looking to do some requests are more challenging but BookBaja gets it done. The weather is our biggest wild card.
As part of my series about “How To Create A Travel Experience That Keeps People Coming Back For More”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kent Harrington.
Kent Harrington founded BookBaja following nearly two decades spent exploring Baja’s vast peninsula where he cultivated an unrivaled expertise of the region’s geography from the mountainous trails of the inland to the waters along the Sea of Cortez and up the Pacific Coast. Harrington’s pivot to yacht brokerage made him one of Baja’s most knowledgeable and sought after yacht brokers to the point where he was receiving enough calls a week seeking boat and housing recommendations that he decided to combine his skill sets to curate unique Baja experiences with BookBaja.com. His goal: to take away the daunting task of navigating the various rentals and charter offerings and curate a custom experience that will allow others to fall in love with the region.
Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My path started with the 2008 recession, when I had just graduated and couldn’t find work. I found myself driving down to Cabo with the last few hundred bucks I had and started working on boats and selling charters.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
I think it’s the amount of interesting people you meet in the middle of nowhere in Baja. I’m talking, Harrison Ford cruising around on a peddle bike, when the next town with electricity is over 100 miles away.
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?
In my case, I was entirely self taught.
Thank you for that. 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?
People on the West Coast fly all the way around the world in search of what we have in our own backyard. What if I told you swimming with whale sharks was only a 6 hour car drive from San Diego? Or that you were only a 90 minute flight from Los Angeles from swimming in turquoise water, hiking dormant volcanoes and swimming with Dolphins? BookBaja was created to show everyone that we can curate an experience from land to sea much more than your average “Cabo” based travel company.
Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation and how do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?
You have no idea how many times I’ve had friends rent Airbnbs only to be scammed or work with a high end Cabo booking company that finds any and every excuse to keep a deposit. I created BookBaja to be your honest Baja Travel company, one that can actually help you plan everything from land to sea for your Baja visit.
As you know, COVID19 changed the world as we know it. Can you share a few examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers will prefer to travel?
The shift we have seen is that smaller, more private groups are the new norm. I have seen my bigger motor yacht charter business explode in sales because of this and that trend is expected to continue.
You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?
Nothing beats exploring the Sea of Cortez on a motor yacht.
Travel is not always about escaping, but about connecting. Have you made efforts to cultivate a more wellness driven experience? We’d love to hear about it.
Being in the yacht industry, we know all about the dichotomy of escaping yet connecting at the same time. We have experiences that will get you 100% off the grid a hundred miles from the nearest power pole but give you that 5 star service. We have worked with the whos who of celebrities and billionaires from around the world and we have yet to have someone leave not wanting to come back. They want complete privacy but love going up and meeting a stranger that’s sailing through. It’s actually funny when you see the persons reaction when they meet a celebrity on some random beach hundreds of miles from the next city.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to create a travel experience that keeps bringing people back for more? Please share a story or an example for each.
Managing expectations is the only thing that’s important. Depending on what they are looking to do some requests are more challenging but BookBaja gets it done. The weather is our biggest wild card.
Can you share with our readers how you have used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I think showing travelers that Baja is a time machine still stuck in the early 1900s has humbled everyone I’ve ever taken.
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. 🙂
Though Baja is very clean due to the lack of people, I always said if I had some kinda unlimited budget I would hire hundreds of people to pick up all the trash we could find in Baja.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!