Bachelor and Bachelorette Parties Hit the Road

Foreign.

Welcome to the Farmer Travel show and Happy New Year.

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I never in my life thought I'd spend this much time in convention centers, but we have a lot of fun.

So Seattle will be the first show.

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So February 28th and March 1st will be the Miami Travel and Adventure Show.

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But this year, interestingly, it's going to be in Long beach rather than in downtown LA.

That show is March 7th and 8th.

And I'll be speaking at the final travel and adventure show of the year, which happens in Denver April 11th and 12th.

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What you need to do is you go to travelshows.com you go to the area of the site where you buy tickets, and then when they ask you if you have a code, oh, yes, you do.

Your code is fromersvip.

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Okay, let's get on to the rest of the show.

So weddings.

Weddings are always joyous, joyous events, and they're also a good excuse for travel.

But I'm not talking about honeymoons.

I'm talking about bachelor and bachelorette parties.

One of the biggest trends in travel right now is a lot of people are gathering the folks who are really important to them and celebrating in a new place prior to a wedding.

It's become such a huge trend that my next guests have started a thriving business all around bachelor and bachelorette parties.

Their website and their business is called Batch Boss.

You can reach them@batchboss.com they are Avery Singer and Jolie Golub.

Hey, guys.

Thank you so much for appearing on the Fromer travel show.

Absolutely.

Thanks so much for having us.

Yeah, we're so excited to be here.

So whichever of you want to answer this, how did you get the idea to start this business?

I'll let Avery take that one.

Actually, she likes to tell the story.

Yeah, it's.

It's a.

It's a good story.

So Jolie and I, we were co mate of honors planning, our mutual best friend's bachelorette.

And we were on a zoom because I was in Chicago and she was in New York.

And I whiffed out an Excel spreadsheet, having a finance background, options, dividing costs per person.

And I said to her, wow, Jolie, we are so good at this.

Can you imagine how many people struggle?

And she replied, yeah, Avery, should we maybe make this a business?

And I looked at her and I was like, yeah, maybe.

And I thought really nothing of it at the time.

But then the next day, she called me because we are best friends as well, and we were roommates in the city for three years.

So it's not like we were co maid of honors not knowing each other.

And she called me and she's like, Avery, let's talk about our business idea.

And I kind of started rolling with it and, and I did some research and then I was like, you know what, Jolie, let's start making like a proposition.

Let's research companies, look at competitors.

And I was like, jolie, I think I'm going to start this business that you thought of with me.

And let's.

Are you in?

And it's been our full time job and we've never looked back.

Wow, that's amazing.

You know, when I was getting married, people didn't travel so much.

This seems to be a pretty new trend.

Do you have any kind of stats either about your own business or about the industry in general, about what percentage of brides and grooms in the United States are doing this?

I would say it's about 80% right now are traveling to do these three day long weekends either by train or plane or car.

So it's long of the days are doing, you know, one night out for a dinner.

I mean, we're seeing that most of our clients are getting on a plane.

They are also going international.

They are flying to Cabo, to Tulum, even Mykonos and Ibiza.

So really nothing is off the table.

And as just as you said earlier, Pauline, it's a great way for the group to come together from different walks of life because not everyone knows each other and to kind of all, you know, celebrate the bride or the groom and get to spend some time to get to know each other before the wedding week weekend.

Wow.

So Jolie, Avery mentioned a couple of destinations.

Are those your most popular places?

What are the most popular places that your clients want to go to?

Yeah, I would say, you know, our clients might not go to, you know, like the most popular overall bachelor bachelorette destinations because I believe like Nashville, for example, is one of those.

Yeah.

And we personally don't do that many Nashville trips.

Our clients tend to lean in more towards Miami, Las Vegas, Cabo and Tulum.

So those are really our big four, we call them.

So those two Mexico destinations, Miami and Vegas, we do work all over the world that, you know, that being said, but those are just kind of the four that we have really been doing so many of that we have also the strongest relationships in.

Well, I got to ask you, are those more popular with the men or the women?

Totally equal.

So, you know, it's interesting because I think when you think Vegas, a lot of times you think men.

We definitely do a lot of Vegas bachelor parties.

But honestly, when I'm thinking about our.

Our men, a lot of trips we're doing now are joint, so joint bachelor bachelorettes, where the guys and the girls are going together.

And the reason that Mexico is a great destination for.

For that is because we're renting a lot of these big villas.

So sometimes we'll do a guy villa, a girl villa, and then they'll do activities together.

Right.

So maybe they're staying separately, but their dinners are together or their yacht day is together.

So that's, you know, a great perk of staying in, like, a beautiful, warm destination where you can get gorgeous villas on the water.

So I guess if they're doing it together, they are not getting strippers and they are not doing the stuff that became infamous.

What is the name of that film with Bradley Cooper where he goes off with his buddies and the hangover.

So these aren't hangover type trips.

Really?

Yeah.

Colleen, you might be surprised, though.

I would say the joint ones, not so much.

But, you know, the purely.

The bachelor parties that we do definitely, like, lean into the.

You know, some of the naughtier activities I think it really depends on.

I would also like to add in that these are luxury trips, and people are taking, you know, vacation days, time off of work, where it's really not just about partying 24 7.

So even in Vegas, the guys are doing a round of golf.

They're doing some type of different excursion.

Similar in Cabo as well.

The girls are doing spa days.

They are doing yoga.

So it's definitely a balance between know, party, but then also that vacation type feel where it's not go, go, go.

Okay, Jolie, I gotta ask you, when you mention naughty stuff, have.

Have you ever gotten a request that you've thought, ooh, I can't do this.

I can't set this up for them?

The answer is no.

Okay, good.

We.

We, you know, definitely have had some raunchy requests, but we also are a professional company, and we are absolutely happy to set up anything our clients request.

So nothing is too out there for.

For us.

We have connections everywhere.

We, you know, have contacts everywhere, and we can really make anything happen.

So, Avery, every.

Anything is on the table.

What are some of the most over the top bachelor parties or bachelorette parties that you've planned?

I mean, what are.

I'm assuming some people probably get very creative with this.

Jolie will probably know exactly what I'm gonna say.

We had a very over the top bachelor party in Tulum last year where we were working with the older brother, and he had some very creative requests, such as wanting to throw a big villa party and invite lots of different people for from the Tulum area.

Because we do a ton of bachelor bachelorette trips in Tulum.

Sometimes we'll have five in one weekend just through other partners that we kind of all work together.

And so he wanted to have fire dancers, he wanted to have mermaids.

So we literally got mermaids that were in the pool.

And the way that the villa was set up, there was kind of like a DJ club room downstairs.

And when the window.

With the windows of the downstairs basement, you could look into the pool, if that makes sense.

So these mermaids were kind of swimming at the bottom of the pool and you could kind of see them.

So that was really awesome and very cool.

But we love doing also luxury beach picnics are really lovely.

Boat days are also super fun.

And yeah, we.

We love when clients get creative, especially with the custom swag and the welcome bags.

We've also coordinated private charters where we've had clients request, you know, models like escorting them onto the plane or passing out martinis on the Runway.

So, yeah, we've definitely done our fair share of over the top trips.

Is some of this inspired by celebrities?

I mean, do you find that a celebrity has a bachelor or bachelorette party, it makes the news and suddenly that's the hot destination or that's the hot type of activities to do?

Certainly, I would say one of our most famous clients that we've worked with is Olivia Culpo, and she did her bachelorette in Cabo.

And when we worked with her and her team, they were extremely creative of wanting, as Julie was saying, to set that tone when they approached the private plane, to really set the tone for the weekend.

So we hired shirtless models that served drinks.

We had a balloon arch that said Olivia land.

We had her whole private plane decked out in custom swag and welcome bags and.

And really just set the tone.

So when people kind of look through our Instagram, they'll say, we want this, we want that.

We really do set a lot of trends that people want.

Wow.

Okay.

When I had my bachelorette party, I found out that my husband was doing paintball, and I thought, oh, my goodness, we should do that too.

So we had a joint bachelor bachelorette party.

But in the course of it, some of my Husband's friends were such dicks and were so aggressive with the damn paintball that I ended up changing the seating arrangements at the wedding because I didn't want them anywhere near me.

I don't think it was all the bachelor and the bachelorette party, but that kind of set the stage a little bit.

What do you think the biggest mistakes are?

And I'm not sure if playing paintball together was a mistake.

Who knows?

But what do you think the biggest mistakes are that bachelorettes and bachelors make when they're planning these events?

Jolie, you are nodding, so I'll go to you first.

I mean, there's quite a lot of mistakes, right, that can be made.

The first is not hiring us.

Right.

And trying to plan it on your own.

But I would just say that, like a theme that we've seen, which tends to come up a lot as an issue, are budgets.

So.

So I think it's a mistake not being, you know, upfront with the group about what things may or may not cost, especially if the person throwing the trip is not planning to subsidize anything.

So, you know, we.

We work with various budgets.

We have certain groups where the bride or the groom or the mother or the sister is, you know, forefronting a lot of the money.

But then we have groups that really want to split everything down the middle.

And if that's the case, everyone really needs to be aware of what things cost.

So, you know, we've definitely run into those budget issues, and then we, you know, are kind of the middleman, like, needing to diffuse the situation and helped collect payments.

So I'd say, like, budgets are definitely a common issue.

Same thing goes, I think, for guest lists.

You know, I think some women in particular feel more pressure around inviting family members, for instance, like cousins or sister in laws or whatever that looks like.

And I think that can be a sticky issue as well.

I noticed on your website you have different levels of planning, and some of them include spreadsheets or I guess, sign up sheets for how much people will pay.

Do folks ever do, like, tiered payments?

So the maid of honor pays the most, the bridesmaids pay second most, and the second cousins maybe pay just a little bit.

Or is it usually even Steven?

If people are paying, I would say normally it's split evenly.

When we do send those custom surveys, we write in the survey, how much do you feel comfortable spending on accommodations per night and give ranges?

And then how much do you feel comfortable spending on meals and activities and give rages?

This is something that the Bride or groom can review and look at where maybe the boat day isn't in the budget, maybe that bottle service isn't in the budget, or maybe that's something they want to subsidize.

If someone can't afford to come, it could be a one off where we've seen the bride or groom kind of help pay for that one person.

But that's not publicly known.

Obviously no one wants to disappoint the bride or groom.

And money can be a sensitive subject.

That's part of the reason why we created this business to just have transparency, be that third party that can diffuse any situations, talk through what's realistic, and kind of just get all the planning as seamless as possible.

So I got to ask you as a follow up, Avery, is a lot of your job being a consigliere, is it you the person who has to deal with negotiations among the groups?

Because group travel is always tricky.

I would think so.

How we work is we normally work with one or two people.

It could be anywhere from the bride, groom, maid of honor, sister, mom.

We don't really like getting a bunch of opinions and talking to, you know, 15 people that are attending.

We don't need the peanut gallery.

That's why we're here, to just work with one person or two people.

When we do send that survey, that's really just to get intake and information that whoever we're working with can just take that into consideration.

Consideration.

At the end of the day, the people that we're working with, they will make the decisions.

We will make suggestions.

We will never book or do anything without their approval.

In terms of payments, we are have a bunch of vendors that we work with over and over again.

All payments though are done in house.

So if we book a boat or a chef, the client can pay us and then we'll pay the vendors directly.

We can also collect money from the group and say, hey, we're planning to so and so's bachelorette, the villa, transportation, and the chefs are going to be this much.

We'll do two installments.

Please send the first batch by this date.

And is the way you make your money by taking a percentage of what the chef makes, what the boat makes, all of that.

Or do you make money by charging a planning fee?

So that's kind of what you were referring to earlier, Pauline, of our tiers of service.

So each tier build on each other.

So we have four packages, Bronze, silver, gold, platinum.

And it's a flat fee, not per person.

And this covers our time and services.

Coordinating everything for the weekend for you.

So Bronze is kind of that intro where we will propose your accommodations, we will book your reservations and activities, create an aesthetic itinerary and mood boards, and then we kind of, you know, leave the rest to you.

Our most popular is a step up, which is Silver, where we will do everything that I just said, plus go ahead and book the accommodations because we work a lot with partners directly that are kind of off listed.

So we can save you money, get involved in transportation, get involved in the custom decor, swag, balloons, and do a lot, much more in a build.

So paying for it can be one of the big responsibilities.

What surprised me in looking at your site is sometimes you take over creating content for your brides and grooms.

So I guess showing the world what you've done on social media is a huge part of this event, right, Jolie?

Yes and no.

Right.

So we do have clients where content is extremely important and you know, they want reels and tiktoks and recap videos and all of that good stuff.

But we do have clients that are also very private.

And not only do they not want the world to see, they might not want their wives to see or vice versa.

Right.

So we, we absolutely work with both times types, excuse me, of clients, and we cater to what they want.

Right.

So if they want the content, we'll.

We'll make sure it happens.

If they want it to be private, we will make sure it's kept private.

Right.

And you also sometimes make sure that they look good.

I was interested to see that you offer photo sessions for these.

How popular are those?

Very.

Photo sessions are super, super popular.

More, more amongst the women, especially if they're getting dressed up for a specific like theme night, let's say.

That is something that they'll want captured and documented.

So professional photos are a must.

Is there anything I haven't asked you both that people should know about what is going on in this pre wedding world right now?

I would say it's very important to start planning early.

Especially now.

A lot of people are doing destination bachelor, bachelorettes, potentially destination weddings.

So people's calendars are filling up.

So if you know, you definitely want to go to a certain place and kind of want to get the best accommodations, have as many of your friends come.

We recommend, you know, getting started with us asap.

And we can always send a custom survey to pull a date so you can kind of see what's the most available date for everybody.

Great.

All right, well, congratulations ladies, on creating, you know, this thriving business you're really on trend.

And thank you so much for appearing on the From A Travel Show.

Thank you so much for having us, Pauline.

I can't tell you how grateful I am that we have so many devoted subscribers who listen every week or who listen when the topic interests them.

It really means a lot to me personally.

It means a lot to our team@fromers.com that you are here, that you continue supporting us, that you understand that professional travel journalism has a place in the world.

You know, that last interview, they didn't pay a cent to be on the Fromer Travel Show.

I just thought it was a fascinating new take on how the younger generation is spending their travel dollars.

It's not necessarily my thing, but I try not to judge.

And I also think this is something that a lot of people will want to know about.

Maybe our listeners.

Maybe our listeners children or grandchildren.

May I wish you a hearty bon voyage for all of your upcoming voyages.

Let's go out and see the world.

Sour candy on the table Lazy afternoons in your sweatpants Watching cable well, it feels so far away all the channels seem the same Trying to remember all the songs we like to play?

Cause those lazy afternoons don't come so frequently these days?

Oh, it's been so long And I cannot help but wonder Are you ever coming home?

I like you with your sour candy in the boat house on the lake?

Oh, but I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate the way it takes?

I can't get you off of my mind Looking out the window where we spend so much of our time?

Cause I miss the way it felt But I guess you can't control those damn cards with babe I know the both of us are happy when we're free but would it be so hard to find your freedom here with me?

Oh, it's been so long and I cannot help but wonder Are you ever coming home?

I like you with this sour candy Be in the boat house on the lake But I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate the way it tast.

And I I the way it tastes but I love it all the same and I.

Hate the way it tastes But I love it all the same?

Oh, it's been, it's been, it's been, it's been so long and I cannot help but wonder Are you ever coming home?

I like you with your sour candy in the boathouse on the lake But I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate the way it takes it's been, it's been so long and I cannot help but wonder Are you ever coming home When I see you with a sour candy don't want it any other way oh, I just hate, I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate the way it tastes.