How a Passion for Roller Derby Inspired This Player to Become a Travel Advisor

Hannah Blouin always enjoyed planning trips for friends and family, but it wasn’t until she entered the world of roller derby that she was inspired to start a travel business. 

Roller derby – a sport where players on quad skates hit each other to get around a track (think Elliott Page in the 2009 film “Whip It”) – requires teams to travel out of state and even around the world to compete. Blouin discovered it while living in New York City and seeking a stress relief outlet, and she was instantly hooked. From intense physical activity to community building, the sport checked a lot of boxes for her, including the travel element. 

“I have found that derby is one of those communities that if you are traveling you can reach out to a local league and ask if you can drop in on a practice and get to skate with folks from anywhere around the world if you travel with your gear,” she said. “I’ve been very fortunate to have made connections with skaters domestically and internationally and even been able to skate with them while I was traveling.”   

How Roller Derby Fueled a Travel Side-Gig 

During her time in New York from 2008 to 2018, Blouin worked in production for a film and television company. A big part of her job was booking travel for TV shows like “Pawn Stars” and “Tiny House Nation.” Around the same time, she began playing roller derby with the Long Island Roller Rebels.  

After many years of skating with different teams, Blouin noticed that the leagues, which are usually run as non-profit organizations, could use some help managing their travel plans. And so, Star Pass Travels – named after a play in the game – was born in 2023. 

“The big drive for me is derby is such an expensive hobby, and I had always wanted to help the teams,” Blouin said. “With my background, I wanted to find a way to lessen the burden and give them a one-stop to just say, ‘Hey, I have a game, I want to go here, all I need is a hotel,’ or, ‘the team hasn’t traveled since pre-pandemic and we want to make a real team experience. What do you have in this destination?'” 

Though her goal was to arrange travel for roller derby teams, Blouin started the business by planning personal vacations for her friends, family, and teammates. The first trip she booked was a multi-generational FIT package with two destinations in France.  

“Just like roller derby, when I found it, and I realized I had a passion to do it, my research hit hard. It was a rabbit hole of a lot of things – where am I getting trained, what am I getting certified with, what destinations do I want to focus on?” she said. “It was also that odd pressure of, ‘you need to find your niche,’ but at the same time, ‘here are all the things you can do that way you have all the opportunities to really make your commission.'” 

Ultimately, Blouin landed on her specialty of booking budget-friendly family vacations to Disney, Europe, and Alaska. She especially loves planning trips to Iceland, Ireland, and the U.K. and strives to make travel feel affordable for anyone – a sentiment that’s helped her land team travel clients, as well. 

The Benefits of Booking Team Travel 

With the support of her host agency, Blouin learned the ins and outs of booking group travel, especially when it comes to hotel room blocks. This knowledge has helped her save roller derby teams time, stress, and money when figuring out travel logistics.  

After about a year, word got out about Blouin’s services in the roller derby community, and leagues began seeing the benefits of handing off their travel needs to a trusted professional. 

“Getting into the derby world was a little bit of a struggle because everyone was of the mindset of ‘we can just do it ourselves,’ and the fear of, ‘well, what is it going to cost me to work with you?'” she said. “So, the mindset that I have is I don’t want to charge the derby teams. We already pay so much for everything that we do.” 

Blouin has now booked travel for half a dozen U.S.-based roller derby teams, and a few more are in talks to work with her in the future. Some of the biggest benefits of booking with her include avoiding attrition costs when booking a room block and finding the best value for the leagues’ money. 

“Having the ability and knowledge to make those negotiations with properties was what I wanted to give back to the derby community,” she said. “A lot of teams are very budget conscious and not super picky about where they’re staying.” 

To cater to this, Blouin always offers three accommodations options and warns of the caveats of the low-end hotels – but, ultimately, “I’m not going to push them to stay in places that are outside of their budget.” 

For Blouin, the roller derby community has, in turn, provided her with a well of referrals to tap into. Most recently, she helped plan a player’s road trip from Richmond, Virginia, to Las Vegas for RollerCon, an annual roller derby convention, with several stops in Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, and New Mexico. 

Saving Up for Vacation 

Between booking team travel and vacations, Blouin, now based in Viriginia, has tripled Star Pass Travels’ business this year. All the while, she still holds a full-time job as an office manager at Viriginia Military Insitute and continues her roller derby career – where she’s known as Angry Penguin – with Charlottesville Roller Derby. 

Blouin pulls late nights working on Star Pass Travels after her 2- and 4-year-old are in bed – even making calls to clients and suppliers during her hour-and-a-half-long drives to roller derby practice once a week. Since the income she makes on commission is supplemental, she’s stashing it away for her own vacations, such as a beach vacation to the Outer Banks she has lined up. 

“Right now, I take that commission and put it in my travel fund so that when my kids are ready, I can use that to give them a good trip and experiences,” she said. “We’re already planning my daughter’s birthday experience at Disney. So, once we get through that big milestone for her, our first international trip with the kids will be Ireland.” 

Blouin also hopes to resume her own traveling for roller derby bouts and tournaments – threading the link between her two passions even further. 

“I love the freedom I get whenever I wear a pair of skates. I dislike running and most other forms of exercise, which is why I play a rolling sport,” she said. “It’s an amazing workout, and the community is insanely supportive both in your home league and worldwide.”