“How can you sell luxury travel with that accent?”

This was just one of the many abusive comments Leander Lynch received after she shared a video tour of Manchester airport’s private terminal, aether, on her social media.

The Travel Counsellor posted a reel of the newly-opened lounge on Facebook in May, hoping to showcase its premium facilities to new and existing clients.

Within 24 hours, the clip had racked up more than 60,000 views. Today, it stands at more than 500,000.

Lynch, who specialises in "ultra-bespoke, high touch" travel, was initially stunned to see the numbers go up so rapidly. Though she’d previously had strong engagement on her Facebook page, the luxury travel advisor had never come close to experiencing the rush of a viral video.

“I kept looking at my phone and thinking, ‘Wow, how is this even possible?'," Lynch told TTG.

The video also received 1,700 likes and nearly 200 comments from viewers sharing their thoughts on the terminal, which opened in November 2024 and can be booked by passengers of any airline.

Reactions were mixed, though, with some travellers praising its gourmet dining and others criticising its exposed entrance. There was also pushback against its price of £110 per person, as well as its claims of being a "luxurious" product.

Unfortunately, the negative feedback didn’t stop there. A handful of people also decided to insult Lynch personally, with the bulk of the abuse aimed at her Mancunian accent.

“I was suddenly getting comments like, ‘Use an AI voice’, and ‘Who are you, the cleaner?'," she recalled. “I’d never even thought about my accent before, or that I’d need to change it.”

Ironically, Lynch had only chosen to do a voiceover because she didn’t feel comfortable appearing on camera. “I feel a pressure to look a certain way if I’m showing my face, like I should have my hair and makeup done,” she explained. “But I’m a mum of two boys and I’m running a business – I can’t look perfect all the time.”

Lynch was initially hurt by the backlash, having never expected people to listen to the voiceover, let alone mock her accent. “I thought they’d play the video on silent – that’s one of the reasons I put subtitles on it!”

It didn’t help that she was relatively new to the profession, having only joined Travel Counsellors the previous June. “At first, I took it really personally and wanted to take it down. I couldn’t handle the negativity,” she said. “My accent had never made a difference to my work before.”

It wasn’t until Lynch confided in her fellow Travel Counsellors that her perspective began to shift. “I showed them the comments and they told me, ‘Look, it’s getting you publicity, it’s getting you reach’. So, I started looking at it differently, more positively.”

Empowered by the support of her peers, Lynch decided to leave the video up. Within days, views hit 100,000. Her Facebook presence also jumped – she gained another thousand followers in the week following the video. “It has exposed my business to a whole new audience – I got lots of new enquiries from it.”

Since going viral, Lynch has made a conscious effort to be more personable on her social media. Rather than just posting inspiring travel content, she now also gives clients a ‘behind-the-scenes’ glimpse into her busy life. “I just wanted to make myself more human and more relatable,” she said.

Lynch is especially keen to highlight her passion for fitness, sharing everything from photos of her completing Parkrun and playing Padel to post-spin class videos.

“People sometimes tell me I’ve inspired them to go to the gym after they’ve seen my content about exercise,” she said. “If I can make a difference to just one person, that means the world to me.”

And after noticing videos showing her face tend to perform better, she’s found an effective aid for soothing on-screen nerves: “I often wear my pink Travel Counsellors hoodie, it’s like a comfort blanket!”

'Sometimes, you just need to post'

Lynch also acknowledged she sometimes struggles to maintain her social media, calling the running of her Facebook and Instagram accounts a “full-time job.”

To ease the pressure, Lynch plans her posts in advance. “If I know I’m going to be busy, such as right after Christmas, I’ll have a few different posts lined up,” she explained. She also utilises Travel Counsellors’ marketing suite, which includes digital assets like branded images, campaign materials and social media templates, to make things easier.

Lynch is equally careful, though, not to “overthink” the process in pursuit of perfection. “Sometimes, you just need to post,” she said. “For my Manchester airport video, I must have recorded it about 20 times. But then I finally thought, I’m not getting anywhere with it, so I just set it live. You have to let it go.”

And while she still gets nervous before uploading, she refuses to let the “keyboard warriors” deter her. “People will say things regardless,” she explained. “It might be good or bad, but it doesn’t matter. You’re being authentic to yourself. You’re promoting your business and you’re building your career so just go for it.”

Lynch also now takes any rude comments with a big pinch of salt. "The people commenting rude things don’t even know me,” she said. “I love promoting positivity, so when people are posting negative things, I just think, ‘You must seriously have something wrong with yourself’. Just be kind."

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