How to Reach out to Hotels as an Influencer
Looking to work with hotels as an influencer? Here’s how to reach out to hotels as an influencer the *right way* for a collaboration — from a full-time travel content creator!
This blog post is brought to you by my 💡How to Negotiate & Work With Brands Course and How to Pitch Brands for Paid Partnerships Course
When it comes to being an influencer, there’s many perks to the job, and one of those is collaborating with hotels.
Whether it’s being paid to create marketing assets for your favourite hotel chain, getting a luxury stay at a beautiful property in exchange for content or getting a ‘media rate’ for your trips (i.e. – extremely discounted stays!)—learning how to reach out to hotels is an extremely useful skill to have when it comes to being a content creator.
In this post, I’m going to share exactly how to reach out to hotels as an influencer so you A) actually hear back from the hotels you pitch and B) get a positive response from the hotel for a collab!
Let’s get into it.
About the Author
Hi! I’m Candace. I’m a full-time blogger & content creator @candaceabroad and social media strategist with 5+ years experience in startup & influencer marketing.
On this blog, I share no-fluff tips to help content creators and influencers grow a strong niche online community, pitch brands for paid partnerships and negotiate their worth as a creator. I’m glad you’re here!
How to Reach out to Hotels as an Influencer
Step 1 – Understand Why Hotels Work With Influencers
Before you start pitching hotels it’s important to understand why hotels work with influencers in the first place. This includes:
- Brand Awareness – If a hotel is new to an area the first thing they’ll need to do is make sure people know who they are, that’s where you and your influence steps in!
- Hotel Bookings – This one’s pretty obvious, but of course, the hotel would want your stay to result in hotel bookings from real people that aren’t being comped to stay there
- Marketing Assets – This includes content the hotel can use to promote their property outside of your channels on their own feeds, website etc. through UGC content
When it comes time to reach out to hotels as an influencer it’ll be super important to keep these in mind and understand exactly what you’d like to offer the property in relation to what they’re looking for when it comes to working with creators.
💭 Do you have a large following so can you offer influence? (Brand Awareness)
💭 Do you have an engaged audience likely to book the particular hotel you’re pitching? (Example: having an audience interested in luxury travel and working with a luxury hotel)
💭 Are you great at creating aesthetic content you can see that hotel using on their feed or website?
Knowing your answer to these before you go into a hotel collab will already make you lightyears more successful with your pitch compared to someone who just knows ‘I want to work with a hotel!’
Wait, Candace. Do hotels pay influencers for content? Or is it just gifted?
The elephant in the room.
In my experience and opinion, nowadays unless it’s UGC (i.e. – you’re also creating content the hotel can use on their feed or website) the majority of hotel stays with influencers tend to be unpaid/gifted.
In my personal opinion, you can definitely use this to your advantage if it’s a destination or hotel you planned to stay anyways, or if you utilize things like affiliate marketing to get a commission from anyone who books the hotel you stayed at through your affiliate link. But just something to keep in mind!
Step 2 – Have Previous Hotel Content Ready to Showcase (& choose the right hotel type)
Like any pitch to a brand you don’t want to leave them guessing as to what type of content you can create. You want to show them.
And when it comes to reaching out to hotels as an influencer, this means having previous hotel content ready to showcase.
Lucky for you this doesn’t mean you to need to have dozens of previous hotel collabs under your belt.
But it does mean potentially forking out on a hotel staycation in your town or city to do a content-based hotel trip for yourself and create content from it.
This is so you can have proof of concept when it comes to ‘hotel content’ once you’re ready to pitch, it works wonder!
Step 3 – Pitch Their Hotel Marketing or PR Team With a Professional Media Kit
You’re officially ready to pitch hotels, but make sure you’re pitching the right person!
Your hotel pitch should always go to someone on their Marketing or PR team (not their booking or customer service email). These are the people that will deal directly with your collaboration inquiry, so always do your research to find the right contact beforehand.
In addition, make sure you have a professional media kit when you pitch. This should include:
- Your brand and niche
- Your demographics and analytics
- Previous hotel collaborations (or content examples)
This ensures you’re seen as a professional creator and not just an influencer looking for a ‘free’ stay.
Step 4 – Be Careful When Negotiating Usage For a Comped Stay
On that, be sure to be extra careful when it comes to negotiating usage for a comped stay.
In my opinion, if the hotel isn’t paying you you really shouldn’t agree to creating any marketing assets for them.
Case and point, I had a *ahem* VERY well-known hotel chain offer me a free 2 nights stay in exchange for x30 pieces of content that they could use indefinitely! You can guess what my answer was…
If you aren’t getting paid the hotel stay should simply be in exchange for the content deliverables you choose is the best ‘win-win’ situation possible. Not in exchange for using your content in ads or expecting you to make free marketing assets for them on top.
Long story short, if you ever feel like you’re not getting an equal exchange from the hotel once you reach the negotiation part (especially if it involves usage of any kind), run for the hills!
Step 5 – Make a Shot List For Your Hotel Trip (& don’t forget to ENJOY your stay!)
Once you’ve successfully reached out to the hotel, it’s time to make your shot list.
Example Shot List I used for a hotel collab I did this year — it doesn’t have to be fancy!
Now shot lists are GREAT to use when you’re on a hotel shoot as they truly alleviate any worries about not ‘getting all the shots’.
Instead, you can simply tick off your list one by one and spend the rest of your time actually enjoying your hotel stay from the brand.
Step 6 – Set Clear Expectations With The Brand & Your Publishing Dates
Before your hotel stay is over, you want to make sure you set clear expectations with the brand on your publishing dates.
I’ve heard of influencers who had collabed with a hotel and completely ghosted them after (or posted months later), and it’s truly not a good look for anybody.
Pre-stay make sure you have a plan for when you’ll publish your hotel content, and that it’s clearly communicated with the hotel to avoid any mismatched expectations.
Final Thoughts On How to Reach out to Hotels as an Influencer
I hope this post helped you start your journey reaching out to hotels as an influencer.
Through understanding why hotels work with influencers, having previous hotel collabs ready to showcase to the brand, pitching their marketing or PR team with a professional media kit, being careful when it comes to negotiating comp stays, making a shot list for your hotel trip and setting clear expectations with the brand and your publishing dates you’ll be well on your way to landing your dream hotel collabs.
You’ve got this!
Happy creating,
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