13 TIPS: HOW TO GET A COMPLIMENTARY HOTEL STAY AS A BLOGGER OR INFLUENCER
If you’re a travel blogger or influencer then you know hotel collaborations are one of the most important parts of your business. We get tons of questions from our community asking how to get a complimentary hotel stay when jetsetting around the world…because no matter where you’re headed, you’re going to have to find accommodations one way or another!
Here at Sidewalker Daily, we work with hotels on influencer marketing initiatives and love being able to give bloggers and influencers insight into the client’s perspective. It’s always helpful when pitching to hotels to understand how everything works, what they are looking for and ways you can really make the partnership a success.
As a travel influencer, securing the perfect complimentary hotel stay in your next destination is always a plus. On the other hand, hotels are looking to reach a certain audience and customer base to promote their property, so you may have just the following and community they’re looking to reach.
When done right, hotel partnerships can really be a win-win for everyone involved!
How To Pitch A Complimentary Hotel Stay As A Blogger Or Influencer.
Whether you’re an experienced travel influencer or just starting out, we’re going over our top 13 tips when pitching and partnering with hotels!
Tip 1: Know and Understand The Hotel’s Key Messages
Just like a brand’s core values, or an influencer’s niche, most hotels have a set of “key messages” that they focus on when promoting their property or resort to the public. A key message is basically the main points the hotel wants their target audience to hear and remember. Some examples of popular key messages are culinary, couples, weddings, meetings and incentives (also known as MICE), wellness and families.
So if you’re trying to figure out how to get a complimentary hotel stay, knowing the type of “key messages” that the hotel focuses on will give you a deeper understanding of the type of traveler and audience they are looking to target. And then that in turn will help tailor your pitch to make it easy for them to see why partnering with you is a great idea in terms of meeting their objectives and goals!
Tip 2: Know What You Have To Offer
The first step in figuring out how to stay at hotels for free using your travel blog or influence is knowing what YOU can offer THEM.
Starting off your pitch with just asking for tons of free things and not even putting the time to think about what you can do for the hotel is a recipe for disaster. It’s important to know why you would be a good fit for the hotel to work with, and be able to communicate that in your pitch.
Essentially it’s important to know what you can offer the hotel in return for a paid or even a free stay (yes, it costs them money to host you). For example, is one of your niches culinary, and the hotel has an amazing restaurant you’d love to experience and share with your followers?
And even if you’re just getting a free hotel stay, there are ways to turn that stay into a paid partnership. Most hotels are always on the search for new images for their social media, a great video about their new spa or even a blog post promoting their destination.
Even if the collaboration didn’t start out as a paid one, if you’re prepared then you can definitely seize the opportunity to turn it into one!
Tip 3: Tailor Your Media Kit and Case Study
Another important step in figuring out how to approach hotels for a complimentary stay as a blogger or influencer is tailoring your media kit and case study to the type of partner or destination you are pitching too.
For example, try to incorporate information on some of your past hotel partnerships and collaborations in your media kit. The same goes for your case study – provide a case study that is relevant to the hotel, if possible.
When it comes to pitching, you always want to m