Being a celebrity can have its perks, perhaps a trip to the VIP room, a complimentary gift basket. It does, however, come under a somewhat different light when you are a pseudo-celebrity or a “social media influencer”.
Elle Darby is one of these so-called ‘social media influencers’. In fairness, while the title might sound a little pretentious, with over 90k YouTube subscribers, she is definitely a person of low-moderate celebrity on the website. Describing herself as a “Social Media Influencer” and specializing in ‘lifestyle, fashion, and travel’ she recently contacted a hotel in Dublin, Ireland.
Her proposal was that if the hotel gave her 5 nights free stay, she would promote it on her YouTube and Instagram account.
The hotel owner, incredulous at such a request, posted the request (blanking out her specific details) and responded. Since then, a line has been drawn with both sides gaining supporters and critics.
The below is the e-mail sent, which was reported via The Independent, which as above, the hotel removed her details. I must confess, the part about Universal Studio made me smile. I’m not sure they needed her help for advertising.
The White Moose Cafe, the hotel in question, responded via their owner Paul Stenson send his own rather terse response: “Dear Social Influencer (I know your name but apparently it’s not important to use names). Thank you for your email looking for free accommodation in return for exposure. It takes a lot of balls to send an email like that if not much self-respect and dignity.”
While some supporters of Derby have launched a tirade against the Cafe, there is one point in his response I think most of them have decided to conveniently ignore: “If I let you stay here in return for a feature in your video, who is going to pay the staff who look after you? Who is going to pay the housekeepers who clean your room? The waiters who serve you breakfast? The receptionist who checks you in? Who is going to pay for the light and heat you use during your stay? The laundering of your bed sheets? The water rates? Maybe I should tell my staff they will be featured in your video in lieu of receiving payment for work carried out while you’re in residence.”
Now, playing devil’s advocate, I think very few of us haven’t made a few cheeky requests to try and get something for free. It’s part of the reason I have a job here at eTeknix. The key word, however, is cheeky. We ask in the knowledge that the answer will almost certainly be no.
Blatantly wanting something for free in return for ‘promotion’ seems something a little out of the sphere of influence for what is a reasonably low-level YouTube channel.
It should be pointed out that despite her video response below, Elle Darby was not exposed. At least, not by the hotel owner. They very deliberately excluded her name and details from the posting.
It seems that she either decided to ‘expose’ herself or some people with a skill for digging found out.
In her response video above, I daresay she is embarrassed. For me, however, she comes across as attempting to play the victim. I think she should’ve just admitted it was a bit cheeky and moved on.
Either way, both the hotel and this particular blogger have both no doubt come out of this with publicity and that can’t be bad surely.
What do you think? Who was right and who was wrong? – Let us know in the comments!
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