I’ve been incredibly fortunate to get some amazing offers from hotels for us to make the trip in exchange for reviews (don’t worry – I always disclose if our stay is comped, and wouldn’t go there if it wasn’t already on my list of hotels to stay in). It’s led to a barrage of questions from friends and people in one of my influencer Facebook groups about how to pitch yourself to hotels.
Luckily, one of my friends from college, Ben Miller, is the co-owner of this gorgeous boutique property in Little Bay, Jamaica, so rather than sharing what’s worked for me, I thought I’d ask an expert!
I love boutique properties like the Coral Cottage because they allow you to experience more of the local flavor with all the amenities of home. Coral Cottage is a six bedroom villa that sleeps 14 with a bar, infinity pool overlooking the ocean, third floor observation deck, and full kitchen where you can cook fish you buy on the beach, or hire a local to cook for you. Plus, look at those views! Seriously instagrammable, right!?! As soon as E gets her passport in, it’s next on our list of travel destinations!
(Little known fact: my dad actually grew up in Jamaica and my grandparents lived there when I was little. We used to go every Christmas!).
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As an influencer, I’ve found boutique properties are also easier to work with. There’s a much better value proposition for the owners to work with you, especially if you have a smaller following, and many more properties to choose from.
Ask the expert
So let’s dive into what Ben shared, to give you insights from the perspective of a property owner who’s constantly bombarded with requests. My questions are in blue – the rest are Ben’s responses.
What is of value for you that influencers can offer? Anything they often offer you that isn’t valuable?
We are relatively new to the “influencer” game and after being approached by multiple influencers we had to think about our business strategy and if we wanted to incorporate social media influencers into the larger picture. As a team, we have outlined what we value from influencers and also material that we feel like we are lacking that an influencer can help with.
- Photos. We request 15 professional photos a day that we could potentially use on the website, Instagram, and Facebook, as well as upload onto our various platforms (Airbnb, Booking.com, etc.). These could be a mix of the property, excursions, or the local area.
- Video. We are also looking for someone to make a professional video touring the property that we could post on our website to show potential guests.
- Blog Post. Travel blogs are amazing! We’re looking to build a “press” page on our website, so once we get 3 or so bloggers talking about us, we want to launch that and promote the influencers that have stayed with us. We always looking for strong writers, and want to promote you, just like you promoted us!
- Positive Reviews. If you stay with us, we genuinely hope that you’ll take time to leave us a review on Google, Facebook, and Trip Advisor. Reviews really drive business!
- Social Media. We think it’s cool when you add us on your stories, make a post, and really promote us (link in bio). Just know, that this is probably lowest on our list because we don’t feel like you posting once or twice, or even doing a story is going to lead to future guest bookings. Exposure is great, but doesn’t guarantee us any future bookings.
- Press Kit Material. We’re working on building our press kit this year. If you offer something that could help us stand out from the competition, and that we could feature in our press kit/media kit, that’s huge to us!
The Reggae Bar at Coral Cottage, Little Bay Jamaica
On the flip side, there are some things that bother us about influencers.
- Asking for tons of freebies.
- Poor communication or no follow-through.
- Social Media. We’ve had influencers stay with us and post pictures from our property and label it Negril (40 min away) or tag a fancier, big-chain hotel. It makes us feel “used” when someone tags another place, and it’s clearly our property.
Your property is a boutique villa with 6 rooms. How does that impact the way you work with influencers?
We want influencers to have the same personalized experience that we give any other guest that stays with us, and we’re open to welcoming them during any season! Four things are important to note here:
- December 1-May 30 is our peak season, and we’ll always take a paying client over an influencer. However, if there is a free week or weekend, we welcome anyone! During peak season, we’ll probably take you on if there’s a small gap between bookings or if it’s a month out and there’s still a good chunk of space. In the low season, we can typically plan something quite a ways out.
- Most people rent the entire property when they stay with us so if it’s one influencer, they’re more than likely going to have the entire property – all six rooms. We encourage them to bring people with them! More people = more reviews.
- Expectations: We want you to have a great stay! Word of mouth is important, and we want you feeling like you never want to leave. If we work with an influencer, we really do want them to stay around 4 days. We want you to get a true feel for our property, local area, and have the experiences that guests will have when they stay.
- We appreciate it when you tip our staff. Hopefully, you choose to have some meals with us – our cooking team is incredible! We might comp some of your meals, but our Jamaican team will bend over backwards to make your stay special. Since Jamaica is a tipping culture, giving our staff a tip is always something that we hope you do!
Rooms with a view at Coral Cottage, Little Bay Jamaica
What does your target influencer(s) look like?
Great question! We’re open to almost any type of influencer as long as we can see a connection to our brand, and think that it could possibly lead to some bookings down the road. The broad, general categories that we fit into our family, travel, and adventure. If you seem like an all-inclusive resort type person, we will 100 percent avoid you.
Swimming in the ocean just behind Coral Cottage, Little Bay Jamaica
Our guests typically come from the US and Canada, and are either large families or groups of friends. Other niche areas that connect with us are romantic, cozy getaways (we’ve done small weddings before and honeymoons), cooking, and Caribbean nature. If your content jives with any of those (and you blog), we’ll totally consider you! Like I said before, we want to build up our press page so blogging is key to us.
I’m sure you get a lot of requests for comped stays from influencers. What makes a pitch stand out for you? What leads you to say “yes”?
I like to see the work that you’ve done. If I think your personality will connect with our team, that’s what hooks me. Also, when I email or chat with people, I like it when influencers pitch concepts and share ideas. How do you envision using our space? What stood out to you?
We all know that free stays aren’t really free. When you comp a stay or a night within a stay, what are the costs to you?
- Team Members (Cooking / Cleaning)
- Electricity
- Wifi
- Meals
- Water – You can’t drink from the tap, so we buy water for guest.
- Opportunity Cost for entire property. As I mentioned, most people reserve the entire property, not just a room.
Last note – We work with different charities and organizations, and give away free stays with them (typically the stays are a week long). Since these are comped stays as well, we put social media influencers in the same category. We don’t have a set amount of days that allocate for this category, but are mindful of the costs.
Coral Cottage, Little Bay Jamaica
4 Key Takeaways
Ben’s advice is incredibly consistent with what I’ve heard from other property owners. So what does this mean for you as an influencer? Here are four things to keep in mind as you pitch properties.
1 // Static blog content is more valuable than social media.
2 // Offer content the property can repurpose on their own channels.
3 // Pitch your vision of how you would promote the property in a way that aligns with their target market.
4 // Consider the real cost to the property of hosting you, and ensure you deliver commiserate value.
Ready to book? Rent out the entire villa on Booking.com here.
First of all…DARLING PLACE! Who wouldn’t want to stay there?! Blogger or not?! Pinning that to Pinterest! Jamaica is on our list of places we’d love to take our kids. Second, thank you so much for this info. I am expanding into travel and this is so helpful. I don’t want to just travel to “get free hotels” but want to know how I can be of value and serve the business owner and know how I can be a good fit. I want them to walk away afterwards and feel like it was a good partnership and business experience, as do I, so I really appreciated your friend’s insight! Thank him for sharing! And thank YOU for taking the time to write this and share it with us! Take care! 😘