Many people think that you need a million instagram followers or a million youtube subscribers - or hopefully soon they’ll think you need a million Steem followers 😉 - if you want to get free accommodations at various hotels and villas around the world.
I can tell you from personal experience that that is just not true. You don’t need millions of followers and you don’t even need hundreds of thousands of followers.
Even an influencers who is just getting started and has a small base of followers (say 1000+ followers) can take advantage of some accommodations.. That is, if you have the right approach!!
I just started traveling recently and I make the majority of my money through investing which I’ve been doing for nearly a decade now. Traveling is something that I do for the experience and the fun, but traveling can get pretty pricey, unless you’re crafty about getting free accommodations, which I’ll show you my approach in this post to doing just that!
Having the right approach is truly the key to getting accommodations at any hotel or villa. Here are some tips to help you on your first journey to some free nights on your dream vacation!!
How to Reach Out to Hotels
Reaching out to hotels seems like the hardest part when you’re first getting started. I remember I was nervous and even unsure of the outcome when I first reached out.
The approach turned out to be super simple. All you have to do is research hotels on all the top travel websites and make a list of the ones that you’d want to stay at and create content about.
Remember that fancier hotels tend to be easier to do this with. They tend to have a few rooms that will go unbooked anyways. This means that it really doesn’t cost them anything to put you up for free.
The first step to reaching out is to make your list. The second step is to make your offer to them via email or phone.
Know What You’re Offering and Be Professional About It
When you reach out to a hotel, you need to be really professional in how you approach it. I do this 100% of the time over email because I think it’s an easier way to get your point across and share a more professional pitch.
When you reach out to a hotel, make sure that you’re extremely professional in how you email them. Have a proper email structure and good language usage. You’re trying to sell your services and your skillset so make sure that you put on a good show for them!
I like to include a personal portfolio of photographs and videos that I’ve done for other hotels previously. This is a fantastic way to showcase your work and make the hotel manager see what you’re capable of. It’s also a huge touch of professionalism - especially if you have your own website!!
I also purchased a drone for this sole purpose of getting free accommodations. Having a drone (and telling/showing the hotel that you know how to showcase their property with it) is a huge selling point. Hotels love to see their properties from the sky and they definitely want potential guests to see it as well!
If you’re a food blogger, then make sure to showcase that you know what you’re doing when it comes to taking amazing photos of food! Same goes for vlogging, photography, etc… You absolutely have to be good at showcasing what exactly you can offer this hotel and why they should put you up for free.
The real key to all of this is to just do it. You have to be professional and you have to just keep asking various hotels if they’re willing to do a little collaborative deal with you.
Once you get the first hotel to agree, then you’ll see the snowball effect come into play and you’ll start to make more and more deals with more and more hotels!!
Good luck out there and remember that this is a numbers game!! I reached out to over 50 hotels before I got my first yes and stayed in a dream vacation for free!