Hotel owner's brutal message to 'influencers' trying to bag free holidays

A hotel has hit out at ‘self-proclaimed influencers’ who keep messaging trying to bag a free holiday.

Staff at the White Banana Beach Club Siargao in the Philippines, which offers accommodation and boasts a stunning restaurant and bar, claim they are fed up of people messaging pitching blogs in exchange for freebies.

So they decided enough was enough, and sent a very public to message to anyone thinking of messaging them with a cheeky request via its Facebook page.

The message, which has been liked thousands of times, states: "Help out there. We are receiving many messages regarding collaborations with influencers, Instagram influencers.

"We kindly would like to announce that White Banana is not interested to "collaborate" with self-proclaimed "influencers".

"And we would like to suggest to try another way to eat, drink, or sleep for free. Or try to actually work."

They later shared another message clarifying what they meant by ‘influencer’.

"But we want to clarify that we are not against INFLUENCERS. Just against freeloaders.

"A REAL influencer is called as such by the rest, he does not address him/herself as an influencer. They are bloggers. We have actually collaborated with a few of them, in different terms and conditions, and we support them. There are real influencers, that in case we will contact them and pay or offer something. But look, they’ve never contacted us, as they don’t need us. We need them."

The post has attracted more than a thousand comments.

One woman wrote: "As someone who works in marketing and also manages a small resort, I can attest to the fact that the big influencers don't ask for freebies. They ask for permission to film and take photos but they usually offer to pay (or send a business proposal instead of asking for free things).

"The ones who ask for freebies are often the ones with almost no real following because they think they are soooo worth it and have a "notice me" mentality. We must not excuse nor defend the entitlement of self-proclaimed influencers.

Another added: "Self-proclaimed IG influencers are social climbers lang whose influence is an illusion and whose followers are usually dummy accounts, other social climbers mesmerized by freebies, or guys who only follow them for their provocative pics."

But others disagree, writing: "If these people formally sent you a message, I think they deserve a formal rejection as well. Not like this.

"I do blog. I have a full time job, and I work hard to be able to travel so I can have content. I recently tried pitching to resorts and hotels, because why not, right?

"There’s no harm in trying naman, and if you know that you have something to offer on the table it’s never a bad thing to try. That’s all."