In today’s digital landscape, influencer marketing has evolved from an experimental tactic to an essential strategy for hotels looking to reach engaged audiences. As a marketing director with years of experience in the hospitality industry, I’ve witnessed first-hand how the right influencer partnership can transform a property’s online presence and drive meaningful bookings. However, not all collaborations yield equal results, and the difference often lies in the approach.
The relationship between hotels and influencers has matured significantly over the past few years. What began as simple exchanges—a free night in exchange for a social media post—has developed into sophisticated partnerships with clear objectives, metrics, and creative direction.
When I started, I was thrilled just to receive a complimentary stay in exchange for posts. But as my niche and audience grew, so did my value, approach, and expectations, reflects Ravi Roth of @raviroundtheworld, a prominent travel influencer focusing on luxury and LGBTQ+ perspectives. This evolution mirrors the broader influencer marketing landscape, where both sides now seek deeper and more authentic collaborations.
For hotel marketing teams, understanding this shift is crucial for best results. Today’s successful partnerships require more than transactional thinking—they demand strategic alignment, creative collaboration, and mutual respect.
Identifying the Right Partners: Quality Over Quantity
A common mistake many hotels make is fixating on follower counts rather than engagement quality. Large numbers might seem impressive, but they mean little if an influencer’s audience isn’t actively interested in travel experiences or doesn’t match your target demographic.
Ravi Roth emphasizes this point: When evaluating hotel partnership opportunities, I focus on three key elements. First, I look for clarity in what they’re asking for and how it aligns with my expertise. Second, I assess brand alignment—whether their aesthetic, values, and mission resonate with mine. Finally, I consider the mutual benefit: Will this collaboration elevate both my brand and theirs?
Lauren, who brings a unique dual perspective as both an influencer (@eats.and.the.city) and the founder of etc. PR, managing marketing for four Long Island hotels, takes a data-driven approach to partnerships. With one specific hotel I work with, which often handles wedding room blocks, we partner with local mommy and lifestyle influencers whose audiences match the hotel’s target market, she explains. Her agency leverages AI tools to develop detailed customer personas and identify appropriate talent for each property, ensuring influencer audiences align with potential guests.
This strategic alignment is essential—partnering with an influencer whose audience doesn’t match your ideal guest profile wastes resources and dilutes your brand message.
Once you’ve identified potential partners, how you approach them can make or break a collaboration before it begins. Many hotels falter at this crucial stage with generic, one-size-fits-all pitches.
One of the biggest mistakes hotels make is not doing enough research, Roth points out. I focus on luxury and boutique hotels with an LGBTQ+ perspective. If a hotel reaches out from a destination where it’s illegal to be LGBTQ+, how can I authentically promote that?
A successful outreach should demonstrate that you understand the influencer’s content style, audience, and values. Reference specific posts you’ve enjoyed, explain why their perspective would resonate with your property’s story, and be clear about what you’re offering and what you hope to achieve with your campaign.
The days of expecting quality content in exchange for a free night is no longer the exclusive compensation structure, at least when working with established creators. Understanding how to structure fair compensation is essential for productive partnerships.
Regarding compensation, Roth is clear: Content creation is my full-time job, so monetary compensation is essential. A complimentary stay might sound appealing, but it’s still a huge amount of work and doesn’t pay the bills.” He notes that many of his hotel collaborations happen through tourism boards with built-in budgets, but when working directly with hotels, he prefers “long-term, evergreen partnerships where we align on goals, target audience, and creative strategy.
However, compensation models vary depending on the market, influencer tier, and partnership scope. Lauren offers a different perspective from her experience with regional properties: While many Long Island influencers expect payment, we have also found success with complimentary stays and experiences, she explains. She emphasizes the importance of tracking influencer impact, typically implementing discount codes that allow hotels to monitor link clicks even when direct bookings aren’t made.
For smaller properties with limited budgets, Roth suggests: First, define what you’re trying to promote and the value you want from a partnership. If your budget is tight, focus on micro-influencers with high engagement rather than large influencers with passive audiences. He recommends enhancing offers with non-monetary perks like spa treatments, dining experiences, or extended stays to make collaborations more appealing without increasing direct costs.
Designing Memorable Experiences
The most successful influencer partnerships transcend standard hotel stays to create memorable, content-worthy experiences. This approach benefits both parties—influencers get unique stories to share, while hotels showcase their best offerings through an authentic lens.
Lauren prefers offering comprehensive experiences that include accommodations, dining, and spa services, though she notes they always request influencers to leave appropriate gratuity. This holistic approach provides influencers with diverse content opportunities and experiences while highlighting multiple revenue streams for the property.
Citing CitizenM’s Pride campaign as an exemplary partnership, Roth shares, Instead of a one-off collaboration, they approached it as a long-term partnership. They wanted me to host a Pride event on their rooftop, arranged a pre-event staycation in NYC so I could fully experience the property, and invited me to be a storyteller at their Seattle location. This evergreen approach was a game-changer, leading to high engagement, shares, saves, and new followers for both of us.
When designing influencer experiences, consider:
- What makes your property unique?
- Which experiences and amenities align with the influencer’s content style?
- How can you facilitate authentic moments rather than staged photo ops?
- What seasonal or limited-time offerings could add value?
Prioritizing Authenticity
Perhaps no factor is more crucial to successful influencer marketing than authenticity. Today’s social media audiences are sophisticated—they can quickly identify forced endorsements and stock phrases.
Authenticity is everything! Roth emphasizes. If I can’t show up as my full, unfiltered self, the partnership won’t work. My content thrives on big energy, zest for life, comedy, and luxury vibes. If a partnership doesn’t allow me to integrate these elements naturally, the content won’t resonate with my audience.
Lauren echoes this sentiment from her dual perspective: As an influencer, it’s important to be reasonable with requests, but values authenticity above all, noting that genuine engagement from private accounts often provides more value than comment pods or artificial interactions.
As a hotel, facilitating authenticity means giving influencers creative freedom within brand guidelines rather than dictating every aspect of content creation. The most compelling influencer content emerges when creators can interpret your property through their unique lens.
Measuring Partnership Success
Without clear metrics, it’s impossible to evaluate whether influencer partnerships are delivering return on investment. Both sides should agree on success metrics before collaboration begins.
For measuring success, Roth focuses on specific engagement indicators: On Instagram, saves and shares are the most telling metrics—saves mean people are planning to visit in the future, while shares indicate immediate excitement and word-of-mouth marketing, he explains. Another key strategy is collaborative posting. If a hotel is investing in ads, why not post together to maximize reach?
Lauren’s approach incorporates tracking mechanisms: We typically implement discount codes that allow hotels to monitor link clicks even when direct bookings aren’t made. This attribution helps hotels understand the customer journey from influencer content to eventual booking, even when the path isn’t linear.
When one respected influencer shares authentic content about a hotel, it often triggers interest from others in the community, Lauren observes. The real measure of success is when followers trust an influencer’s recommendations enough to engage organically and ultimately book their own experiences.
Building Long-Term Relationships
The most valuable influencer partnerships aren’t one-off collaborations but ongoing relationships that deepen over time. When an influencer repeatedly features your property, their audience develops familiarity and trust with your brand.
Looking ahead, Roth predicts the industry will continue evolving toward hotels prioritizing micro-influencers with deeply engaged audiences over mega-influencers with nonactive followers. At the end of the day, if an influencer and a hotel don’t create value together, it’s a missed opportunity for both.
From her experience managing hotel marketing, Lauren has seen how influencer relationships can mature: The real value often comes after the initial posts, when an influencer genuinely connects with a property and continues to mention it organically in future content.
Conclusion: A Strategic Approach to Influencer Partnerships
As we navigate the evolving landscape of hotel-influencer collaborations, it’s clear that the most successful partnerships transcend transactional exchanges to become strategic alliances. By identifying the right partners, crafting thoughtful proposals, structuring fair compensation, designing memorable experiences, prioritizing authenticity, measuring results, and building long-term relationships, hotels can transform influencer marketing from a checkbox activity to a cornerstone of their digital strategy.
The future belongs to hotels that view influencers not as mere promotional channels but as creative partners in storytelling and genuine brand building. By approaching these partnerships with intention and respect, hotels can harness the unique power of authentic, personal recommendations—still the most powerful form of marketing in our digital age.
Reprinted from the Hotel Business Review with permission from www.HotelExecutive.com.
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