Travel is back. And so are the influencers

Love them or loathe them, as the travel world re-opens, influencers are back on the move.

That's welcome news for some hotels like the Langham on New York's Fifth Avenue.

"Ninety percent of the people we work with are amazing, they are very diligent, this is their business and they do it well," says Louise O'Brien, regional director of public relations for the Americas at the Langham Hospitality Group.

"They know how to monetize their skill, which is photography and content creation," she says, adding that they often "bring a keen eye to your hotel and showcase to you something that you didn't think to do, which shows your hotel in a really interesting light."

O'Brien says the Covid-19 pandemic led the hotel to be more proactive than reactive in reaching out to influencers they know in the industry for staycation-related content and says that dedicated approach is here to stay.

But not all hotels share O'Brien's enthusiasm.

"I call them influenzas," says Gail Behr, owner of Dorp hotel in Cape Town. She says she gets contacted five to six times a week by people who are the antithesis of what the hotel stands for.

"Posing, wearing hardly anything in a hotel room does nothing for us, it's not the clientele we're after," she explains.

A quick glance at the hotel's website is enough to see why. Showcasing carefully curated interiors, with warm and inviting spaces, it even describes itself as a bit quirky and old-fashioned.

"Everything online is over-promised, presented as being glamorous or wonderful," Behr says, contrasting that with how she spends her days looking to capture some of the real magic taking place in her hotel, like the staff spontaneously singing happy birthday or discovering chameleons playing in the garden.

"If someone wrote to me and said look 'I'm overweight, I can't look glamorous in your hotel, I wear black because I feel more comfortable in it, I've got a few missing chunks of hair but I'm bloody funny and am just obsessed with Dorp and would love to come,' I'd say yes come -- someone with a sense of humor who was real and genuine," she adds, bemoaning the fact that even the word "authenticity" has become a fake buzz word.

Richard Hanlon, owner of the majestic Bujera Fort in Udaipur, India, shares a similar view.

"The problem with influencers is there is no quality control," he says, suggesting, "someone needs to set up a TripAdvisor that rates them."

He describes how he regularly receives outlandish requests -- demanding five rooms for three nights with free airport transfers and free alcohol -- and says the people aren't even the kind of clientele the hotel caters for.

"Most people who contact us are 18-year-old girls clearly on their gap years trying to score a freebie," he says. "When you look them up on Instagram, it's clear they've bought their followers and their advertising is paid for."

'Don't be in it for the free stays'

However, both Hanlon and Behr are quick to say that they do appreciate and will always agree to genuine professional journalists or publications coming to stay and have had great success with those kinds of partnerships.

Hanlon cites a recent piece in House & Garden magazine as an example, explaining that not only were the journalists "deeply professional" but that the hotel was getting bookings just hours after the magazine was published.

"Those publications aren't looking for freebies, in fact some of the most helpful coverage we've had is from paying customers who we only find out are 'influencers' half-way during their stay," he says.

"The first thing I say to people who want to be influencers is don't be in it for the free stays -- if you're in it for the free stays you're not there to provide value."

Wright, who started out back in 2014, says the blatant freeloaders give the real influencers a bad name and says people underestimate the value people like her provide.

"When we're on property we're out photographing from sunrise to sunset nonstop. I see it as my job to capture a destination, to inspire on social media and to inform on the website and blog," she says, comparing the process to a nuanced sales journey to guide people through the different platforms they go to before booking their own travel.

She cites a TikTok video she made in September 2020 for the Geneseo Inn hotel in Paso Robles as an example. The video went viral, amassing 1.7 million views, 190.6k likes, and 1,107 comments.

Wright says the hotel's phone was ringing for weeks, providing a clear return on their investment in her.

Partnering with social media influencers is nothing new for brands. The Marriott group was one of the first to embrace the idea back in 2015 when they signed an exclusive deal with Jackson Harries from JacksGap, a YouTube channel with over four million subscribers, that saw Jack create short videos focusing on Marriott destinations.

The brand built on that success in subsequent years with other influencers on their Snapchat platform and even launched a TikTok contest earlier this year to find three people to complete a "30 Stays, 300 Days" tour of their international properties. Other hotel chains, like the Ace hotel, get so many requests from influencers that they've streamlined the process with specific online "influencer media stay request" forms.

A growing industry

But as travel opens up again post-pandemic, research from the influencer marketing hub shows these types of partnerships represent a big business that's about to get even bigger. They predict the industry is on course to grow to approximately $16.4 billion just this year alone, with more than 75% of brand marketers dedicating a specific budget towards influencer related services.

That's created a space in the market for a different kind of business to thrive -- consultancy businesses like Sidewalker Daily or Travel Mindset that straddle the world of both influencers and the brand/marketing industry.

Nina Zadeh, co-founder of Sidewalker Daily, says there is a big gap between the perception of what influencers -- or content creators as they prefer to be called -- are thought to do, and the reality.

"People tend to classify influencers as these people who sit by the pool and just get to hang out at the Four Seasons all day, but the travel influencer space is actually really, really exhausting," she says.

She describes the hard work that goes into the early morning shoots "to get the perfect sunrise shot over in the mountain where you can just see the volcano in the background" and the long press trips where creators need to constantly be present.

"You're there at work, you're there to set a certain number of deliverables for your client," she adds.