How To Get Free Hotel Stays As A Blogger...

Hey! Last blog post, I shared some blogging tips and included the fact that I have had two all-expenses paid hotel stays. A lovely blogger friend of mine commented asking if I could talk more about that and how I reached out to the hotels, so I thought today I would share all that info in a separate post. So, if you're wondering How To Get Free Hotel Stays As A Blogger, then this post is for you and contains my 7 top tips.How to get free hotel stays as a blogger.

1. KNOW. YOUR. WORTH.

This ultimately is the most important one, as it's how you sell yourself to the brand. Figure out what your blog's USP is, and how it is relevant to the hotel. For example, I am a child blogger whose audience is primarily fellow kids, and parents. So for a hotel that is really focussed on being family-friendly, a blogger who can offer a different perspective to their usual reviewer (an adult), is really valuable. As one of few kid bloggers (I was 11/12 at the time of the stays), I knew that I was worth a lot to these hotels. Ensure you make your USP really clear in the pitch.

2. Research the hotel and their ethos.

This leads on from the first one a bit. There's no good pitching yourself to a hotel as 'the top vegan blogger' (for example), if they pride themselves on their steak restaurant. To find the hotels I wanted to pitch to, I Googled the 'the best UK family-friendly hotels' to ensure they were the right type of hotel.

3. Send emails to lots of the hotels you'd like to stay at.

This is important.... most brands will reject your pitch. So it's no good finding your one dream hotel and sending them an email, because they will most likely reject you. I have probably sent emails to over 20 hotels and have 'only' stayed in 2 of those. As a percentage it's pretty low, but it's still amazing that I got to stay in 2 with my family. That being said, keep each email unique and personal. People can tell if you've just copied and pasted an email and sent it to 100 people. Comment on little things you genuinely like about the hotel, so they know you actually care and have done your research.

4. Your blog alone is not necessarily that valuable.

At the time of these stays, I was writing for Tots100 each month (a huge parenting network) and HIYA Bucks (a county magazine that distributed thousands of copies each month). I made sure to include these in my pitch, and they will have definitely helped me. Unless you are a top blogger with tens of thousands of views per month, your blog may not be as valuable. However, I understand that for most of you reading, it won't be that easy to just get a place writing for a magazine. So, submit one-off articles to publications, and then include that in your pitch. That way you can say something along the lines of.. 'I have journalism experience at X publication, so I would submit my review of your hotel to them, to try and reach a larger audience.'

5. Find the right person to email.

Emailing the general enquiries section of a company is less likely to reach the correct person. Therefore spend a few minutes trying to find whoever handles the PR requests. If you go on to most hotel websites, you will find a section called 'Media', which should list the right email address.

6. Include links to other relevant posts

The hotel will want to see examples of your blog posts or other forms of journalism that will be similar to what you would do for them. I included previous travel posts and examples of my work in other publications. If you have done any similar review posts before, make sure to include it (if you are confident it's a good example of your work).

7. CHECK THE PITCH

Before you send it, check it! Any major hotel or company will be put off if you have basic grammar or spelling errors in your email, so make sure you check. If you're a younger child, like I was, maybe just ask a parent or older sibling to help you check.

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To summarise, identify the right person to email, identify your blog's USP and send them a clear email saying you would love to review their hotel.

SO, there you have it... my top tips on pitching to hotels for review stays. Of course, the most important thing is having an interesting blog that you are committed to! If you have any more questions regarding this post and would like more help with the emails, feel free to drop me an email at whatlexieloves@gmail.com or leave a comment down below.

Remember to check out my social medias:

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