There is no magic formula to approaching hotels and getting a ‘yes’ for a review stay. In case your nervous about your likely success, our existing team reviewed over 100 hotels in 2 years so we know getting those bookings does happen!
Most reviewers start with something along the lines of the following steps but refine it to suit their own style and experience over time.
Six simple steps for a new reviewer to get a free hotel stay
Write us a couple of reviews of nice places you have already stayed so you can say you are a writer for our site. These are pretty short and sweet, between 150 and 200 words plus 3 or 4 pictures. You can get the gist from the reviews already on the site, we love some personality to the reviews but there does need to be something pretty unique or luxurious about the places you feature. If you have any suitable content to provide us with a short (400 ish word) blog that would be fantastic; a piece to feature a region or experience you have been to lately from a unique perspective. We will then add you to the ‘team’ section of our site with a link back to yours. See the ‘travel guides’ section of the website for inspiration.
Refer to the sample emails which have a track record of winning agreement for a free or discounted stay. For every ten emails we send out we usually get a couple of offers.
In this email you can say you will write a review for our site and also reference it to your own audience through social media. Until our site has grown sufficiently it may add more weight if you can incorporate mention of the hotel into a post on your own site as well (here is an example of how we’ve done it http://www.loveplaywork.com/2012/11/you-dream-of-location-independence-but-where-does-your-partner-fit-in)
Once you are on your free/ discounted stay, ask for a tour of the hotel as this can help with the review and often lead to a complimentary drinks or even food in the restaurant! Do take lots of pictures of the room, lobby, exterior, bar, restaurant, pool etc to back up the review. We do use some library ones from the hotel but it’s also nice to have more personal angles. It does help if you have a decent camera as the quality does make a big difference to how the site looks.
Once the review is online mention it on your social media and include a link on your site. The more traffic/ likes etc we can build, the more credibility our site gets which means the more authority you have to not have to draw on your audience anymore for future reviews. If we can improve our stats next time you want a free hotel, you’ve also got even more clout as a ‘luxury and boutique hotel’ writer.
Repeat steps 1 to 5 so you can stay in another Luxury or Boutique hotel!
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