On a Lighter Note

Sometimes you see a story that amuses. Maybe it shouldn’t, but this one does, nonetheless.

A popular YouTube vlogger has become embroiled in a row with a hotel owner after asking for a free stay in exchange for promotion on social media.

Elle Darby, 22, of Bath, Somerset, wrote to Paul Stenson, the owner of the White Moose Café and Charleville Lodge Hotel in Dublin.

She asked about a ‘possible collaboration’ involving free accommodation for her and her partner, who were planning to visit for an early Valentine’s Day weekend.

‘I would love to feature you in my Youtube videos/dedicated Instagram stories/posts to bring traffic to your hotel and recommend others to book up in return for free accommodation,’ she wrote.

But her note was greeted with disdain by Mr Stenson, who not only poured scorn on the request but also posted the exchange online – and has now banned bloggers from his hotel. 

Oh, my… My own experience of this has been the opposite; whereby organisations are seeking to use me for free exposure, but nice try. After all, those involved in promotional efforts such as critics will usually be accommodated for free. It’s how the promotion system works. It’s not the approach that was the problem here – rather the clumsy method. Apparently, Ms Darby was upset by the response and felt that she was being bullied.

All I will say here is that the approach was indeed crass; amateurish even, and I would have refused as well. I doubt I’d have gone as far as Mr Stenson. Either I would have ignored the approach as I do with attempts to get free exposure here, or I would have replied with a one-liner.

I do find myself wondering how he intends to ban bloggers though. I mean, do we have “blogger” tattooed on our foreheads?

In the video, she claimed people over the age of 30 ‘had no idea how social media works these days’ and revealed she had received hundreds of messages of abuse.

Oh, I dunno. I would suggest that she has just been exposed to evidence that older people understand how to use it with devastating effectiveness.

13 Comments

  1. she claimed people over the age of 30
    Yet the vast majority of the bloggers I consider worth reading are older, often quite a lot older, than me and I turn 50 this year. At age 22 Miss Freeloader can probably only write about hotel visits, she hasn’t had enough life experience to be interesting nor her opinion valid.

    • but , but -she has youf . she is a woman.
      How can he refuse her offer of social aid from a brave, insightful, dynamic owner of a blog

  2. She tried to blag a freebie then got all victim when he told her to politely get lost? So then all ‘Men over 30’ are bad? Who is the ‘bully’ here?

    PS ‘Older’ people invented the technology snowflakes like her are abusing.

    • Word! I wonder if she knows that even Mark Zuckerberg is 33; Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee was born in the 50s and Steve Jobs is so old he’s dead already?

      • No, the awareness is not strong with that one.

        Although I don’t think she understands much about ‘Social Media’ either. You have to be ‘interesting’ I believe. To whom or what I have no idea. Probably stalkers.

  3. Lol – the word ‘snowflake’ was invented for her. She doesn’t look like someone who’ll be capable of influencing anyone – let’s hope not. Loved the response especially the PS.

  4. …to bring traffic to your hotel and recommend others to book up in return for free accommodation,

    Therein lies the problem. She’s admitted she is dishonest and will lie if paid (in-kind here). Hotelier correctly declined.

    Elle Darby has now globally outed herself as a shill & liar. Well done DM for further exposing the charlatan.

    SM? She deserves some old school S as clearly an M.

  5. “…people over the age of 30 ‘had no idea how social media works these days’…”

    So Logan’s Run appears to be prescient – at least in the mindset (if you can call it that) of the entitled yoof.

    Still, anything that brings back the young Jenny Agutter in a mini-toga can’t be all bad (not sure if I’m allowed to write that in view of the current McCarthyist hysteria regarding sexual harassment).

    Ted7 (Trainee Sandman)

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