Seba BlancoI help independent hotels sell more effectively and operate smarter by combining hotel technology with sales and marketing.
Do not index
Do not index
Most hotel influencer campaigns fail for the same reason: the hotel picked someone with a lot of followers and hoped for the best. No targeting, no strategy, no follow-through. The result? A pretty post, zero bookings, and a vague sense that "influencer marketing doesn't work."
It does work. But it requires the same rigor you'd apply to any other marketing channel. Here's how to do it properly.
Start With the Destination, Not Your Hotel
This is the most counterintuitive part of influencer strategy, and it's where most properties go wrong. Travelers don't dream about your hotel first — they dream about the destination. The beach, the mountain trail, the city neighborhood, the lake at dawn. Your hotel is how they experience it, not why they came.
So when you brief an influencer, lead with the destination. "We're on the edge of a glacial lake in Chilean Patagonia, three hours from the nearest traffic light" is a story. "We have 24 rooms and a jacuzzi" is not.
This framing does two things: it makes the influencer's content more compelling to their audience (people share experiences, not amenities), and it positions your property naturally within a context that already has emotional pull. You're not asking the creator to sell a hotel — you're inviting them to share an experience, with your property as the obvious home base.
Before you reach out to anyone, write one clear sentence about what makes your destination worth the trip. Then write one sentence about what makes your hotel the right way to experience it. That's your pitch.
How to Find the Right Influencers With Modash
Modash is an influencer discovery platform with a database of over 350 million public profiles across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. It lets you search by keyword, hashtag, follower count, engagement rate, and audience demographics — all in one place. There's a 14-day free trial that's more than enough to build a solid shortlist.
Here's how to use it for a hotel campaign:
Search by keyword and hashtag first. Use terms tied to your destination and travel type, not just generic hotel tags. For a property in Patagonia, try "Carretera Austral," "fly fishing Chile," "Patagonia road trip," or "adventure travel South America." The creators who appear consistently around these terms are the ones whose audience is already interested in where you are.
Filter by follower range. Resist the pull of big numbers. Micro-influencers — typically 10,000 to 80,000 followers — outperform larger accounts on engagement and trust. Their audiences are tighter, more loyal, and more likely to act on a recommendation. A 25,000-follower adventure travel creator who posts from remote locations is worth far more to a boutique lodge than a lifestyle influencer with 400,000 followers who posts everything.
Check the audience location filter. This is critical. An influencer might be based in Germany but have 60% of their audience in Brazil. That's only useful if Brazil is one of your key markets. Set your filters to match where your bookings actually come from — or where you want them to come from.
Discard anyone below 3% real engagement. Modash flags fake followers and shows engagement rates compared to similar accounts. Use this data. A 2% engagement rate on a 50,000-follower account is a red flag. A 6% rate on 12,000 followers is a green light.
Build Your Shortlist and Make Contact
Aim for a shortlist of 15 to 20 creators, from which you'll ultimately work with 5 to 8. The extra names exist because some won't respond, some will quote rates outside your budget, and some won't be the right fit once you look closer.
Before you reach out, spend five minutes on each creator's feed. Are they consistent in their niche, or do they post anything and everything? Do the comments look real — actual questions, personal responses, conversation? Does the content feel like something your ideal guest would share?
When you contact them, be direct. Tell them what you offer (a stay, meals, access), what you expect in return (posts, stories, a reel — be specific), and ask for their media kit and rates. Don't bury the ask. Creators appreciate clarity, and the good ones are running a business just like you are.
Some will offer an exchange — a complimentary stay in return for content — particularly if they're planning to be in the area anyway. Others will charge. Neither is inherently better; what matters is the fit and the output quality.
Prepare Your Team Before the Posts Go Live
Influencer content creates a short, sharp spike in interest. If your front desk doesn't know the campaign is live, if your booking engine is slow, or if your response time on DMs is measured in days, you'll lose most of that traffic to friction.
Before any creator posts, brief your team. Set up a clear path for inquiries coming in through social channels. If you're running a campaign-specific offer — a discount code, a package tied to the influencer's content — make sure everyone who might handle a booking knows about it and can find it in under 30 seconds.
The content is the spark. Your team is what converts interest into a confirmed reservation.
Influencer marketing works for independent hotels precisely because authenticity is a competitive advantage over chain properties. A creator who genuinely falls in love with your place and tells their audience about it will do more for your occupancy than any OTA campaign. But only if you put the right person in front of the right audience — and make sure you're ready when they show up.
Want to go deeper? Read our guide on how to build a direct booking strategy that keeps working after the campaign ends.
Written by
Seba Blanco
I help independent hotels sell more effectively and operate smarter by combining hotel technology with sales and marketing.