If you’re a blogger, travel or not, chances are you’ve been wanting to pitch a hotel for a travel collaboration. Maybe you’ve planned a fun trip with your significant other or girlfriends and, wouldn’t it be nice to get a free stay? Not only that but being in a new place to provide new content to your followers is always a plus. That means you have to pitch your blog for a hotel collaboration. And yes, there’s a right and wrong way to do so.
How To Pitch Your Blog For A Hotel Collaboration
So what should you include in your pitch email to a hotel? There’s a lot of info you want to pack in, but the key is to make the email short and to the point. Marketing and PR departments for highly sought-after properties can be getting hundreds of emails a day, so make sure yours gets noticed. Here’s how to pitch your blog for a hotel collaboration and everything you should include in your next email.
Why Are You Emailing This Hotel?
Make the hotel feel special, and not like another property in your long list of pitch messages. Why do you specifically want to work with them? Why are you traveling to their area? What angle will you be covering that they can benefit from? A few ideas are to see if there are any new updates to the hotel, a recent renovation, or spa services. Another great way to start branching out is to work within your region and share that it’s an easy drive from your city for a weekend getaway. Having a great angle helps to really sell yourself more easily.
Who Are You?
This should include your name and your blog name. Don’t forget to include where you’re located and examples of your reach that you want to highlight. (Example: high Instagram numbers/engagement, monthly pageviews, etc.). Also, this is a great time to share anything unique about your blog. Do you share family content and want to highlight the family-friendly activities at this hotel? These are essential things to include.
What Do You Want From This Hotel?
Be careful what you say here. Don’t go “I want a free stay for me and my 12 best friends.” That makes you sound…entitled. Instead, ask if they work with influencers on complimentary media stays or press rates for bloggers. Hotels book up fast, especially during high season, so a completely free stay for an extended period of time might not be an option. Your email should include dates and expectations of rooms that you’re looking for at the bare minimum. If it’s just you for 2 nights, that’s much easier to book than 3 rooms of several people. Provide enough information so that the PR contact can check their occupancy when you send them an email. This will minimize the back and forth and allow them to get a firm answer for you more quickly. You can also include if you’re flexible on dates which will allow the hotel to find a stay within a timeframe that works best for them.
What Can You Offer Them?
Whether they offer you a complimentary stay or a reduced media rate, you need to make sure you share what you’re going to do to help promote their property. Will you be doing a blog post? A set amount of Instagram photos? A video for YouTube? Will you be able to provide them with the images you take? Be specific. Showing that this is mutually beneficial and worth their investment is ideal. Making a simple bulleted list is perfect too. Outlining everything, especially each platform and types of content, will be more appealing than just “I’d like to provide coverage for your property”.
Examples Of Previous Hotel Collaborations
Show them what you can do! If you’ve worked with hotels in another city in the past, send them the link(s) to your work. Include how much reach that post received (blog or on social media). This can give them a better idea of what they can expect from you. If you’ve created a travel hashtag for our blog, include a link to that as well. It’s a great way for them to quickly see the type of content you can create when you travel. Also, think outside the box of just your style posts. Hotels want their amenities and experiences highlighted.
If you don’t have any prior hotel posts on your site, it might be time to create some of your own. On your next trip with friends or family, create a travel guide that can reflect the type of work you’re able to produce. We all have to start somewhere and this is a great way to do just that.
Here’s an example of a pitch email to send to brands:
Hello (Insert Contact Name),
I’m heading to NYC for a quick visit (INSERT YOUR DATES) and am currently looking to secure a hotel partnership and instantly thought of your property. I understand that you recently rolled out a new fall menu with your new chef, I think this would be a great talking point with my readers. I’ll be sharing my visit on social media as well as a blog post about the hotel. In addition, I am open to doing an Instagram takeover if that’s something that may interest you.
You can see some of my past travel coverage with (INSERT YOUR FAVORITE TRAVEL POST OR INSTAGRAM TRAVEL HASHTAG). You can see in some of these posts the type of coverage (amenities, destination, experience, etc) that I can offer. I’m simply looking for a comped stay in exchange for the below guarantees.
- Two Instagram posts about the stay within one week
- One throwback photo on a Thursday within one month
- All Instagram posts tagging the hotel and geo-tag – pushed to FB & Twitter
- A Reel or TikTok of my stay
- Mention on the blog of the stay whether in a travel recap or outfit post from NYC – also open to doing a fully dedicated hotel post if that’s something that may help secure this partnership.
With a reach of over (INSERT YOUR TOTAL PAGEVIEWS) on the blog, and social media reach of over (INSERT YOUR TOTAL FOLLOWER COUNT), I think this would be a mutually beneficial partnership. I’d love to find a way to make this work for my upcoming stay as travel is always such a fun vertical to share with my audience.
Other Things To Remember:
- Don’t include your media kit. They’re not likely to open it.
- Keep the email short and sweet and professional. No emojis, smiley faces, or things like that.
- Address to a proper contact. Do your research on who is in their marketing department so you know who to email.
For more pitch templates, you can become a TBS member and check out our resources in The Library!
What To Do After A Travel Stay?
After any collaboration whether it’s paid or gifted, it’s important to follow up with your contact. Share any and all coverage you created across your platforms (including newsletter!) to show off how much they got out of it. This helps to build relationships with the PR agency or hotel for future stays.
