Another influencer, another horror story about asking for free shit and things going awry.
One such incident earned the scorn of the internet after motoring columnist Botchi Santos, who also works as a marketing consultant for Escala Tagaytay, a four-star hotel in the tourist destination south of Manila, exposed an influencer’s attempt to ask for freebies before complaining that the hotel did not reply immediately — aka “seen-zoning” them.
In the screenshot, which Santos posted on his Facebook page, the unnamed influencer mentioned they were headed to the Philippines between February and March, and flaunted their follower count of over 100,000.
In exchange for a one-night stay, the influencer proposed featuring the hotel in an Instagram story, reel, and post.
When the hotel did not respond to their message immediately, the influencer followed up with a curt, “Thanks Escala for the seen zone.”
“Dear influencer with 100k+ followers, we apologize for the seen zone,” Santos wrote online.
“Unfortunately, before we could come up with an appropriate response, (with the approval of the right person / manager who is different from the person manning our social media channels) you brushed us off really quickly. We are sorry if our timeliness does not meet your expectations. We did give you the option to call us with our working schedule and contact details if you felt it to be very urgent and could not wait,” he added.
Santos also pointed out the fact that the influencer messaged on a weekend — and on a Sunday, no less.
“There is also the small matter of you messaging on a Sunday midnight. The people who decide on such requests have other obligations (READ: live their own private personal lives) as well on weekends,” he wrote.
“This is ridiculous! Any person with a decent social media following should easily just be able to pay for something, write it off on their taxes and then hope for an upgrade at check in. This is pitiful. Be glad it turned out this way because this ‘collaboration’ would have been a terrible experience and not worth it,” one commenter said.
“An influencer with 100k+ followers yet can’t afford to pay for a 1 NIGHT stay. Then they have the audacity to complain when they don’t get a reply immediately. Damn how entitled must they be?” another wrote.
Others even scoffed at the influencer bragging about their follower count.
“Tell them they are welcome and that’s the most effort they deserve from you guys. A seen zone,” one said.
“100k followers? That’s nothing, these days,” another remarked.
