Why Hotel Influencer Marketing Feels 'Dreadful' (And How to Fix It)

A few weeks ago, I was on a call with a hotel marketing manager. When I asked how influencer marketing was going for her property, she didn't hesitate:

"Dreadful."

Not "challenging" or "time-consuming." Dreadful.

She wasn't talking about the results, she was talking about the process. The endless back-and-forth with creators about dates. The vetting. The coordination. The follow-ups. Managing influencer partnerships for one hotel was eating up hours of her week.

And then she said something that I actually hear pretty often: "I can't imagine doing this for multiple properties. That would be insane."

She's right. And that's exactly what agencies and hotel management companies are dealing with.

The Agency Dealing with Both Extremes

I talked to an agency managing influencer programs for several hotel clients. And here's what makes it exhausting: every client has a different problem.

Client A gets constant influencer pitches every single day. Her job? Sort through them.

Every request needs to be reviewed. Is this influencer legitimate? Does their audience match the hotel's target market? Is their content quality on-brand?

"Most of the time, they're not a fit," she told me. "But I still have to look at each one to know that."

The quick part is spotting the obvious nos, wrong niche, clearly fake followers, and misaligned content. The time sink is everything else. Even when someone looks promising, you still need to verify their audience location, check if their followers are real, and confirm their engagement is authentic. There are no "obvious yeses", just varying degrees of vetting required.

Client B has the opposite problem: they're not getting enough inbound requests, so the agency has to actively search for influencers on Instagram and TikTok.

The process:

1. Search hashtags and locations to find relevant travel and foodie influencers
2. Manually review their profiles (follower count, content quality, engagement)
3. Research their audience (who's actually following them?)
4. Reach out with a partnership proposal
5. Wait for a response

And here's where it breaks down: most of the time, it doesn't work out.

The influencer's availability doesn't align with the hotel's calendar, they're out of their budget, or they ghost entirely.

"We waste so much time searching, vetting, and reaching out to influencers who end up not being a fit," she said. "And then we start over."

So this one agency is:

• Sorting through constant pitches for one client
• Hunting down creators for another client
• Doing full manual vetting for both
• Manually coordinating every step of the process, reservations, deliverables, follow-ups for content, and tracking performance

That's the reality of managing influencer programs for multiple hotel clients, you're not solving one problem. You're solving different problems for every property.

The Pattern: Manual Processes Don't Scale

These conversations aren't unique. Whether you're an agency, a hotel management company managing influencer programs for multiple properties, or a hotel marketer managing just one, the common thread is this:

Manual processes for influencer marketing don't scale.

When you're managing influencer programs for multiple hotel clients, or even just one property doing it consistently, the time investment becomes overwhelming. Vetting influencers, coordinating logistics, tracking deliverables, compiling reports, it all adds up.

And if you multiply that across 5, 10, or 50 properties? It becomes unsustainable.

What Agencies and Hotel Marketers Actually Need

Based on these conversations, here's what would actually help:

For the agency sorting through constant pitches:

An inbound application model where influencers apply directly through a standardized process, rather than pitching via random DMs across different channels.

First-party data verification so you can vet influencer applications quickly, seeing audience demographics and authenticity in seconds, not through 20 minutes of manual research.

For the agency hunting down influencers:

A pre-vetted network of travel, lifestyle, and foodie influencers that hotels can connect with, rather than spending hours searching social media platforms, hoping to find the right fit.

Transparent availability and partnership terms upfront, so you're not wasting time reaching out to influencers who are booked, out of budget, or unresponsive.

For the hotel marketer calling it "dreadful":

Streamlined coordination that reduces the endless back-and-forth about dates, deliverables, and logistics.

A system that handles the administrative overhead so she can focus on strategy and content quality instead of chasing down details.

And we have built a system that offers all these processes.

The Bigger Question: Build or Buy ?

When you're managing influencer partnerships, whether for one property or multiple, you essentially have two options:

Manual Management (Build)

What you need to do:

• Searching for creators on social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok, etc.)
• Vetting creators through manual profile reviews
• Coordinating via email, DMs, and direct communication
• Tracking partnerships in spreadsheets or project management tools
• Compiling reports manually

Pros:

• No platform subscription costs
• Flexibility to customize everything

Cons:

• Time-intensive as volume increases
• Difficult to maintain consistent standards
• Reporting requires manual compilation
• Harder to provide real-time visibility to stakeholders

Platform-Based Management (Buy)

How it works:

• Using a dedicated platform for sourcing, vetting, workflow, and tracking
• Centralized creator network and application flow
• Automated data collection and reporting features

Pros:

• Faster and vetting with verified data
• Access to the same verified audience data across all properties (each property sets their own criteria)
• Easier stakeholder visibility
• Scales without proportional time increase

Cons:

• Platform subscription cost
• Learning curve for new system
• Less customization than building your own

There's no universal "right answer." It depends on your client load, team capacity, and growth plans.

But the agencies, hotel management companies, and hotel marketers we talk to are increasingly asking: "Is there a better way to do this?"

The answer is yes, but it requires rethinking the process, not just working harder within the current one.

What We're Building

We built Evolusen because we kept hearing these same stories.

The hotel marketer overwhelmed by coordination for one property.

The agency sorting through dozens of unqualified pitches every week.

The agency wasting hours searching for creators who end up being unavailable or unaffordable.

We're not trying to replace the strategic work agencies and hotel marketers do. We're trying to eliminate the administrative overhead that's eating up their time.

If you're managing influencer partnerships for hotel properties and resonating with these stories, we'd love to show you what we've built.

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