- I have an awesome video for you today.
It's all about how you can get free hotels,
by shooting awesome content for them.
(upbeat music)
If you're new to this channel,
my name is Jeven Dovey.
I do a lot of awesome filmmaking tutorials
to teach you guys how to make better footage,
and get paid doing it.
So this is something I've been doing for awhile now,
even when I didn't have any sort of following
on any of my social media accounts.
And that's one thing that I wanna get out of the way
at the beginning.
You don't have to have a massive social media following
to be able to make this work.
What you're doing, is basically trading your services
for a free stay at a hotel.
And a lot of times, it works out in your favor
because you'll get some high-end rooms,
you'll get some really cool perks,
and you get a chance to stay places that
you wouldn't normally get to stay,
because they're so expensive.
There's a few places that we've been,
where the rooms have been like over $1,000 a night.
I would never pay for a room like that,
but we easily got it by just exchanging services.
So, what it is, it's not just social media posts.
Everyone is trying to use their influence
to get free hotels.
This is something a little different.
If you have social media accounts,
and you have some followers,
that's always gonna help,
no matter what you do
when you're creating content for someone.
However, what I'm talking about is using your camera
to create content for the hotel, in exchange for a stay.
So how you approach this, is you basically write a hotel,
and you say, I would love to come stay at your hotel.
I'm gonna be there for x amount of nights.
I wanna be there on these dates.
And what you offer them, is in exchange,
you'll create social media content for them,
or a promo for them,
or something that they can use to now market.
And that's the key.
You're giving them something that they can use to market.
So, recently, I went to Colorado.
I was in Boulder, and we wanted to stay downtown
at the Hotel Boulderado.
It's a old classic hotel,
it's got a really cool look to it,
and it's right in the heart and center of Boulder.
I highly suggest if you go to Boulder,
you check out Hotel Boulderado,
'cause it's an awesome, unique hotel,
that's been there for like over a hundred years,
or something like that.
Nuts, it's been there forever.
When we approached Hotel Boulderado, what we said,
is that we want to produce
some social media content for them that they can go and use.
So what I did is, one of my days while we were there,
we stayed there a few nights.
We did what we wanted to do in Boulder.
We did some hiking, we did some exploring,
like it was a nice little vacay.
One of the days, we met up with the social media manager,
who was at the hotel,
and we had a conversation about what they were looking for.
So they wanted some photos of the space downstairs,
they wanted some footage of it
that looked good while it was empty.
And they just wanted some general,
like just something that looked good
that we could publish on our social media,
but then they could also publish.
So what I did is, I ran around with my Gimbal,
and I shot awesome footage of the hotel.
And I got some information from the social media manager,
and what I did, is cut a little video together,
that gives a little history behind Hotel Boulderado,
and shows the hotel,
something that they could use for their Instagram stories,
or their IGTV.
Something I could use for mine.
And I also just gave them
all the raw footage and the photos,
so that they could use it
for whatever they wanted to use it for.
And it's super easy.
I shot a lot in slow-motion.
I shot a lot on a Gimbal,
and I just tried to get the sense
of what this hotel's all about.
That's one way to do it.
Another way, is to create a simple little storyline,
and then use that as your guiding force
when you're producing a video for, say, a hotel.
So for example, when we were in Thailand,
I did this for another hotel,
where the storyline was basically someone arriving,
getting checked-in, and then going to their room.
Super simple.
Not a crazy storyline, but had some sort of trajectory
that showed the hotel, in the process.
And what I did, is I shot the whole thing, using Rachel.
She came into the hotel.
I did a few different set-up shots,
her going to the room.
And then, in the process, I also shot the hotel
and different things that were important,
that the social media manager needed
to use on their social media.
I flew the drone around and got some awesome shots.
One of the other things that happens
when you do this for hotels,
is that you end up getting different perks.
They might give you a dinner,
they might give you an excursion,
because they want you to film more,
so they have something to use on their social media,
or their marketing.
(upbeat music)
So guys, it's definitely something that you could be doing.
You could be reaching out to hotels when you're traveling,
and getting free stays,
if you use your skills as a filmmaker and creator,
to give them something in exchange.
So I highly suggest,
if this is something you're interested in,
is when you're planning a trip,
reach out to hotels,
show them what you can provide for them.
I mean, because you might be able
to get some awesome free stays out of it.
And one more tip.
If you really want to dive-in
to creating awesome videos for hotels,
I would highly suggest going
and checking out Vacation Couple.
They're a couple that I've been following for a long time.
They create really awesome videos around hotels,
and that's kind of their whole thing.
So if you check out their YouTube channel,
you can get some inspiration on how to shoot a hotel.
They use a lotta different tactics,
and they do some really cool stuff.
And guys, if you wanna know more tips and tricks
on how to shoot a hotel,
or how to shoot just cinematic footage, in general,
I've got a ton of videos on this channel.
Click up here for any of my cinematic videos.
Those are great ideas on ways to shoot hotels.
If you're new here, make sure you hit that subscribe button.
There's a lot of awesome filmmaking tutorials
and camera reviews, on this channel,
that you're not gonna wanna miss.
All right guys, that's it.
And I will see you, on the next one.