A hotel owner in Dublin publicly mocked a beauty vlogger for emailing the hotel
asking to stay for free in exchange for a shout-out in one of her videos. Now the
vloggers firing back saying she was embarrassed and humiliated. Welcome back
to What's Trending, I'm Martini Beerman. Make sure to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE for more.
Paul Stenson is the owner of The White Moose Cafe and Lodge in Dublin.
Stenson received a request from a beauty vlogger to stay in his hotel in exchange
for promotional blogs and Instagram updates. What do you do when somebody
approaches you with a business request? Well, in Stenson's case, you post a
scathing response on Facebook ,which has now gone viral. "If I let you stay here in
return for a feature in your video, who's gonna pay the staff who look after you?
Maybe I should tell my staff they'll be featured in your video in lieu of
receiving payment for work carried out while you're in residence?" Although he
didn't actually name the vlogger, the influencer in question outed herself in
a video she posted. Elle Darby made a 17-minute video complaining about how
she felt Stenson had really treated her rudely. She called him a dream stealer
and said that he was unprofessional and malicious. "This is something that is
like an everyday occurrence if you work as a social-media influencer, and I think
that's disgusting." After the video went up online, the
online community rallied behind Elle and gave her lots of support.
Emily said: "The blogging community is a force to be reckoned with, if you pick on
one of us you pick on all of us. Elle Darby I didn't know who you were and
what you did before but I sure do now, and we're all with you." Grace F Victory
tweeted: "Just a heads up. I or my team are constantly pitching to brands for
campaigns, collaborations and other forms of work. That's how shit gets done and
that's how people get to learn about you. If someone laughs at you for doing that,
they really ain't about this blogging life." Gigi Kiersten wrote: "It takes a lot
of bravery to stay strong when you're being cyberbullied for something as
simple as a pitch to a business. Elle Darby has my respect for standing tall
in the face of such f*ckery. My hats off to you my dear and keep your chin up!" At
this point I give each of them one valid point. Elle's valid point is of course
she's promoting her brand and her business and that's kind of what
influencers do. They try and get something in exchange for using the
platform that they have to get other people to know about what it is that
they're trying to advertise. And on his side I understand he can't
really pay his staff in views. And maybe he's not even part of the online
community and this is completely foreign to him. In that case he is living under a
rock. After the initial outrage from all of
her fans, Stenson then got really aggressive and posted a nasty mocking
response on Facebook. He wrote: OFFICIAL APOLOGY TO BLOGGERS. Following the
incident today in which one of your members was clearly hurt and distressed
about having to pay for something like everyone else, I'd like to make a
statement. I'm kicking myself that I didn't think about you before now. If
each one of you is pissed off, there's a fair chance that you'll all speak badly
to your followers about us which will result in a huge number of people
hearing about our brand collectively. Thank you for all of your hard work and
don't forget to continue to spread the word about our business."
Turns out Stenson might actually know a couple things about the Internet because
a day later he posted a new thing. ALL BLOGGERS BANNED FROM OUR BUSINESS. The
sense of entitlement is just too strong in the blogging community and the
nastiness, hissy fits, and general hate displayed after one of your members was
not granted her request for a freebie is giving your whole industry a bad name . The
girl in question was never identified in my original post but she herself went on
to create a video explaining how she was "exposed" with malicious intent for asking
for a freebie. This kind of victimization is very
prevalent in the blogging industry and isn't keeping with their general MO of
wanting everything for nothing." Jeez! Making some decent points just in a
really crummy way. And this is not the first time that Paul Stenson and The
White Moose Cafe have mocked social media influencers. Last October he posted
a short video satirizing a fictional vlogger. No, sorry. I have 100,000
followers. They don't... No. No. Listen, pal. Nobody's gonna know who...
when I'm finished with you. He's posting videos so something
to me says he might be a little salty about not being a social-media
influencer himself. And while it's true that some of Elle's fans have been
attacking the business with negative reviews, for the most part the responses
have been more in favor of Stenson's witty insults. One commenter wrote: "I love
a business or establishment that is strong enough to stand by their morals
and values and do the right thing even if the right thing is not the popular
thing to do. Looking forward to giving them my business." Another reviewer said:
"Here's an empty five-star review to balance out the empty one-star reviews.
So sad that people who have never visited a place give one-star reviews
just because someone's feelings got hurt because a ridiculous, rude, arrogant,
request wasn't granted." "Thank you for pointing out to these overindulged
"influencers" how the real world works. If I'm ever fortunate enough to come visit
Dublin, I'm staying at your hotel! You deserve praise, not backlash for
explaining why you don't provide rooms and services for free to someone who's
apparently not smart enough to figure it out themselves." Which begs the question
was she demanding it or was she saying hey buddy I have lots of people on my
platform gonna be coming through Dublin and maybe you want some advertising in
exchange for you know just putting me up for a night? Either way isn't it kind of
weird how we fight today? It's like all out there on social media and I feel
like for myself I'm kind of watching a tennis match and like Stenson, Elle, Stenson,
Elle. Who do you go with at the end? I mean, maybe it's just a wash and they both
benefit from the PR that we're giving them in this very moment. So what do you
think? Was the hotel too mean in their response? Or was Elle out-of-bounds in her
request? Let us know in the COMMENTS, 'cause you guys always do and we appreciate it.
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