What Happens When Influencers Find Your Favorite Hotel?

A luxury hotel’s greatest asset is the one thing it increasingly struggles to advertise: privacy.

“There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” This week, Aman Hotels is quickly learning how true that proverbial saying really is. As Amanvari, its first resort in Mexico, opened earlier this month, the brand that prides itself on privacy and discretion has found itself the subject of an ongoing viral dispute with a YouTube hotel reviewer.

Ryan Walker arrived expecting to review the newly opened resort (which he had paid for himself) for his 150,000 followers; Aman said his reservation had been cancelled and that he was not authorized to film on the property. His account of the encounter, published under the rather incendiary title “Amanvari Called the Police on Me,” has quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of views. Aman, meanwhile, has disputed his version of events.

The details of who said what and when are beside the point. The episode exposes a tension luxury hotels are increasingly having to negotiate: how do you create enough visibility to remain desirable without sacrificing the discretion that makes a property appealing in the first place?

For hotels, social media has become one of the most powerful ways to generate desire. A private terrace glimpsed on Instagram, a suite tour on YouTube, or a Michelin-starred dinner served for a loyal audience of TikTok followers introduces a property before a plane ticket is even contemplated.

Annua Hotels, the brand behind several intimate retreats across the Balearics, such as Son Xotano and Gran Hotel Margalida in Mallorca, César Lanzarote, and Morvedra Nou and Amagatay in Menorca, says the effect can be tangible, with strong social coverage driving searches, website traffic, engagement, enquiries – and, ultimately, revenue – sometimes for months after the original post.

“Social media has completely expanded the way people discover hotels,” says Ana Rodrigo, Annua’s director of marketing and communications. For the group, she says, it has broadened the audience without fundamentally changing the type of guest it attracts.

There is little reason for hotels to turn their backs on that. The problem is what happens when visibility begins to intrude on the experience of being there. Guests who have paid a premium likely have little interest in becoming an accidental extra in somebody else’s content. No one wants to arrive at a secluded resort and feel like they’re walking around a set. 

Hotels are responding by drawing increasingly explicit lines around what can be filmed and shared. In the Dolomites, Aman Rosa Alpina requires prior written consent from its marketing team for any photography or videography on the property. The English private members’ club and hotel Estelle Manor goes further, prohibiting personal photography in its Manor House, restaurants, Clubhouse, baths, and pool, while commercial and professional content creation is ruled out altogether across the estate.

These policies are not necessarily anti-influencer, but an attempt to distinguish between a guest capturing their own stay and someone turning a luxury property into a production environment – and, crucially, to give the hotel some control over what happens to everyone else in the frame.

“We actually see visibility and exclusivity as complementary when they are managed carefully,” says Rodrigo. “We are very selective about the creators we work with and make sure they understand the character of each hotel before arriving. The best collaborations feel completely natural within the property and are respectful of the people around them.”

“Our priority is always the guest experience, so content creation is managed discreetly and with sensitivity to privacy,” she adds. “In practice, when you work with the right people and establish clear expectations from the beginning, it rarely becomes an issue.” 

In Rodrigo’s and Annua’s view, exclusivity does not necessarily require invisibility. A hotel can show the architecture, the landscape, the room, and the restaurant while keeping the experience itself – and the people experiencing it – largely out of view. “The aim is always to give people a glimpse into the world of the hotel without giving everything away,” she explains.

“We would rather have the right person tell a meaningful story about one of our hotels than pursue exposure for exposure’s sake,” says Rodrigo. “Social media is incredibly powerful when it creates curiosity while leaving something still to be discovered in person. That balance is what keeps a hotel desirable over time. Luxury is ultimately about how a place makes you feel, and that cannot be reduced to how frequently it appears on a screen.”

There is, without a doubt, a certain irony to this: the hospitality industry has helped create the very influencer culture that it is now trying to contain. They have invited creators in, offered complimentary stays, and actively encouraged them to document every photogenic corner of a property. So how far exactly, can they claw that back?

Ellys Woodhouse