Woman ‘humiliated’ by hotel owner’s rant

WHEN social media “influencer” Elle Darby asked a hotel owner for a free stay, she never expected the public humiliation that followed.

WE ALL love a good freebie, but this social media influencer picked the wrong hotel owner to try her luck with.

Elle Darby, who has more than 80,000 followers on YouTube, approached Dublin hotel owner Paul Stenson asking for a complimentary stay in return for some coverage on her YouTube and Instagram pages.

But Mr Stenson, owner of Dublin’s White Moose Café and Charleville Lodge, responded in a way she had never expected. Taking to his company’s Facebook page, he wrote a scathing response that quickly went viral.

“Thank you for your email looking for free accommodation in return for exposure,” he wrote. “It takes a lot of balls to send an email like that, if not much self-respect and dignity. If I let you stay here in return for a feature in your video, who is going to pay the staff who look after you? ... Lucky for us, we too have a significant social media following.”

While he didn’t directly identify the blogger in the Facebook post, there were some clues that led to people figuring out it was in fact Ms Darby. The shocked woman later came out in a 13-minute long YouTube rant complaining about the treatment she received from Mr Stenson, detailing her shock at being inundated with critical messages from strangers.

“I was embarrassed, I felt humiliated,” Darby, 22, said in the opening part of the video.

Mr Stenson has since apologised to all bloggers in a tongue-in-cheek post.

Clearly loving the attention, he followed up with a post banning all bloggers.

And finally, he thanked them for the publicity, writing: “I’d just like to say a huge thanks to all the bloggers for their hard work over the past two days. The publicity you’ve given us is absolutely priceless.”

Charleville Lodge in Dublin. Picture: Google Maps