Influencers, Blue Ticks & Freebies – The Collaboration Conundrum

Ah, log cabin holidays in Wales. Rolling hills, peaceful valleys, and the sweet sound of sheep judging your life choices from a distance. It’s a slice of rural paradise — until you open Instagram DMs and the serenity is shattered by the unmistakable ping of yet another “collaboration request.”

You know the ones. A stranger with 942 followers (of which at least 900 are their mum’s burner accounts) slides in with a message that starts something like:

“Hi! I just ADORE your cabins. Would love to COLLABORATE with you!”

Translation: “Give me a free holiday and I’ll post a blurry sunset photo with an inspirational quote from Pinterest. You’re welcome.”

Now, don’t get us wrong. We LOVE seeing people enjoy our cabins. When guests share genuine moments of joy — toasting marshmallows, chasing their husbands through the woods, or just sitting in the hot tub pretending they’re in a shampoo advert — it makes us ridiculously happy. If you’re on holiday, loving it, and you fancy sharing that with the world? Amazing. We’ll probably even repost it and cry a little with joy.

But that doesn’t mean we can start dishing out free stays to everyone who knows how to use a Valencia filter.

Especially not to the folks who proudly display their little blue tick as if it’s a golden ticket to the Wonka factory of free stuff. Whether you paid for it or got it because you were once on local radio talking about your cousin’s hedgehog rescue, it doesn’t change the basic reality: our log cabins are not an all-expenses-paid gift shop for the vaguely recognisable.

Remember fame is relative. If we have to Google your name and still can’t figure out what you’re famous for, then maybe — just maybe — you’re not quite at the “free holiday” level of stardom.

Also: if we have more followers than you… why are we the ones meant to be grateful for this “exposure ” that you can provide us?

It’s not that we’re being stingy (okay, maybe a little stingy — but in a charming, rustic, rural way). It’s just that we’re a small business. We’re trying to keep the lights on, the hot tubs bubbling, and the sheep moderately amused. Running log cabins in Mid Wales isn’t exactly a fast track to yacht ownership. Every booking you're asking us to give away “for exposure” is a booking we don’t get to sell to someone who’s been saving up for a proper break from life, the kids, or the general horror of existing in 2025.

So here’s the thing:

If you genuinely love our cabins, book one. Come, stay, enjoy, post all you like — we'd love that. We’ll clap like over-caffeinated seals if you tag us. If you’re a photographer, or your cat is famous, or you just want to work with us in a way that’s, you know, mutually beneficial and not just code for “freebie please,” then great — let’s talk. (plumbers & painters give me us shout! - we could work with you!)

But if your idea of “collaborating” involves us doing all the work, and you doing a pouty selfie in front of a log burner followed by a “discount code” that no one uses — maybe, just maybe, it’s time to rethink the pitch.

Until then, we’ll be in the here, doing what we do best — making magical holidays for people who actually book them.

Yours moanily,

The Log Cabin Team

(Still unverified, but emotionally stable)