Luxury Travel Site Charges Shocking “Influencer Tax”

July 09 20:18 2019

With more and more people claiming to be “Influencers”, the market has become incredibly saturated and businesses are becoming fed up with being asked for freebies. The latest of these businesses is Paltino.com which has issued a notice on their website’s “Contact Us” page telling influencers they will be charged an additional 20% Influencer Tax if they ask for special rates or free trips.

This tax on luxury travel is “Effective immediately” and will be pinned onto the final vacation price of people who ask for “influencer rates, or a free vacation”. Paltino justifies the raised price this tax gives as a way for the company to make up for influencers’ “in consideration of [their] time and [their] having to filter through spammy influencer emails everyday”.

The company gives specific examples of their determined responses, telling influencers that if they say “Hi I have 20k followers on Instagram, if you send me to a luxury resort for free I will take a photo and give you free exposure…” they are going to receive the unexpected response of “No thank you. However, if you’d like to book anything in the future, we will be adding a 20% influencer tax”. 

The company informs influencers that they “really don’t care about how many followers [they] have” – something that a lot of businesses have been talking about lately. In addition to their apparent lack of interest in any influencer’s follower count, they take it a step further by noting that “it’s kind of embarrassing that you have to tell us”. Many people have said that using follower count as validation of advertisement power is not very substantial evidence of potential added business power because the count alone says nothing about who their followers are, if they are engaged in the content, or if they are willing to buy an advertised product. 

With a bit of tongue and cheek, Paltino.com compares asking them for a free vacation to asking for a free diamond ring. They say, “Asking for us to send you on a free $15,000 luxury vacation for a photo would be like walking into Tiffany’s and asking for a free diamond ring in exchange for showing it off to your friends”. While asking for a free engagement ring would seem obviously bizarre, it is not far off from what influencers are asking companies like these. The conclusion is also not far different in the two scenarios, to which they say it is “Not worth it”. In addition, the company justifies that because they “have a business to run and bills to pay, all customers here must pay for their trips”. This is perhaps a sad day for influencers and aspiring influencers who hoped they could continue to cash in on many freebies on a naive business owner’s dime. 

Just a few years ago, influencers and celebrities were quite effected in selling certain vacation packages. However, due to social media bots, and the ease of buying likes and followers, this is no longer the case. Businesses complain that “today everyone is an influencer”, and with an oversaturated market, their effectiveness is essentially nonexistent. 

This influencer tax comes at a time when the tide seems to be turning against influencers demanding free things. Earlier this week an ice cream truck vowed to charge influencers double for asking for free cones. While some claim influencer marketing is on the cutting edge perhaps this is just the beginning of its end.

For more information, visit: https://www.Paltino.com

Media Contact
Company Name: Paltino
Contact Person: Jaeden Schafer
Email: Send Email
Phone: 4802785850
Address:55-550 Naniloa Loop
City: Laie
State: HI 96762
Country: United States
Website: https://www.Paltino.com