Irish Hotel Bans Vloggers After Elle Darby Backlash

The White Moose Café in Dublin has banned all bloggers from staying after an online altercation with a social media influencer.

Elle Darby, who runs a YouTube channel mostly focused on beauty and fitness, wrote to the hotel in Dublin asking for free accommodation in return for reviewing the hotel on her channel. She cited a similar collaboration she had made with the Universal Orlando Hotel in Florida last year.

Paul Stenson, the manager of the hotel, then posted an angry response on White Moose’s Facebook page. In the post, he included a screenshot of Elle’s original email. He stated that he himself has a blog and does not see that as a reason to receive handouts.

Although Paul attempted to hide Elle’s name and YouTube channel, social media users managed to identify her. Elle then received a large number of abusive comments online in reaction to her request.

Elle then made a video stating that she felt she had been unfairly treated by the hotel staff, who she called “malicious”, and by the people coming to her channel to abuse her. Elle claimed she had been exposed by the Facebook post. She also stated that she felt she hadn’t done anything wrong and that she had been humiliated publicly.

The White Moose Café then received a wave of abusive comments online from people who supported Elle. In response to this backlash, Paul made another post on the hotel’s Facebook page declaring “ALL BLOGGERS BANNED FROM OUR BUSINESS”. He called out the entitlement he saw in blogging culture and promised to “eject” any bloggers who set foot in the White Moose Café.

Dear Social Influencer (I know your name but apparently it’s not important to use names),Thank you for your email…

Posted by The White Moose Café on Tuesday, January 16, 2018

On Saturday, this post was followed by a picture of an invoice. Paul claimed he would be sending this to Elle for providing her with publicity due to all the articles that had been written about their exchange. The post claimed that over articles 100 articles had been seen by up to 450 million people.

The White Moose Café is a luxury hotel and café in Dublin which opened in July 2015. Its Facebook page already has a reputation for irreverence, as it claims to the “the only five Michelin Star restaurant on Earth” and that it was voted “the best Irish café in 2016, by our staff”.

Creators from the UK YouTube community, including Louis Cole, Evan Edinger, and Brogan Tate, have responded to the incident with messages of support for Elle:

@elledarby I saw an article about you, I don't know you but hope it puts your mind at ease that as a fellow 'influencer' my experience is that all the big hotel chains not only offer free stays but pay influencers to promote them. I hope this educates other people reading this.

— Louis Cole (@funforlouis) January 21, 2018

@elledarby Hope you're doing well! Sorry you got bombarded by neckbeards and people that don't understand marketing! You've literally done nothing wrong x

— Evan Edinger (@EvanEdinger) January 20, 2018

I felt terrible for her. She should not have had to go through with the backlash. She sent it in confidentiality too. *shakes head*

— Bubz (@bubzbeauty) January 19, 2018

@elledarby Just wanted to say that I found your channel yesterday and I’m now following you across social media too, your content is great and you handled everything so well. Keep your chin up, there are many of us standing with you. ❤️👏🌟 ps. Boycotting THAT hotel. Awful.

— Brogan Tate (@brogantatexo) January 17, 2018