Yesterday, owner of The White Moose Cafe and the Charleville Lodge Hotel took to Facebook to expose an influencer for asking for a freebie stay in his hotel.
Staff at the Charleville Lodge Hotel received an email from an unnamed person offering to mention the establishment on YouTube and Instagram in exchange for free accommodation this Valentine's Day.
The White Moose Cafe, who have previously taken the absolute piss out of vegans and the gluten free, then shared a screenshot of the blogger's request to their extensive following.
It has been widely speculated that the influencer in question is a UK-based blogger by the name of Elle Darby, who was absolutely roasted in the caption which accompanied the post, and in the comment section.
The influencer, who creates fashion and fitness content, has over 88,000 followers on her YouTube channel.
It was on this channel that the lifestyle creator uploaded a 'story time' video about a call out from the Dublin hotel.
'Over the past couple of nights, my partner Connor and I have been discussing going to Dublin for a little weekend away the weekend before Valentine's Day, and I decided to contact some hotels asking if they would like to collaborate,' she told her followers.
Elle then shared that being an influencer has awarded her many opportunities she could never have dreamed of, as some of her favourite brands have contacted her to collaborate.
Sometimes, she explained, she contacts businesses with mutually beneficial proposals, and she claims that until now, she has never been met with negativity.
Elle said that she contacted a number of Dublin hotels offering to create content for them in exchange for a discounted or complimentary stay, and went about her day.
Later, she noticed that she had far more Twitter notifications than usual.
'Someone had sent a screenshot of my email to me on Twitter, and the screenshot was from the original hotel's Facebook page.'
'I had numerous tweets calling me a freeloader, disgusting, a skanky b****,' she continued. '
Elle also had people calling her names and referencing the Facebook post on her Instagram page.
She then went to the Facebook page and witnessed the post in which she felt she was 'torn to pieces' after reading their caption.
Elle claims that her intentions were purely to collaborate, but she feels that the hotel's intentions were to put her on blast, and were purely 'malicious.'
'I was embarrassed, I felt humiliated,' she said in the opening of the video.
'I don't really know what their intent was, it was just malicious and nasty and it didn't come from a good place.'
Elle then explained that she felt that the post was intended to draw hate onto her page.
The fitness blogger then went on to tell her viewers that she had been contacted by a number of other bloggers who gave her support after the post went completely viral.
Elle also described how she is aware that bloggers are seen as always receiving glamorous freebies and admits 'it's a perk of the job.'
'You still have to work your arse off to get that discount or that day out for free. You're gifted these amazing things from different brands and it's seen as so glamorous, but it's work. You have to create content for that brand. Content that is worth watching. '
Elle also felt that the hate was more disparaging than usual as it came from 'older people.'
'Move with the times people. It made me so sad to see that the majority of these comments were from the older generation.'
'How the hell are children supposed to learn the qualities of being a nice decent person who encourages others to go for their dreams, if they are being raised by people who are so bitter about their jobs and the way their lives turned out that they have to take to the internet to write disgustingly degrading comments to a 22-year-old female who actually did nothing wrong.'
'The only reason people got their backs up is because they don't take the time to get to know the blogging industry. They have absolutely no idea what social media is nowadays,' she continued in the video.
'I just think it's so heartbreaking that there are so many creative, young, talented people out there who have so much to offer, and they are scared of putting themselves out there on the internet because of things like this. '
In a direct dig at the post, Elle said: 'That man's Facebook page is full of roasting people.'
'And you know what? It's going to come around to him.'
'If you live a life of solely, maliciously, degrading people for their honest attempts at bettering themselves you're not going to get anywhere.'
'My intent was literally just to see if he wanted to do business with me in a polite, respectful way.'
'His response came from a completely dark, nasty place.'
Elle's video has been met with a mixed response from viewers.
'Wow how unprofessional why would somebody do that over a simple question?' said one.
'Unprofessional? "Professional" means he is looking out for the best interests of his CUSTOMERS, and seeing as this snowflake isn't in that group, he was entitled to call out this vapid freeloader,' reads the response from another viewer.
'By being so malicious he has done a disservice to his own business, because who would want to stay at a hotel where there's a chance the owners ego trumps that of the guest's visiting the establishment.'
'I truly would never want to stay there. Don't let his lack of business skills put a damper on your day,' said another.
However, others continue to voice the opinion that the blogging industry is rife with freeloaders.
Since the video was uploaded, the cafe has issued a biting, satirical apology to the blogging community.
'I am so sorry that I didn't think of you guys until now. You are a much more lucrative group of people to piss off than the vegans and the gluten intolerant combined,' reads the statement.
Check out Elle's video for yourself below:
Feature image: Elledarby_ / Instagram
