Instagram Influencer Gives a Bad Yelp Review to a Restaurant That Wouldn't Accept "Likes" as a Payment

I’ve said it before, and I’m gonna say it again: this “influencer” culture is really pretty confusing, and I’m not sure I understand it completely.

Or that I want to understand it.

And here’s another perfect example of why I feel that way (and maybe why you do, too).

A Yelp reviewer who claims to have over 11,000 Instagram followers (is that even impressive?) wrote a negative restaurant review because the establishment wouldn’t give them free food or drinks.

Yelper is mad because restaurant didn’t them free meal in exchange for potential IG exposure
byu/richpacker intrashy

Does that sound like an entitled person, or am I completely crazy and living in an alternate universe?

The person said in the review that they thought the food and the service was great but ultimately a 1-star review was warranted because,

“I thought she would be greatful [sic] for the free advertising but when the check came there was literally no discount at all. I thought at least one of the entrees would be taken off but they didn’t even take off the calamari or even the drinks!”

Jesus H Christ… are you serious?

By the way, this is an actual picture of an actual influencer. They’re this real.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Anyway, the review was posted on Reddit (it looks like it’s been taken down from Yelp) and other Redditors offered up their own stories in response.

“I work at a hotel near Disneyworld, where rooms can reach 300+/night. It shames me how much we comp and how much ass we kiss for bloggers, “influencers” (whatever the fuck that is), social media personalities, etc., only to have the same losers condescend and treat like shit the employees of the hotel. They are a blight.”

“I also work at a hotel where the rates are 300+/night. We tell self-described “influencers” to get fucked.”

“Just so you know, big thing now is to try to pass yourself as an influencer to get discounts and free stuff. You don’t even really need to be one; you just need to tell people you are. Mikey Chen from Strictly Dumpling admits that even before he became a blogger, he’d hound hotels and airlines to get a discount and exploit his status as an influencer.”

Yikes. Not cool.

Do you have any personal stories similar to this while dealing with a so-called “influencer”? If so, please share them in the comments so we can all vent together.