The Cost of a Free Trip

Issue #326 | March 25, 2025

The flight was free. The hotel was tantalizing. The bathtub? Deep enough to drown all of my problems. The welcome drinks were bottomless and made from individually picked coconuts and freshly plucked limes from the most luscious garden I’d ever seen.

I assumed there had to be a catch when offered a free trip anywhere in the world. I’m embarrassed to admit I ignored the brand’s emails for months while I was on the road making content around the 2024 election. I was too busy to investigate what I imagined would be the financial or spiritual cost. But once my travel schedule calmed down, I got on the phone with the brand. To my surprise, there was no catch.

Still, I weighed the pros and cons of doing a junket. I would need to flood my feed with vacation content for over a week, not just for a few days. There was a chance that the trip wasn’t what I expected, but I would still need to promote it. I also usually share my writing and thoughts, not my lifestyle. The trip could turn off some of my core audience.

Here’s what I ultimately decided: I hadn’t taken a vacation in years and was burnt out from trying to stop democracy from dying. I was about to turn an age that felt a little too serious.

At the moment, a free birthday trip to escape all my woes seemed like the only logical choice. I also felt like I was losing money if I didn’t do it, which, according to girl math, is entirely correct.

Plus, the brand’s founder was lovely and passionate about her business. It felt like a perfect natural fit, and the trip worked well for me. It wasn’t sponsored by a big hotel chain or luxury resort. The business behind the trip focuses on sustainable, respectful travel that supports local businesses, especially those owned by women and minorities.

They weren’t looking for a glam travel influencer to post bikini shots in Santorini. They wanted someone who aligned with their values, which felt like something I could get behind.

So the deal went like this: I’d get economy seats and five-star accommodations for ten days to a destination of my choice. The only requirement? A few stories per day and two fixed posts, one during the trip, one after.

The posts had to stay up for one year. All of the stories and posts had to be featured in a highlight on my page. The company could also use them for its marketing purposes. Finally, after the trip, I had to do an interview about my experience.

It felt like nothing. I’d probably share that much anyway if I were going on a cool vacation like the one offered.

As for disclosure, getting paid to post comes with clear FTC rules and the “paid partnership” label. But getting something for free can feel murkier. There was no invoice or money exchanged, so I chose not to tag each Instagram story as a paid partnership. I felt like that would have been misleading and insinuated that I was being paid to take the trip.

However, in my fixed posts I clearly tagged the brand and made it abundantly clear they were sponsoring the trip by thanking them. I also included the hashtag #Partner at the beginning of the caption. That’s compliant with FTC guidelines, which still require creators to disclose paid partnerships and gifts.

The best practice is to use #Ad, #Sponsored, or #Gifted near the top of the post, or to explicitly say “thank you to [Brand] for the [gift].” The key is visibility. Don’t bury it in a sea of hashtags. You want your audience to trust you, and no amount of money from a brand deal is worth losing that.

To be clear, I don’t usually get offered trips this extensive, mostly because I’m not really an influencer. I rarely accept gifts from brands, and I rarely post about products. My content is usually about misogyny and fascism, so posting about a new moisturizer I like feels deeply off-brand.

So, how do you get asked to take a free trip as a creator?

READ THE FULL STORY

– Liz Plank, Passionfruit Contributor

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JOB BOARD

Andrew Video is looking for a Video Editor.
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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

This week on Passionfruit’s Reactorverse podcast, it’s real talk with Reel-Time. Longtime friends Bryce, Rob and Zuff are only a few years into their channel but have managed to gain a considerably supportive audience in that time.

This episode, they chat their origins, the bumps in their channel along the way and their accomplishments. Check it out!