Originally Posted by Censored Comment
Last week The Points Guy revealed he was being comped by Delta and Hyatt on his trip to Japan. When I read it, I got a funny feeling in my gut. It happens to me at times -- that funny feeling in my gut. Brian is a terrific blogger. If I had to pick out one favorite fellow blogger it would be him. He is extremely detailed in his explanations and covers the same type and variety of topics as I do. Besides all that, he is a really nice guy. Gary at View From The Wing blog covers more high-end properties and first class trips than I do, and Lucky at One Mile at a Time -- the stuff he does is, in my opinion, not attainable, or at times even desirable, by the average Joe (300,000 miles in one year?). He travels every single week, it seems.
I like to think of my blog as a cheering section for the Average Joe who wants to travel but doesn't think he can afford it. You can see the world at prices we all can afford is my motto.
The three bloggers I mentioned above are my daily reads and I consider each and every one of them comrades in the writing world. We all get along well, work together on the Chicago Seminars and Frequent Traveler University, and I get advice about my personal travel from all three of them as well. On the topic of sponsored trips as a blogger, however, I'll side with Gary on this one: I am against them.
Maybe it's my age or possibly a better sense of my own capabilities (I am a recovering alcoholic and drug addict), but it is just not a slippery slope I am willing to go down. The stuff I was offered for the articles I just finished for National Car Rental will all be given away, and I disclosed on day one of my posting that I am not a car rental guy by any means. I'm asked all the time to review travel related products and just turn them down when a free sample is involved. I do receive referrals from my advertisers on the blog and that fact is clearly disclosed on the blog.
For me, if I took one free comp I would want another and another after that. I have never disclosed at a hotel or airport check-in that I am a travel blogger and never will. The temptation for me, to use my position as a blogger, is just too great to start down that long and winding road. I may just like traveling for free on someone else's dime too much to resist asking for it again and again, with the unspoken possibility of them receiving a positive review in return.
To my readers, be assured that when I jump on a plane or stay in a hotel, I have either paid for it with my own money or earned the miles and points to do it for free. To my fellow bloggers and friends that have started down that path, I look forward to revisiting the topic with you as the years pass. It will be interesting to see the results from both our perspectives. There is no right or wrong answer here, just two different flights down the same travel highway.