Selfie Hotel Packages: When Selfies Save You Money

The selfie, for better or worse, has freed itself from the shackles of ridicule and bad taste to become a viable currency, and hotels around the world are taking note. Behold the hospitality industry’s most recent marketing brainchild: selfie hotel packages.

Hotels from Virginia to Puerto Rico are now offering guests perk-heavy packages in exchange for the favorable publicity of a well-tagged selfie. Simply snap a shot of you and your friends living it up in some picturesque locale, involve the appropriate hashtags, slap on the hotel’s Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram handle and voila, primo swag!

Take the Mandarin Oriental’s “Selfie in Paris” package. Available until Jan.31, 2015, this Parisian goodie bag includes a chauffeured private car to transport guests between the city’s most scenic, selfie-friendly landmarks. The car is even equipped with WiFi so guests can post their selfies online before leaving the parking lot. And at the end of each month, the best selfie is selected, and the winner is awarded a free night at the Oriental. Hot diggity!

Similarly, the Shangri-La Hotel in Tianjin, China, is holding a “We Love Shangri-La Hotel, Tianjin Selfie Contest.” The best selfie is chosen every week and the winner receives a voucher for the hotel’s Birdcage Afternoon Tea, a charming luncheon complete with gourmet teas, as well as homemade sweet and savory pastries, cakes, chocolates and sandwiches.

While the offerings may sound gimmicky, the idea does have merit. For one thing, the hotels are targeting younger guests, who are, in all likelihood, going to be amassing their fair share of selfies anyway. By tapping into the inevitable phenomenon, hotels can reap the promotional benefits without dipping too much into their marketing budget. And even if a hotel’s selfie scheme doesn’t immediately pay off in Instagram infamy, the act of offering the package is sure to attract new customers.