How three independent accommodation businesses used travel PR to earn reviews and media coverage
Hadspen Glamping, Apple Camping and Unique Cotswold Cottages
Independent accommodation and travel businesses
Independent accommodation businesses often have something particularly useful for PR: journalists can experience what they offer first-hand.
We have worked with Hadspen Glamping, Apple Camping and Unique Cotswold Cottages, using review opportunities, distinctive accommodation, seasonal travel angles and destination expertise to create different reasons for journalists to cover each business.
The resulting coverage has appeared across national, regional and travel media including OK!, Daily Express, The Sun and Daily Mail, showing how accommodation PR can combine property-led coverage with wider travel and destination stories.
The opportunity
Accommodation PR is about more than announcing that somewhere is available to book.
Journalists need a reason why a particular property, destination or experience is relevant to their readers at that moment.
For some businesses, that might be an opportunity for a journalist to experience the accommodation and review it. For others, the strongest angle might be unusual accommodation, seasonal travel, a local destination story or the knowledge the business has about its surrounding area.
These three clients offered different propositions, which meant each required a different media approach.
Hadspen Glamping
Hadspen Glamping provided a strong review-led opportunity.
The campaign focused on introducing the accommodation to relevant journalists and developing opportunities around its launch, the experience of staying there and its appeal as a distinctive Somerset getaway.
Coverage included:
OK!
Daily Express
SomersetLive
Devon Live
Somerset County Gazette
Amazing Destinations
The Daily Express coverage positioned Hadspen within a luxury travel context, while regional titles including SomersetLive and Devon Live provided additional visibility around the accommodation and destination.
This gave the business a combination of national, regional and travel-focused media coverage rather than relying on a single launch announcement.
Apple Camping
Apple Camping offered a very different media proposition.
Its unusual accommodation created naturally distinctive travel stories that could work beyond conventional accommodation coverage.
One of the resulting pieces appeared in The Sun and focused on a converted submarine being used as unusual accommodation.
Apple Camping also appeared in The Sun as part of seasonal coverage around Valentine's Day breaks.
The strength of this approach was the accommodation itself becoming the hook.
Rather than simply asking journalists to write about somewhere people could stay, the campaign gave them an unusual experience or concept that could become part of a wider consumer travel story.
Unique Cotswold Cottages
For Unique Cotswold Cottages, the media opportunity could extend beyond the properties themselves.
The business operates in one of the UK's most recognisable visitor destinations, creating opportunities to connect accommodation with wider Cotswolds travel expertise.
Coverage shown in the campaign records includes a regional story built around the best Cotswold pubs for spotting celebrities, while the historical coverage archive also includes travel coverage in the Daily Mail.
This illustrates another route into accommodation PR: using knowledge of the destination around the property, not only the property itself.
Turning accommodation into an editorial experience
For suitable accommodation businesses, review-led PR can give journalists an opportunity to experience what customers actually receive.
That can create a stronger editorial proposition than simply distributing information about a property.
But reviews are only one possible route.
Accommodation and hospitality campaigns can also create opportunities around:
Property openings and launches
Unusual places to stay
Seasonal breaks
Romantic getaways
Destination guides
Local recommendations
Regional tourism
Travel trends
Founder expertise
Things to do nearby
Consumer travel advice
The strongest approach depends on what makes the accommodation genuinely interesting and what journalists are already looking to cover.
Three businesses, three different PR hooks
These campaigns also demonstrate why Fair PR does not use one fixed formula for every accommodation client.
Hadspen Glamping
The strongest opportunity was review-led travel PR and the accommodation experience.
That resulted in coverage across national, regional and travel media including OK!, Daily Express, SomersetLive and Devon Live.
Apple Camping
The strongest opportunity was unusual accommodation and consumer-friendly travel stories.
Its converted submarine and other distinctive stays created hooks suitable for titles including The Sun.
Unique Cotswold Cottages
The opportunity extended into destination-led PR and local expertise.
This allowed the business to contribute to stories about the wider Cotswolds experience as well as accommodation itself.
Why this approach works for independent accommodation businesses
Smaller accommodation businesses do not necessarily have the advertising budgets or brand recognition of major hotel groups.
Earned media can provide another way for them to become visible.
A journalist review can introduce the actual experience to readers. An unusual accommodation story can make the property itself newsworthy. Destination commentary can establish the business as a useful source of local knowledge.
Combining these approaches gives an accommodation business more potential routes into the media than repeatedly pitching the same property description.
It also creates opportunities throughout the year as travel interests, seasons and editorial priorities change.
The media coverage
Across the three businesses, published coverage has included national, travel and regional media.
Selected publications include:
OK!
Daily Express
The Sun
Daily Mail
SomersetLive
Devon Live
Somerset County Gazette
Amazing Destinations
Wiltshire & Gloucestershire Standard
The media opportunities covered a range of formats including accommodation reviews, unusual places to stay, seasonal breaks and destination-led editorial stories.
The outcome
These three campaigns show how accommodation PR can work in several different ways.
Hadspen Glamping used its accommodation experience and review potential to secure national and regional visibility.
Apple Camping's unusual properties provided distinctive hooks for consumer travel stories.
Unique Cotswold Cottages could draw on both accommodation and its knowledge of the wider destination.
Together, they demonstrate how independent travel and hospitality businesses can use reviews, distinctive experiences and destination expertise to create credible earned-media opportunities rather than relying solely on conventional property promotion.
You can view published articles from our travel and hospitality clients in our Media Coverage database, alongside hundreds of other articles secured for businesses, founders and experts across a wide range of industries, sectors and areas of expertise.
What Hadspen Glamping said
“Worked with Fair PR for our small glamping business and they were great! We got several press releases out and journalist stays! Will definitely use them in the future again! Team is super friendly and knowledgeable, highly recommend!”
Lucy Comer, Hadspen Glamping
What Unique Cotsworld Cottages said
“I really enjoyed the exposure achieved for my business. My business was featured in several magazines and two national newspapers, including a triple-page spread.”
Amanda Brahams, Unique Cotswold Cottages
The results
| Campaigns | Hadspen Glamping, Apple Camping and Unique Cotswold Cottages |
| Sector | Travel, hospitality and accommodation |
| PR approach | Review opportunities, accommodation PR, travel stories and destination-led PR |
| Coverage | National, regional and specialist travel media |
| Selected publications | OK!, Daily Express, The Sun, Daily Mail and regional media |
| Campaign focus | Accommodation visibility, journalist experiences, destination expertise and consumer awareness |
Could travel PR help more people discover your accommodation business?
Fair Public Relations helps accommodation businesses, hospitality brands and travel companies turn distinctive properties, experiences and expertise into relevant media opportunities. Campaigns can include journalist review opportunities, travel stories, seasonal angles, founder positioning, destination expertise and wider earned-media outreach.
Journalist visits, reviews, particular publications, backlinks and commercial outcomes cannot be guaranteed, but every campaign is shaped around what makes the business genuinely interesting to travel and consumer media.
