Bloggers banned by Irish café due to “sense of entitlement”

The White Moose Café and Charleville Lodge Hotel in Dublin are facing the wrath of the blogging community after the entire blogging community was banned from entering the premises.

An online feud between Paul Stenson, owner of The White Moose Café and Charleville Lodge Hotel in Dublin, and 22-year-old English lifestyle, beauty and travel vlogger Elle Darby has resulted in an all-out ban on bloggers from entering Stenson’s Dublin premises, unleashing a wave of hate from the blogging community for the Irish businessman.

On Tuesday, January 16, Stenson posted a screenshot on Facebook of an email he received from a blogger looking for a free stay in his hotel in return featuring it across her social media platforms when she visited Dublin. While he edited out the name of the blogger in question and failed to mention her in his post, Stenson had some scathing words for her request, asking how he was expected to pay his guests if he was giving away free stays.

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“It takes a lot of balls to send an email like that, if not much self-respect and dignity,” he wrote.

“If I let you stay here in return for a feature in your video, who is going to pay the staff who look after you? Who is going to pay the housekeepers who clean your room? The waiters who serve you breakfast? The receptionist who checks you in? Who is going to pay for the light and heat you use during your stay? The laundering of your bed sheets? The water rates? Maybe I should tell my staff they will be featured in your video in lieu of receiving payment for work carried out while you’re in residence?”

While many commenters agreed with his words, vlogger Elle Darby revealed herself to be the blogger in question, claiming she was being bullied by trolls who had identified her as the sender of the email. Posting a video to her YouTube channel entitled “i was exposed (SO embarrassing),” Darby claimed that she had received hundreds of messages of abuse and that Stenson, as a man over 30, had “no idea how social media works these days.”

“I feel disgusting having to say this. As a 22-year-old girl, who's running her own business from her home, I don't feel like I did anything wrong,” she said.

“These were all 30 years plus people internet bullying a 22-year-old girl who is just trying to run her own business and raise awareness of what appeared to be a stunning Dublin hotel.”

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Many of her fellow bloggers were disgusted with her treatment, taking to their own sites to post about the incident, to which Stenson thanked them for all the reviews earning him so much attention, even if they are negative. Posting some of his favorites to Facebook, the Dublin café owner decided to follow it up with a fullscale ban on bloggers from his Irish businesses.

“Following the backlash received after asking an unidentified blogger to pay for a hotel room, I have taken the decision to ban all bloggers from our hotel and cafe,” he wrote.

“The sense of entitlement is just too strong in the blogging community and the nastiness, hissy fits and general hate displayed after one of your members was not granted her request for a freebie is giving your whole industry a bad name. I never thought we would be inundated with negative reviews for the simple reason that somebody was required to pay for goods received or services rendered.”

The post went viral, inducing even more rage amongst the blogging community than before and resulting in an onslaught of further posts slamming Stenson. He continues to take it in his stride, however, thanking them for their hard work over the last two days in ramming up so much publicity for him.

“But don’t worry bloggers, your work won’t going unnoticed,” he added.

“It will be featured in my book ‘How To Get Worldwide Publicity Without Spending A Cent’. I’m even thinking of dedicating a full chapter to you guys, including screenshots of some of your most entertaining public tweets, Facebook posts and negative reviews. It will be some chapter!”

Paul Stenson is well-known in Ireland for his controversial social media posting and stances on things he believes to be a fad, such as the phenomenon of social media influencers and the new up-spike in a vegan or gluten-free lifestyle.

Last year, he was involved in an online skit named “House of Influencer,” which tore apart the manner in which they carry out business, while he also courted controversy when he hired a professional MMA fighter to help him deal with people asking for vegan and gluten-free options in his café.

What do you make of social media influencers asking for free products in return for exposure? Let us know your thoughts on the comments section, below.