‘No Influencers’: Hotels, Restaurants and Beauty Spots Are Restricting Photoshoots

Stand in any vaguely photogenic spot on holiday these days and you will likely come across people posing with raised phones and even ring lights. Some are influencers with huge social media audiences; others are simply overkeen Instagram users. But with hotels and beauty spots now overrun, bans on photography are coming into place.

The five-star Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, France — known for its glamorous clientele, views of the Côte d’Azur and a stunning infinity pool — has brought in rules against photoshoots: they are no longer allowed without prior permission.

According to reports, the move was prompted by people booking lunch reservations and bringing bags of clothing and jewellery. Instead of sitting down to eat, they used their time at the hotel for photoshoots of themselves in different outfits, creating images to post on their social media accounts.

Less glamorous spots are clamping down too. The Hollies, a Cheshire farm shop that has become a popular content stop thanks to Love Island star Molly-Mae Hague posting images from there, has banned photography and filming between 10am and 4pm.

London restaurateur Jeremy King, the man behind places such as Simpson’s in the Strand and the Park, wrote in the Evening Standard earlier this year that he was fed up with influencers overrunning his restaurant — enough is enough.

In the US, a shop on Nantucket, an island off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, went viral earlier this year for a sign reading “no influencers”, while the town of Pomfret in Vermont has banned influencers from taking pictures in front of autumn foliage. In Fujikawaguchiko in Japan, a screen has been put up near a convenience store to stop people taking pictures there in front of Mount Fuji.

A big part of the venues’ argument is privacy and discretion, especially as expected at expensive hotels. Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc’s manager, Sophie Volant, said guests appreciate having people in the restaurants and bars, but they also want their summer home to remain private, so a solution had to be found.

Anna Fedou, chief marketing officer at the Beaumier hotel group, says it sometimes works with influencers to capture content promoting its luxury hotels, which include Les Roches Rouges near Marseille, loved for its photogenic pool. The group has no specific rules around photography, Fedou says, but stays mindful of its primary purpose.

“We’re in the business of hospitality, not running photo studios,” Fedou says. “People travel from all over the world to experience the atmosphere, sense of space and feeling that make a hotel unique. It’s our responsibility to protect that.”

Rules around photography at hotels and restaurants mirror a trend away from capturing the moment and towards being in it. Alex Goat, founder of the youth culture agency Livity, compares the rules to clubs asking visitors to put stickers over their phones’ cameras — a signal that they are there for people who love music.

Part of the disapproval towards influencers rests on a misconception that they are paid well for such content. Sometimes, as with Beaumier hotels, influencers produce posts in exchange for a free room, but Nicole Ocran, an influencer who set up the Creator Union, explains that the majority create most of their content for their audiences for free, in the hope of courting brands.

Sophie Bishop, author of Influencer Creep, says influencer culture has always been vilified in popular culture; it is a very feminised form of media bound up with promotional culture — so questions of snobbery and sexism are entangled with it too.

More than 5.4 billion people use social media every day, the report notes. Ocran hopes the photography rules might promote a more balanced attitude to social media in general — pushing back against the idea that every space is meant for public consumption and every experience should be turned into content. As a creator, she finds that quite a healthy message for everyone.

Fedou believes the key is balance: engaging with social media content while keeping a restful experience at hotels. Influencers generally choose quieter moments for shooting, she says, to capture a space without disturbing others — but guest experience always comes first.