It wasn’t even Katie Woods’ travel posts that first caught Gold Travel Counsellor Sarah Holstead’s eye. It was the interiors content that Katie posted on her Instagram account @comedowntothewoods (330k followers) that inspired Sarah to follow Katie. “I was moving house at the time,” Sarah says, “and I contacted her because I liked her interiors content.”
A connection made, the two started tagging each other and recommending one another.
In 2023, they worked together in a formal capacity, in a Travel Counsellors branding exercise, that saw Katie and fellow influencer Johanna Franks @lovefrankiedotcom embark on a mystery tour, with the help of Sarah’s personal touch.
“That’s the only time we have ever met in person, when I met Katie (and Johanna) at Manchester Airport to hand over their tickets. They had no idea they were heading to Sri Lanka, and I gave them seven envelopes to be opened in a strict order, that revealed their full itinerary.”
That has been their only commercial collaboration to date. Outside of that campaign, their relationship has developed organically, with Katie using Sarah to book some of her personal travel and Sarah benefitting from destination-specific enquiries when she reposts Katie’s content and new enquiries when Katie references her in a travel post.
“The reason our partnership works so well is because it’s authentic,” explains Sarah. “Katie books her own travel with me, and I share her content because it’s so great.” “A hotel’s own Instagram page can be highly curated, and when Katie stays somewhere, she’ll show you the rooms and the restaurants in a more realistic way than the commercial edit shared by a marketing team.”
“She’s also very relatable. People can identify with her in the way they might not an A-list celebrity.”
In summer 2025, when Katie collaborated with hotel brand, The Ozen Collection, based in the Maldives, Sarah booked her flights.
Katie posted more than 90 stories from the trip, profiling all elements of the resort, including villa tours, restaurants, activities, beaches, spa and family fun.
Sarah explains: “We had no formal arrangement, but obviously I knew when Katie was in the Maldives because of booking her flights. When I shared her content with my followers, alongside a 20% offer for Ozen Life Maadhoo, I made three bookings for that hotel, and also other bookings when clients asked for alternatives in their price bracket. I booked about £80,000 in total after reposting Katie’s Maldives content.”
Sarah reposted Katie's Instagram content with a holiday offer, which inspired Sarah's followers to book
Indeed, Sarah was so ‘influenced’ by Katie that she booked her own trip to the Maldives, travelling last October: “Katie made it looks so amazing, I thought, this is where I need to be for my next holiday,” she laughs.
Tips for agents
Sarah says there are no hard and fast rules when using influencers as a viable source of free content, with the advantage being there is no outlay for a travel agent.
“If an influencer already has a relationship with a travel agent, personally I would stop and think about whether to share their content or not, but there are so many influencers out there and so much content that can be shared. Influencers want to extend their reach, so from their perspective, the more people who share their content, the better.”
However, she advises double checking that influencer content does not link to a competitor’s website, and she warns: “don’t be stealing content – you should always credit the original content creator.”
“But do try and build a relationship,” she encourages, “because if you make it a two-way thing, then everybody benefits.”
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