Skip to main content

Hotel chain offers an Instagram ‘sitter’ who will post photos for you

Relax we post. The new service by ibis Switzerland.

A new service offered by Ibis hotels in Switzerland appears to suggest that for some Instagrammers, the pressure to post amazing images on the social media site may be so huge that it’s ruining their vacations.

Recommended Videos

To ease the strain, the hotel chain is now offering help in the form of a “social media sitter.”

Please enable Javascript to view this content

It means handing the keys to your Instagram account to a selected influencer from the local area, allowing you to go off and enjoy your vacation instead of having to worry about finding the best spots to ‘gram with the best views at the best locations and the best meals at the best restaurants and the best … well, you get the idea.

“Enjoy your city trip without digital stress,” Ibis says in a message translated by Google. “Our social media sitter takes care of your Instagram profile so you can explore the city in peace.”

It goes on: “Let yourself be served by selected influencers and locals. Our Instagram professionals will provide the best posts on your profile while you enjoy the city without a smartphone in front of your face.”

For anyone vacationing at an Ibis in Switzerland who loves Instagram but also wouldn’t mind taking a break from the fretting involved in trying to find the best shots, the social media sitter sounds like an awesome idea. Unless your Instagram input consists mainly of selfies, that is.

Ibis has released a wacky ad (above) to promote the new service. The offbeat skit shows a couple in a row boat on a picturesque Swiss lake, with the guy taking a photo of his other half. The next moment, people start popping up out of the lake, shouting all of the hashtags associated with the photo and “liking” it.

Then a fellow with a large camera appears from the water, and says, “Ah, I don’t like the color,” while a woman — the former girlfriend of the guy in the boat, as it turns out — shouts angrily at her ex.

Yes, the comments section has come alive, and it’s utterly bonkers.

The craziness ends with a Prince Harry lookalike showing up in the boat (it’s not clear how he got there) and taking the phone from the stressed guy so that he and his partner can go off and enjoy the rest of their vacation without having to think about Instagram.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Instagram’s expanded blocking lets you block a person’s backup accounts
Two mobile screenshots Instagram's expanded blocking feature.

Instagram has announced a number of new safety feature updates to its photo and video sharing app, including an expansion of its existing blocking feature.

On Thursday, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri tweeted a video in which he introduced the new safety updates to IG. Of the three new "updated safety tools" Mosseri announced, the expansion of IG's blocking feature was particularly notable.

Read more
When is the best time to post on Instagram?
Someone holding an iPhone. The screen shows a full-screen Instagram post.

Creating viral content is only half the battle when it comes to increasing engagement on your Instagram posts -- timing is important too. Figuring out the best possible time to publish your IG posts in order to maximize the exposure they get is vital to the success of your posts. After all, it doesn't matter how amazing your photos and videos are if your audience isn't even around to see them and interact with them.

There are two ways to tackle the problem of timing: You can either rely on the research of social media experts who can give you one-size-fits-most estimates of the best possible days and times to post on Instagram (not ideal in terms of accuracy, but quicker and easier) or you can get the analytics data of your Instagram account and figure out the best possible publish times for your unique account and audience (might take longer but will likely be more accurate and effective).

Read more
Can’t stand using Instagram in 2022? This app fixes everything you hate about it
The OG App running on an iPhone.

It's no secret that many users are irritated with the steady barrage of new types of content that Meta keeps forcing onto Instagram. The app's complete pivot to Tiktok-like video Reels, the near-constant suggested posts, and the ever-present ads have turned a lot of people off from an app that used to be about simply sharing photos with friends.

In response to what Instagram has become, The OG App was created as a back-to-basics version of Instagram that cuts out a lot of the bloat that's been crammed in.

Read more