Not sure about his growth methods but his clients’ retainers were in the thousands, he could just do ads, shoutouts, influencer campaigns, giveaways.
Also, I don’t think they would mind as long as the followers demographics are suitable. Like @oneoneseven mentioned, automated doesn’t equal fake.
When you start teaching them about the thing, you’re already sleeping in their 5* suites. You can say whatever you want.
They said YES way before 
It’s not easy when you don’t know what to do.
When you know how to bring value to people (in this case - hotels, airline companies…), it’s an easy approach.
Just - time consuming.
Have you guys heard the term ‘microcreator’?
There’s some hotels, agencies, sport experiences who are looking for ‘professional’ lookalike videos/photos to step up their brand value and awareness.
I’m saying that bc not every single company wants an influencer to promote their services, everybody knows nowadays that most of them has fake followers so it’s better for them to hire microcreators in exchange for their service.
And yes, I’m doing that.