I think I just had my worst shop ever

It was a hotel evaluation shop. To call it a hotel is being kind. It looked more like a hangout for vagrants. Or a place where lots of questionable activity would be occurring.

Now I get to fill out the report. This should be interesting. I am going to have to find that fine line between honesty and diplomacy.

Learning experiencing for me. I'm going to have to be much more careful when accepting these kinds of shops in the future.

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OMG, that'll be a hard report to write! I'm channeling happy thoughts your way.

Fortunately I took lots of pictures to back it up.

I did a dining shop recently where the waitress was so new that she needed assistance with the POS system to even run the card. It was apparent she was new to waitressing as well and she was not shadowing an experienced waitress long enough to know what she was doing. Every single thing she did required a separate trip to the kitchen and she was completely frazzled and could not remember requests for things like refills.

They just threw her out there on her own and I ended up in her three table section. I clicked more no boxes than yes boxes and the report took 2x as long to fill out as it should have.

I'm not sure if she will make it as a waitress. This was likely her first or second day.

My worst shops are always gas stations that are violations from one end to the other. I figure they are going to be before I take them, but they are highly bonused so I'm getting paid well to do them. I'm going back to one of those in a couple of weeks. I hope for improvement but I'm not overly optimistic.

I did one of those "hotels" before. It was so awful that I couldn't bring myself to spend the night. The worst was that I had to take photos of every negative thing, and by the time it was over I had almost 80 photos. It was for ACL, and they only reimburse for the room. No actual fee for the shop!

Phoebe that sounds about like this one. Lol. Only for a different MSC. I put so many "no's" it took me forever to fill out the report. I also felt like an idiot asking some of the stuff I had to ask about because I'm sure its stuff the normal clientele never asks about. Hehe.

U swear one day I may write a book about some of these escapades.

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@Phoebe70 wrote:

I did one of those "hotels" before. It was so awful that I couldn't bring myself to spend the night. The worst was that I had to take photos of every negative thing, and by the time it was over I had almost 80 photos. It was for ACL, and they only reimburse for the room. No actual fee for the shop!

Was it a long term stay type of place? I did one for the above named MSC and I ended out taking a boatload of photos, many more than the 9 required, as the place was a disaster. An absolute disaster. It was my first hotel shop though and it was bonused $25, I'm guessing since it was located in a rough area and I'm not sure many shoppers wanted to spend a night in that neighborhood.

If its the very low end hotel chain Im thinking of... Not surprised. Ive been meaning to pick one up to try it but havent found anything convenient yet.

MSC does a lot of cars; yes?

Somewhere in the Midwest, shopping / auditing full time since 2014. Will use PV-500 for food!

They do a fair amount of cars, yes.

Maybe that should have been my first clue.

I've done hotel shops for other MSCs that were nothing like this one.

I'm sorry

. I'm one of the few people on the forum who loves that MSC, but that hotel chain just sucks. They have a few good (relatively speaking) properties here and there, but most of them are dumps.

I'd probably grab the address of the job, google it, and look at tripadvisor before doing any other shops involving that chain.

Somewhere in the Midwest, shopping / auditing full time since 2014. Will use PV-500 for food!

Squire party, yes it was one of those hotels you can rent for an extended amount of time.

Alex I like the MSC too. They have some nice schedulers. I think I will be thinking twice though before doing any more hotel stuff for them though.

Without knowing the msc or the client, it sounds like your describing Intown Suites. It's like a shopping mall for skid row. You have your meth dealer in this room, next room is prostitutes, next one down has that smell of burnt plastic (crack) coming out from under the door where the missing door jam should be.

I was called out in the middle of the night as the phone company provider to one and checked the lines at the point of entry into the phone closet. There were needles laying on the ground in the telco closet and empty crack and meth vials were all over the floor. I got out of there as quickly as possible and refused to return until daylight for my own safety. The problem was the broken down PBX system that was 20+ years old and not the phone lines provided to the property.

@HeatherB wrote:

It was a hotel evaluation shop. To call it a hotel is being kind. It looked more like a hangout for vagrants. Or a place where lots of questionable activity would be occurring.

Now I get to fill out the report. This should be interesting. I am going to have to find that fine line between honesty and diplomacy.

Learning experiencing for me. I'm going to have to be much more careful when accepting these kinds of shops in the future.

What I do is Google the address (before) accepting the shop. If it's too run down of an area, I don't accept

The worst was a Freeman Hotel.....wait for it, stiffed the payment.

@optikdave wrote:

The worst was a Freeman Hotel.....wait for it, stiffed the payment.

I got paid but it took 5 months, then all Hell broke loose and shoppers were getting stiffed without resolution....I think they closed up shop at that point..

I did a ride along one time with a friend. We stopped by Intown suites because there was a drug arrest. He said the "hotel" was known for being a huge place for drugs and hookups. I've seen the shops for that...haha. Nope.

We might be talking about two different chains here - I'm not thinking of InTown Suites, but another very low end chain (similar to Motel 6)

Somewhere in the Midwest, shopping / auditing full time since 2014. Will use PV-500 for food!

The OP is not thinking about InTown either and SquireParty is talking about yet another chain.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2015 04:02AM by bgriffin.

I think the OP and I are talking about the same chain. The MSC isn't exactly known for hotels, which might be the cause for confusion.

Somewhere in the Midwest, shopping / auditing full time since 2014. Will use PV-500 for food!

By the hour or night?

Sometimes the worst part is not the hotel but the long report involved with so many no answers, that is where the pain comes for me.

The worst shop I ever did was one where I had to take about six photos. I was to inspect the men's room and take photos there. So I went to the men's room and found it full of more than 20 very macho guys standing in lines at the urinals. No way was I going to whip out a camera and start taking photos.

It's so enlightening to have hotel chain names given and ms companies either specifically named or hinted at.
Great learning here on the forum.
Kind of reminds me of old blue haired ladies sharing stories at the weekly bridge games.

I specifically didn't list the hotel chain here because I wasn't sure what the rules were. But I can say that it's not any that have been named.

But the mods can feel free to delete this if it goes against any rules.

I was mostly commenting on the fact that I am going to be more careful in future when taking some of the shops.

I have no problem with budget motels. But I slso don't want to be taking my life in my hands either.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2015 12:23PM by HeatherB.

I know the Motel 5+1 only offers one bar of soap. That's it. No lotion or shampoo. Thankfully, I brought my own!

@scanman1 wrote:

I did a dining shop recently where the waitress was so new that she needed assistance with the POS system to even run the card. It was apparent she was new to waitressing as well and she was not shadowing an experienced waitress long enough to know what she was doing. Every single thing she did required a separate trip to the kitchen and she was completely frazzled and could not remember requests for things like refills.

They just threw her out there on her own and I ended up in her three table section. I clicked more no boxes than yes boxes and the report took 2x as long to fill out as it should have.

I'm not sure if she will make it as a waitress. This was likely her first or second day.

I often get servers with little experience as there is a high turnover in the fast food and casual restaurants.

I have performed a lot of shops to know when it was "amateur night" and I was the victim, sorry, training tool.
You must remember that you sat on your diaper many times before you walked and your parents did not slap you around.
It is not the servers fault that the client threw the server into the pool at the deep end without a handler.

I know I am not supposed to lead an experienced server but I can guide and encourage a server that is doing the doggy paddle in the deep end of the pool. I give the server lots of encouragement. I usually get an appreciative server and great service from a person who is not getting assistance from any employees. The client should give the server a name tag that says "trainee" and a handler to help the server.

I mention in my report the server did a great job given the circumstances that the server was thrown into the deep end.

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I think I just had my worst shop ever

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