Do I need to do something special to become a mystery shopper for hotels?

@Lucy Guerra wrote:

Do I need to do something special to become a mystery shopper for hotels?

Those are some of the more exclusive shops. You'll need a credit card for those, probably with a minimum credit limit of $500, as well as (most likely) a fair amount of mystery shopping experience. Many or most jptel shops seem to require valet parking, so you'll need to have a vehicle and driver's license with you. They generally require you to pass for upscale clientele, so you should probably dress pretty well. I'm told the reports for these can also be fairly long, so you have to be demonstrate proficiency with long narratives. In the meantime, while you're looking for hotel shops, you might consider trying to build your experience with apartment, fine dining, or upscale banking shops. You will be looking for a lot of the same types of things.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2015 08:34AM by OceanGirl.

Also, a lot of the hotel shops require a bar visit, so the shopper would have to be of legal drinking age.

@OceanGirl wrote:

@Lucy Guerra wrote:

Do I need to do something special to become a mystery shopper for hotels?

Those are some of the more exclusive shops. You'll need a credit card for those, probably with a minimum credit limit of $500, as well as (most likely) a fair amount of mystery shopping experience. Many or most jptel shops seem to require valet parking, so you'll need to have a vehicle and driver's license with you. They generally require you to pass for upscale clientele, so you should probably dress pretty well. I'm told the reports for these can also be fairly long, so you have to be demonstrate proficiency with long narratives. In the meantime, while you're looking for hotel shops, you might consider trying to build your experience with apartment, fine dining, or upscale banking shops. You will be looking for a lot of the same types of things.

So, I guess if you "dress well" but drive a 1973 Pinto, then you should not valet park? (unless of course it is required to evaluate the valet parking) I think the valet can spot someone who is not "well-to-do" pretty quickly. And I think this also extends to the keen Front of the House staff....I think most of the staff can pretty quickly figure out who is out of their element by how they dress, their hair, their jewelry, etc. Just some things to consider when you take a upper level hotel/5 star hotel.

Seems to me a 1973 Pinto could be a "classic" by now!

Meanwhile, for the companies you do work for, get to the point you regularly get perfect scores on your reports, and keep signing up with more companies. There's plenty of info on these forums, too, about who has hotel shops.

I had to use my daughter's car while in FL a few times to valet park - this was when she had an older Ford Escort. I hated driving it but was able to pull it off really well when I valet parked. So you can make an older car work.

Liz

Many of the hotels I have evaluated had meetings, conventions or other reasons that a mix of economic levels might be there. I shopped a high end hotel in ATL that was hosting a music teacher convention. Saw everything from Cadillacs to a faded 1980's Dodge Dart with duct tape trim.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2015 03:54PM by MissChele.

Some wealthy people do not dress to impress. They do not need to do this. Don't be fooled by what you see.

For the initial inquiry: be organized and observant. Have sufficient credit for the shop expenses and the ability to pay your cardholder while waiting for reimbursement, if necessary.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2015 04:06PM by Shop-et-al.

I think, the first consideration in some MSC is will you qualify to be accepted for a hotel shop. For instance, at SQM.CA, you have to be at level 9 to be considered. There are exceptions, of course.

I think it's more about how you carry yourself if you want to fit in at high-end places. While some wealthy people don't exactly dress the part, there are always some subtle clues to their wealth. It may as simple as an expensive watch paired with a shabby outfit, but it sadly often comes down to disregard for the hired help. I've spent a lot of time over the past few years watching other guests when I was at expensive hotels and for the most part, they pay very little attention to the hotel staff.

I've seen wealthy people pull up in front of a hotel and walk away from their cars without even being approached by a valet, or carry on a conversation on their phone thought the entire time they are are checking into a hotel, or step in font of a line of guests waiting to be seated and seat themselves at a table in the restaurant. While none of the above work well for us shoppers as ways to fit in, you can utilize the self-entitled attitude of many hotel goers to your advantage when performing required tasks:

-Ask directions to someplace in the hotel that's clearly marked, like how to get to the restroom when you are standing right by it.
-Ask a question of the staff that has already been addressed, like how late the pool is open right after they have told you the pool hours. (This one really gives the impression you are ignoring them)
-Ask for help in carrying even the smallest items to your room.
-Ask about the organic nature of all food products!

If you are hoping to became a hotel evaluator, also know that you can start out by taking assignments for individual hotel outlets before taking on an entire hotel. Take just the valet assignment to start with. Then a bar or restaurant...and then try to pair these things together by taking the valet assignment from one company and the bar/restaurant from another. Take the assignment that are just check-ins without the hotel stay, then move up to the one night stays. When you are comfortable with those, you can start moving up to the multi-night stays.

I always recommend taking local assignments to start with as well. Travel adds a lot of confusion to hotel assignments, so be sure you are totally comfortable with hotel assignments before boarding a flight to evaluate some place in a different time zone.

@risinghorizon wrote:

I think, the first consideration in some MSC is will you qualify to be accepted for a hotel shop. For instance, at SQM.CA, you have to be at level 9 to be considered. There are exceptions, of course.

In the USA, they only have discounted hotels, no real hotel shops. I get get 50% off with Priceline every day of the week. I will NEVER do one of those. I can see no exception to the rule for that.

@SoCalMama wrote:

@risinghorizon wrote:

I think, the first consideration in some MSC is will you qualify to be accepted for a hotel shop. For instance, at SQM.CA, you have to be at level 9 to be considered. There are exceptions, of course.

In the USA, they only have discounted hotels, no real hotel shops. I get get 50% off with Priceline every day of the week. I will NEVER do one of those. I can see no exception to the rule for that.

The couple of hotel shops I've performed shops at were full reimbursement, not any sort of discounted rate. I couldn't say whether that's the exception or the rule, but they certainly exist.

SoCalMama was specifically referring to SQM which has been known to offer hotel shops for 50% discount. And I agree with her, no way would I pay 50% for the pleasure of doing a hotel shop. SQM is the only MSC that I have heard of not at least offering full reimbursement.

@saacman5033 wrote:

SoCalMama was specifically referring to SQM which has been known to offer hotel shops for 50% discount. And I agree with her, no way would I pay 50% for the pleasure of doing a hotel shop. SQM is the only MSC that I have heard of not at least offering full reimbursement.

Got it. I haven't signed up for SQM, so I didn't realize that was their policy specifically. I'd agree...can't see doing a hotel shop where I still have to pay 50% of the room rate. Thanks for the clarification!

@OceanGirl wrote:

@Lucy Guerra wrote:

Do I need to do something special to become a mystery shopper for hotels?

Those are some of the more exclusive shops. You'll need a credit card for those, probably with a minimum credit limit of $500, as well as (most likely) a fair amount of mystery shopping experience. Many or most jptel shops seem to require valet parking, so you'll need to have a vehicle and driver's license with you. They generally require you to pass for upscale clientele, so you should probably dress pretty well. I'm told the reports for these can also be fairly long, so you have to be demonstrate proficiency with long narratives. In the meantime, while you're looking for hotel shops, you might consider trying to build your experience with apartment, fine dining, or upscale banking shops. You will be looking for a lot of the same types of things.

The percentage of this post that is correct is remarkably low. Most of the post is true from some shops, but there are many shops that none of it is true.

I have done approximately 50 hotel shops in the past 2 years for 3 different companies. I do not use credit cards and almost every one of the ones I did required less than $200 available in my checking account. Of those 50 less than 5 required valet parking, although all hotels do require some form of ID at check-in so I guess technically the part about having a DL with you is correct. Kinda. I lost my license in the middle of route once and used my passport to check in (this was a 3 week route too so many a hotel). Including some shops. But I digress. Most of the shops I've done were 2.5* and 3* hotels and there was no need to pass for being upscale, although I agree most MSCs probably don't want you checking in in ragged cutoff jeans and a holy t-shirt. Yes, some of the reports can be long and you need to be good at writing narratives, but most of the rest of this post may or may not apply to whatever hotel shops you might find.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2015 10:18PM by bgriffin.

@bgriffin wrote:

...all hotels do require some form of ID at check-in so I guess technically the part about having a DL with you is correct. Kinda.

I know at least 2 upscale hotel chains I shop that specifically have a requirement not to ask guests for ID. I carry it with me in case they do, but have never needed it. You would need well over $1,000 available on your credit card for for those locations, however.

Of course things vary widely by location. For my state, everything in Ocean Girls post is applicable and bgriffins post is essentially useless.

Actually, now that you mention it, I'm Hilton Diamond and they recently went to a standard of not asking for ID or credit card for Diamond members when checking in.*

*I say recent, it could have been a year ago or more

Also, I have never, ever, had an MSC deny allowing the use of a debit card instead of a credit card even when the instructions said specifically to use a credit card instead of a debit card. It is my opinion that they put that on there because they got tired of shoppers on tight budgets hounding them about reversals. Always ask first though, of course.

@saacman5033 wrote:

Of course things vary widely by location. For my state, everything in Ocean Girls post is applicable and bgriffins post is essentially useless.

I have done hotel shops in CA, AZ, TX, LA, AR, TN, MS, AL, GA, FL, SC, NC, TN, KY, WI, IL, IN, OH, PA, and MA (off the top of my head). There are many hotel shops available in all of these states that do not fit Ocean Girls post in the least bit.

That's cool, but none of those are my state. Things are a bit different here.

Agreed on the debit card theory. I don't think the hotel really cares as long as they can get the authorization on the card. I've used them before but it really does bind a large amount of cash up for a potentially long time.

Yes. My whole point was that blanket statements were made about hotel shops that were not true. As I VERY plainly stated in my first response on this thread. What was said was true of some shops but nowhere near even a majority of them.

That said, one should have a good understanding of what IS required for any particular hotel before taking an assignment.

I hate the valet parking requirement and am always looking for ways around that, since I don't like driving to assignments. I have taken the train to some locations and then utilized the $10 weekend specials with Enterprise just so that I had a car to park. One of the companies that requires valet parking has a nice hotel at DFW airport, where I sometimes have overnight layovers on trips. The time and expense of having to rent a car at the airport makes the shop not worth it, however. I usually just use points for the overnight.

This could probably go in the dating and dinner shop thread, but if anyone lives near DFW and wants to drive in exchange for a free dinner and breakfast, that could be a graceful solution. That can work in pretty much any major city with a valet requirement at a hotel.

@bgriffin wrote:

The percentage of this post that is correct remarkably low. Some of it is true for some shops, yes.

Referring back to the specific quote I took issue to, the problem was in suggesting that most information posted by OceanGirl was incorrect with only SOME of it being correct for some shops. All I was getting at was that ALL or at least MOST of her post was correct for some shops.

And I see nothing wrong with recommending to a newbie that they might have to expect to do a valet shop or be required to have a credit card for hotel shops even if not all (or even most) have this requirement. Better to be over prepared than prepared only for the shops with the lowest requirement levels.

Then perhaps you should have just stated where the confusion is instead of just stating that nothing in my post applied to shops in your area? I will gladly edit the post as I agree it is misleading.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

I hate the valet parking requirement and am always looking for ways around that, since I don't like driving to assignments.

What don't you like about the driving or valet portion?

For me personally, there are tons of things I don't like about valet parking. For one, I don't like other people driving my car. Yes I'm aware that any reputable hotel is going to treat my car well and if damage occurs it will be taken care of, but that doesn't help me when I'm 1000 miles from home and don't want to hang out for an extra week waiting on my car to get repaired, nor do I want to drive it home broken. Also, people in my car feels to me what someone carrying their purse probably feels like for a woman. I just don't like it and it makes me uncomfortable. Also, when I'm on routes I have equipment in the car, sometimes I take it in, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I forget that I switched memory cards in the middle of the day and the one with the first half of the days video is sitting in the empty cup holder. Along with the first battery that needs to be charged. And now I have to get them to pull the car back around so I can get it. Also during the day I end up with stuff sprawled out all over my car. Maybe I'm shopping a cheap rent to own place in the morning and a $750,000 house in the afternoon. Two shirts. One of which will be in my back seat. When you pull up for valet parking I always feel rushed by the valets and have on several occasions asked them to please leave me alone for a few minutes while I gather things. I don't like the feeling of being rushed. And last, now I'm in my hotel room, and decide I want to run to the store for a particular snack. Uggg, now I have to wait 15 minutes for my car just so I can have those Starburst gummies I'm craving and now those $1.50 gummies will cost me $5 after tips. All in all it's just a big pain in the ass to me.

@bgriffin wrote:

Then perhaps you should have just stated where the confusion is instead of just stating that nothing in my post applied to shops in your area? I will gladly edit the post as I agree it is misleading.

I was merely trying to show that OceanGirl's post could be equally as useful as yours to some folks as well as point out that while her post may be useless to some folks in some/many locales, yours happened not to apply in the least to shops in my area. And there's nothing wrong with that, I just will never have the opportunity to do shops here with a nightly rate of under $200 and I likely won't see 2.5 or 3 star hotels shopped here unless some of the chains begin putting those hotels here in Hawaii. There's just not the market here for what are typically business-traveler-centered properties here with low amounts of business travelers as compared to leisure travelers.

Interesting perspective on the car driving thing. I grew up in a farming community where pretty much everyone drove everyone else's car from time to time and have never had an issue with someone else driving my car so it's good to see a different point of view.

@saacman5033 wrote:

@bgriffin wrote:

Then perhaps you should have just stated where the confusion is instead of just stating that nothing in my post applied to shops in your area? I will gladly edit the post as I agree it is misleading.

I was merely trying to show that OceanGirl's post could be equally as useful as yours to some folks as well as point out that while her post may be useless to some folks in some/many locales, yours happened not to apply in the least to shops in my area. And there's nothing wrong with that, I just will never have the opportunity to do shops here with a nightly rate of under $200 and I likely won't see 2.5 or 3 star hotels shopped here unless some of the chains begin putting those hotels here in Hawaii. There's just not the market here for what are typically business-traveler-centered properties here with low amounts of business travelers as compared to leisure travelers.

My point was simply that many of the barriers to hotel shopping that were stated simply were not true. I did not do a very good job of making my point, but if someone wanted to do hotel shops but didn't have $500 available credit, a car to valet park, and fancy clothes to make them fit in at 5* resorts that there absolutely positively are shops available that do not require a single one of those things and they are widely available in most areas.