Hello,

Are the charges I pay for the Hotel room reversed or paid back to me as a reimbursement?

Thanks as I am doing my first one soon.

You guidelines should answer this question. If not, maybe it is best to email Coyle as there may be different procedures for different shops.

I do not know about Coyle, but all of my other hotel shops MSCs seem to let the client decide which way that will go.

(I have nothing against Coyle, but cannot do the fine dining shops that are the price of admission to their hotel shops.)

That's my exact same problem with Coyle. Applied for a very midrange hotel on their shopmetrics site and was told until I did some of their other shops I wouldn't be assigned the shop. It doesn't matter that they don't have any other shops within 250 miles of me. Oh well, their loss.

Coyle has the CC charges reversed for the hotel reservation and charges, which is better because it is quicker than waiting for the payment.

They have a cruise shop right now that I think is pretty much impossible to do. Not because it's hard but because of timing.

But I sure wish they offer more cruise shops in the future!!

@Amo wrote:

Coyle has the CC charges reversed for the hotel reservation and charges, which is better because it is quicker than waiting for the payment.

Speed of reversal is nice and all but if you plan it out correctly, you stand to gain WAY more rewards points for your stay if they do a reimbursement rather than a reversal.

But with the cost of many Coyle hotels, you would stand to lose a lot in interest charges if you take a lot of hotel shops like I do...unless you had a large stash of cash to pay those off.

I applied to Coyle about 10 days ago and have not heard from them. Do they take that long, or is their polite way of telling they do not need (want) me ? Would love to get some hotel shops!

Coyle has a policy that you will not get a hotel shop without first doing a certain number of fine dining shops with good grades. Because I do not drive at night, and do not have a fine dining partner who could drive, I cannot do those. About once a year, for 9 years, I tell Coyle that they could waive that requirement and get a really good, experienced hotel shopper. Nope. Nada. No compromise on that FD requirement for any reason!

Perhaps they don't have a shortage of shoppers in your area to find the need to bend the rules

To be fair... I have practically done hotel shops for most of the MSCs about there and none of them are comparable to the amount of work and narrative. A couple of MSCs offer similar writing styles but don't require pics or are only one night stays, etc. It's a different beast when you incorporate stayover service and turn down service, adding pics, meals, activities, housekeeping tests, engineering tests, spa inspection... and you can see why completing hotel shops for other companies don't really qualify you to skip past the line of other shoppers.

Similarly, not to be mean, if you are not able to drive at night and not able to figure out a way to bypass this hurdle, then you might not be the type of shoppers they want. They are seeking a particular type of shoppers. By accident they sent an email to me along with a few others. By googling, I found out the other shoppers were sales executive. That is what you are competing against. This is not to discourage you but to actually encourage you to go through the hurdles because you will still have a chance if you work hard for them.

I'm pretty sure I've told this story before, but since this is a fresh Coyle thread I'll repeat it; When I first signed up with Coyle, they were quite a bit smaller and had only 1 restaurant in LA. I waited over 6 months to be accepted and then botched that assignment because I was unprepared for the writing style required. I begged for another chance and finally had a business trip to NYC where I was able to pick up a restaurant there and prove myself. Well...to be honest, I kind of botched that one a little bit too but my writing style was improving so they allowed me to take more shops. I think I was 2 more trips to NYC and 3 more restaurants in before I took a hotel assignment.

The restaurants really are training grounds for the hotels because even the easiest hotel probably has 2 complete restaurant shops included in it. Digging an unprepared evaluator out of a hotel shop gone wrong is a daunting task and so why would they take that on if they have plenty of qualified candidates?

As far as Wales predicament goes; there are certainly ways to make this happen that are probably less involved that flying across the country 3 times. 1=Uber, 2=You live by an amazing rail system that connects cities on the eastern seaboard which literally have hundreds of available restaurants that one could take a cab to/from the train station in order to access at night, 3=There are many shoppers on this forum who would probably love to join you for dinner and even drive in order to get some of your insight about MSing.

I have taken another forum member (and been taken on) some of the best assignments offered by Coyle and other MSCs. It's AWESOME to have another shopper as your guest for so many obvious reasons and if you are dining alone, you will not be getting the value out of these assignments.

Steve,
Many thanks. Your comments are thoughtful and encouraging.

However, since I have for some time been doing other MSC's very high end hotel shops, including a lot of detailed fine dining within hotel and resort complexes, I just am not ready to jump through Coyle's hoops. I often do two night stays, 35+ interactions, two evening FD, concierge lounges, 3 bars, 2 lunches, dry cleaning, valet, shuttle to airport or amusement venue, spa, massage, integrity cash drops all over the property, etc. I do not miss Coyle one bit. I get the hotels where I want to travel, when I want them without Coyle. (Sounds arrogant, but they don't know what they are missing. lol!) I do 3 to 7 hotel shops per month, and the mid-range ones close to home are just for a rest and more rewards points! And, yes, one does have to build up a good cash reserve to pay off the credit cards in full every month while awaiting reimbursement. But, considering the abysmal bank interest rates on saving accounts, that's not such a burden.
As a cherry on top of the sundae, hotel reservations made through ebates provide cash rebates well in excess of what I would have earned by keeping those funds in a savings account. Even 2.5% back from ebates for funds that I waited 8 weeks to get returned by the MSC equates to a super "annualized interest rate."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2015 03:31PM by walesmaven.

I would counter that you may not know what you are missing

In reality, I can count the number of standard Coyle hotel assignments I've done in the past year on one hand, and only half of those were in the USA. It's the specialty assignments that are available once you've proved yourself that make this MSC stand out to me. I don't know of another MSC that offers those sort of opportunities. I'm talking about bottle service for 5 friends at an ultra-lounge, honeymoon-style resorts stays in exchange for a simple dining review, and multi-million dollar residences for a group of friends that include a private chef.

That said, 100% of the assignments I do for them also require a guest, or 2, or 3, or even 4 sometimes. If you are just taking assignments for the fees paid, reward points or a solo assignment, it's probably not worth the work. I probably loose money on all the assignments I do for them. Wait...I definitely loose money on all the assignments, but it's still a great value for me. If I can borrow the old navy slogan; "It's not a job. It's an adventure!"

Thanks, but I turn all of my rewards points from hotel stays into free adventures that do not require a report. I am not about to lose money on hotel shops! I am not a lifestyle enhancement shopper.

I agree with Walesmaven - gotta be an acrobat to deal with Coyle hotel shops. I looked at one assignment in NYC paying $75... I would have maybe agreed to do it for $300.

It is all about what you are looking for out of this. I am a combination lifestyle/fee shopper - that is, I take some assignments for the fees (or rewards/points) and some for the lifestyle opportunity it provides me (where the experience is why I am doing it). While I am a Coyle fangirl, that is the case only for the lifestyle aspect. Coyle is the ONLY company that has ever provided me with experiences that I could not have made possible within my own means (single resort experiences that have a cash value in excess of $25,000).

If lifestyle shopping is important to you - then Coyle should be important to you. But agreed, if you are doing this for hotel points, rebates, fees, or to save money on hotels while you travel for other MSing, then Coyle is probably the last hospitality company you should be considering.

It depends on who the client is. Some Coyle hotel shops are reimbursements and others are charges reversed.

Usually I am on top of every way to get travel points. I have to admit, I never thought about taking the local hotels to get the points. I hereby nominate myself for "Idiot of the year!!!" Thanks Walesmaven, for waking me up!!!

Me too I applied twice and never heard back...what eventually happened...

Please advise which
MSC post hotel stays. I'm new to shopping hotels. Thank you

I'm with wales on this one. I live in the rural Southeast. Their closest shop, which would require another person, is 4 hours from me. Shockingly I'm not a social person with lots of friends that I can take on 4 hour trips and blow money on a hotel in order to do a shop so that in the future I might be able to do another shop so that in the future I *might* get to the shop that I actually want when 2 or 3 other companies already give me those shops.

Sure, maybe I don't know what I'm missing. Honestly I'm not big on "lifestyle" shops when it comes to fancy hotels and expensive dinners, so I couldn't care less about that. And at least one company they're doing hotel shops for now are in smaller cities. Ones where they probably don't have as many shoppers available. Ones that I travel to very often.

I had done 2-3 dining shops before I was picked to do a day trip to a nice resort/attraction. After that, I was able to do a hotel shop. Getting a 20 was the highlight of my MS career. lol I do a dining shop every now and then. It still stresses me out. I edit for another MSC and sometimes I get the writing styles mixed up for other MSC's. Oops...

Hubby and I (we kind of work as a team, he writes, I assist and enjoy!) have done several CD and FD shops for Coyle, and just did our first high-end hotel, which he only got a 78 on. We want to qualify for some of the best resort/hotel shops with them, and wonder if the best/quickest route to the premium hotel/resort shops is to do more lower-end hotel shops, another high-end hotel, or more FD shops. Anyone have any insight to share as to how to progress to move the bar? We gained a great deal of insight and awareness as to what we need to do to do a better hotel shop and hopefully score higher next time. It was much more complex than I think many folks would want to deal with, but Hubby loves the analytical aspect of the process, and he loves free-ish travel, so it's worth it to him to slog through it. Thoughts?

p.s.: Any ideas on the best point to aim for in terms of travel reimbursement when applying for these shops?

As far as travel reimbursement goes; It's a bit of a double-edged sword...like the shoppers who complain about others taking shops before they are bonused. Yes, you stand a better chance of getting an assignment if you bid lower travel costs, but if people keep taking these hard-to-get-to shops for no or low travel, the company will be less inclined to pay travel for any shoppers. They already have lower travel ceilings on many shops than they did in the past, despite travel costs having gone up.

It's been said many times that mystery shopping is different things to different people and this is a good case for shedding a light how true that is. I have shops that I do for money and others I do for lifestyle enhancements, however. I probably shop more for Coyle than any other MSC but my 1099 from them has the lowest total. That said, I am a social person with many friends who enjoy fine dining and travel. I live in a large metropolitan area where there are numerous shops that I don't even have to get in my car to perform, and those shop have a high social value to me, so I enjoy them. Not for the $$ they bring in, but for the experience. For me, the money I earn is largely spent on enriching my life, so taking a shop that does just that cuts the IRS out of the picture in me getting to do what I was going to do anyway.

If you are MSing to make a living at it, this is not going to be a company that you will be happy working for. Every dollar earned from Coyle is a hard-earned dollar. You can generally earn the same money by getting a burger at a FF drive-though, so why write 6 pages of text in exchange for a meal? For me; I generally don't partake in fast food (In-n-Out is my one exception), but Coyle has a restaurant that once was listed in the Guinness book of Records for having the most expensive burger in the world. I will write 6 pages for THAT burger, and I also get an awesome meal for my guest, two glasses of French wine and dessert thrown in! That works for me. It might not work for others.

The apartment shops I have done have all been reimbursed, so yes you do have to front that expense.

Exactly, I would always rather have payment than a reversal on my credit card, have to rack up those points!

I applied and didn't hear back. A few months later, I wrote and asked if I was just not accepted or maybe they had not received my application. The lady who approves shoppers told me that I was not approved because of my close ties in the restaurant industry because I am a chef. I chuckled because I teach kids how to cook and work as a personal chef to families. I have never cooked in a restaurant before!!!! Once I told her that, she approved me. I have done three shops for them and have gotten 16-17 on each. Considering how much writing I do professionally, I am always stunned at the scores. Most companies compliment me on my writing and Coyle just complains. However, I LOVE dining in fine restaurants so I put up with it. I also feel it is good experience for me to have professionals reviewing my writing and giving me feedback. I do not do it for the pay..... that is laughable. But I do it because I love to dine and can't afford to do this type of dining myself. I just got my first full weekend casino assignment from another company. I can't wait. I know it is a lot .... 27 reports in all but I am up for the challenge. Maybe since it is not Coyle, it will be a little easier.

On another note, Coyle is fussy about their guidelines. I have printed guidelines from many companies and sometimes I mix them up. But I have to laugh at the fussy email I get saying "don't you look at the example reports and guidelines?" At the volume I am working, it is difficult to keep them all straight. The one I really hate is "complete this assignment by 5/5/2015.... which actually means do the assignment on 5/5. UGH!

@chefdawn wrote:

I applied and didn't hear back. A few months later, I wrote and asked if I was just not accepted or maybe they had not received my application. The lady who approves shoppers told me that I was not approved because of my close ties in the restaurant industry because I am a chef. I chuckled because I teach kids how to cook and work as a personal chef to families. I have never cooked in a restaurant before!!!! Once I told her that, she approved me. I have done three shops for them and have gotten 16-17 on each. Considering how much writing I do professionally, I am always stunned at the scores. Most companies compliment me on my writing and Coyle just complains. However, I LOVE dining in fine restaurants so I put up with it. I also feel it is good experience for me to have professionals reviewing my writing and giving me feedback. I do not do it for the pay..... that is laughable. But I do it because I love to dine and can't afford to do this type of dining myself. I just got my first full weekend casino assignment from another company. I can't wait. I know it is a lot .... 27 reports in all but I am up for the challenge. Maybe since it is not Coyle, it will be a little easier.

On another note, Coyle is fussy about their guidelines. I have printed guidelines from many companies and sometimes I mix them up. But I have to laugh at the fussy email I get saying "don't you look at the example reports and guidelines?" At the volume I am working, it is difficult to keep them all straight. The one I really hate is "complete this assignment by 5/5/2015.... which actually means do the assignment on 5/5. UGH!

You need to get that straight. That's your problem not theirs. You simply just have to use their format. It's what they want. I rarely do their shops due to the low fees. I can do shops, just as nice, for companies paying me $50 for my report all day long.

Be very careful with the casino shop. If you don't follow the guidelines, you could be risking quite a bit of money. Have fun if you can. That's my favorite kind of shop - super intense casino shops.

I love Coyle jobs. I do Coyle jobs for experiences I would never get otherwise. Or would at least have to pay an arm and a leg for. The requirements are @#$%& incredible, but they have some of the best available training in the business. They are super approachable, easy to work with, they meet you halfway, and the jobs....oh god the jobs.


I do a few jobs a month for them and I expect when I want to do a cruise or hotel I shouldn't have any issues as we do 18+ for the last couple of months now.