I recently joined this forum and have been doing some reading here. Hotel shops sound very interesting to me - the idea of getting away for even just one night and getting reimbursed for it and then getting rewards points in hotel programs definitely works for me. I am not asking which MCS's I should be checking into for this - I am happy to do the research myself. My question is - I have read here that hotel shops can be a real pain. Just wondering why this is the case? The length of the report? Complexity of the details? Numerous interactions with staff that all require heavy narrative? All of the above? Also curious too - I live in a large city - do you typically take these shops near where you live, or do you typically have to travel a ways to take hotel shops? Any info/advice will be mucho appreciated by this relative newbie!

Welcome Squire.

The complexity of the report depends on the quality of the hotel. I've only done one hotel shop and that was for Days Inn. I think the report was about 4 pages without too much narrative. It gave me time to get 5 other shops done that same day. I think everyone would agree though that Days Inn is a 3-star property. If you get into 4 and 5 star properties [from what I've read here], then you're looking at longer narratives and less free time. The trade off is that you're staying at a much nicer property.

To get started, I'd look at doing a 3-star property like Days Inn, Quality Inn, Holiday Inn, etc. to get your feet wet. That way, you have time to do a few other shops if you want, or if you're getting away for an overnight trip, you have time to do a bit of sightseeing. Another advantage, if your report is rejected, you're not going to be out a tremendous amount.

squire,
I take hotel shops both close to home nd when traveling. Hotel staff are aware that there are numerous reasons why a "local" would spend the night. (House being painted or worked on in other ways that generate dust, odors, or hazards for a day or two, caretaker respit, loss of power water, etc, staying in town after/before a big event/meeting, etc.)

The number of interactions required and the narrative intensity varies greatly with the MSC. Coyle, for instance, is famous for being narrative intense. Others are quite simple. Try one from any each company that you find and see what best suits you. BTW, with Coyle, you need to do some of their fine dining shops before you will be considered for their hotel shops.

Hi Squire - it definitely varies from MSC to MSC and from hotel rating to hotel rating. The hotel shops I've done are for the highest rated hotels, and have approximately 22 interactions (one-night stay). Each required a report of 2-8 pages including comments on all responses (not just on no answers) plus significant narrative, photos and a credit and cash outlay during the stay. The compensation and experience make it a worthwhile venture for me once or twice a year but would be way too exhausting to do regularly! I am usually writing or taking notes through the majority of the "free time" on the stay plus working for another 4-6 hours after checkout to finalize everything. It's no vacation but does offer a luxury experience I wouldn't necessarily splurge on otherwise.

I do hotel shops every now and then. I mostly do them for a certain MSC who also needs help with fine dining deadlines -- so I crash the weekend in a city a little bit away and do multiple hotels and restaurants. I just did an Extended Stay hotel shop two days ago. I will tell you this. I stay in hotels for my job a lot (120 nights last year) and some of them are quite nice. At that Extended Stay shop, I actually felt uncomfortable at the location. So much so I had to go home to sleep and just sneak back in the next day to check out. The ESA shop was extremely easy. The nice hotel shops I do aren't. I don't find the narratives hard, as I write volumes for my job and have an ease with writing. It's just the amount of nonsense I have to remember to do. For example for one night, I generally have to do this:

1) Restaurant Audit
2) Bar Audit
3) Room Service Audit
4) Break that toilet, see how he repairs it
5) Wake up call
6) Bellman x2
7) Valet x2
8) Front Desk x2
9) Gym
10) Pool
11) Business Center
12) Try to get the house keeper to open my room
13) Seeing if I can get the front desk to give me a key to my room without ID
14) Concierge
15) HHonors Benefits (if Hilton, because I'm a Diamond).
16) Call the front desk and see if they follow the redirecting the call procedure. Check the phone lights/voicemail function.

It's just tedious doing all that.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2013 11:40PM by rawraw.

I really enjoy the hotel shops. You knock out the observations in the first two hours, do you your "wake up call" and request for razors..ect....when all that's done, you relax for the rest of the evening...and then get up in the morning to evaluate the breakfast

So relaxing...and the more I do of them..the faster I get...

rawraw,
What you describe is only a sort of medioum hotel shpp in terms of the report and interactions. I will take that one as fast as I can get them!

I agree with walesmaven. I have done 25 interaction shops and I'm lucky if I'm not interacting or writing from 2pm (I try to check in early) until 1:30am (when I'm groggy). One time, I scheduled myself 20 minutes to swim in the outdoor pool and it was heaven! Then, it was out of the pool and evaluate the bar, walk the grounds for the 2nd time and then clean up and evaluate dinner. I did one 3,000 room hotel with 25 conference rooms and I had to peek in every single conference room (occupied or not), on top of everything else. That one was over the top, even for me.

I almost exclusively do hotel shops. The vast majority of the ones I do are 2 or 3 night stays. I rarely do a 1-night stay. I do not consider them to be a pain in general (although there are certain ones that are). Rather or not they are a pain does not necessarily correlate with the star-level or the MSC, although there are certainly trends.

I focus on MSCs that either a) pay a somewhat healthy fee - which to me is at least $100 per night, and depending on the assignment, up to $300 per night and of course full travel reimbursed or b) offer an experience that I want - i.e. nights in a resort that is beautiful and beyond what I can comfortably afford and/or in an area that I want to see.

The companies that offer me a (the nice fee and full travel reimbursement) are generally not also offering me b (a desirable experience that I am willing to work for). Sometimes that is the case (which is shopping nirvana) but it is rare.

99.9% of the hotel shops I do are away from home. I did three hotels in 2012 that were within the major metro area of the city I reside in. I rarely take the local shops (although I can think of about 20 that are offered locally) because the "experience" of staying in a hotel in my local city is just not worth it to me. I would only take a local hotel shop if they fee/pay was high enough, and many just are not. The other 50+ hotel shops I did in 2012 were at least 150 miles from where I live. I would say 90% of the time, the reason why I am traveling to a particular area is because I have a hotel shop there.

For me - hotel shops allow me to travel and see the world much more than I would be able to do on my own. I have literally been "around the world" because of hotel and resort shops. While writing the narratives and doing the shop can be somewhat of a pain, and while sure I would prefer that someone just gave me a free hotel night and free airfare overall I consider it worthwhile.

In terms of your questions - it just varies so much. I work for one company that has very little narrative (in the end about 2 pages tops) but the amount of checklists and detail and nuances that you are responsible for (and the fact that the report is due within 2 hours of check-out) mean that I am working 8-10 hours each day I am on-site. I work for another company where 50 plus narrated pages for a 2 night stay is the norm. Neither is necessarily better for me - again my criteria for accepting a shop is soley based on either a high fee and full travel reimbursement or a really kick-a$$ experience.

I have just recently ventured into Hotel shops and think my niche is the nicer relatively inexpensive ones. My first was a Hilton Garden Inn in my town as a trial. I invited my friends over, got a bottle of wine and we sat on the comfy queen beds and watched movies. My husband met me for the breakfast buffet (he had to dog sit for the night). it was a lot of fun. The report was not at all difficult. Two hours tops. This weekend I am doing two ESA's back to back and hopefully will not regret it. The report looks easy enough and my dog can come along. One is in wine country, the other is a beach town close by.
Seems to me the less the place offers the less work it is...these places have no valets, no restaurants, no lifeguards if they have a pool, no spas. Fine with me to just type up the report on the front desk and check out and ask for toothpaste.

Just to add....
Observations for pool, gym, and business center for many hotels do not actually include interactions. They just want to check to see if the areas are clean and well supplied.

Also, don't beak the toilet too often or you will be IDed as a shopper. Take along a miniature tool kit and loosen or disconnect something, or remove and hide a light bulb, or flip the GFI to the "off" position for that maintenance call.

Finally, I always request more toiletries and then donate them to the local women's shelter. Afterall, if you leave them in the room, they will be thrown out.

I learned the "shake the lightbulb" trick and that was handy as long as you call down fairly shortly after check in (shake it until the filament breaks/separates). Inexpensive and easy fix. Someone once said to switch the batteries around in the remote, which seemed somewhat clever. The last hotel shop I did, the batteries cover for the remote was screwed in!

tsk,
Yup. that's why I carry my Swiss Army knife, with a screw driver, lol.

What a nice forum this is. Thanks to everyone for your advice. I am thinking that it might be a good idea trying to get a shop for a two or three star property to start with - it seems that less stars may equal less complexity and maybe more time by the pool? (I live in Phoenix, that is why I can say this in January but lately its been kind of chilly here, too). Will do the research and sign up with more MSC and see what happens.....My ultimate dream is to do some hotel shops in Tucson as it is only two hours south of me and has a lot of touristy things to do and see.....I'd love to do these shops too in the off season when Tucson is not so overrun with tourists, so we'll see.....

I am going to do my first hotel next week. It does not look like a lot of paper work but it is not an expensive site. I have been afraid to do them so I figured I better start out with an easier one. I also lined up seven jobs to do between the two days so I will make something...

Best of luck to you, Albert! I'm always a bit nervous when I'm taking on a new type of assignment.