Anyone experience this? I used to evaluate around 4-5 hotel shops per month... Full scale Ritz, Four Seasons, Hyatt, Marriott, etc.

That also means most, if not all, of my weekends are gone. This past weekend, being a holiday, I did not have a hotel shop to do. I ended up at home with the hubby. We tried to get together with some friends only to realize that most of them have other friends now. I have not seen them in months :'(

The hubby and I agree to only do two hotels a month now. Need more time to be with friends again!

Also, this is another strange effect... My hubby and I actually feel quite bad after doing a high end hotel shop. We look around and see plenty of people our age at these hotels. We would not be able to afford these places on our own, so to see all these people there without sitting down to do a report is depressing!

Yeah, it's hard not to be jealous at times.

When I was checking out from a particularly luxurious hotel evaluation, the hotel had provided a limo back to the airport as part of the shop. They had a Wall St. Journal for me in the car, some Perrier to drink and jazz playing. It was a really luxurious ride to the airport and I was doing my part at looking & feeling wealthy. The driver asked my airline, then automatically pulled up to the first class desk and handed over my bags to them before wishing me a peasant flight.

For me; It's that moment when you have to wrangle you bags back from the first-class attendant and drag them through the terminal to the economy line amidst stares from the airport staff who just saw you get out of a limo…that's when the reality that I'm not actually wealthy comes crashing back into my brain.

I was at a hotel and deciding what to order when comes two teenage boys come sitting down beside us. The meals are $50 per plate... These boys obviously come from wealthy families. I am getting to the point where I am tired of writing these evaluations. I want to figure out a way to be able to afford these places!!! Ahh.

I often feel the opposite. I look around at the beautiful places and am quite proud of myself for figuring out how to stay at these amazing places (Eg I did a 6 night stay where total hotel/food/drink bill was 14,0000 - completely beyond my budget) without being rich! It makes me feel brilliant and terribly ingenious.

I do agree about the side problem of never having time to hang out with friends (though as a divorced person, I often travel with a friend, so that helps there)

Mickey, you are the most well traveled "poor" person I know. You should feel proud of what you manage pull off.

I'm grateful for all of the travel opportunities that I've had, and those are an important part of my life, but there are a few minor points that make a big difference in my perception of what it feels likes to be rich. We both get to travel to exotic lands and stay in 5-star hotels, but for me, being rich means not setting a wake up call, ordering that after-dinner drink I really want, leaving a 'Do Not Disturb' on my hotel room door for over 24 hours or telling the bellman I'm fine to carry my own bag to the room….

And I had a different reason for deciding to ditch hotel shops. I was tired of seeing spoiled, thoughtless and 'entitled to be rude' people. And when I did them outside the US my sense was that they did not generate respect for the US and Americans but rather scorn from locals subjected to their waste and rudeness.

Mickey - where did $14,000 land you? Nice work!

LindaM Wrote:
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> Mickey - where did $14,000 land you? Nice work!


The Maldives. The $14k is everything but the long haul flights... It was amazing.

Flash - while I agree that seeing the ethnocentric, egotistical, American is a definite downside to International travel, it is not limited to mystery shopping. It's there if you travel, with or without evaluating.

Which is why my preference when travelling is to avoid the hotels and restaurants they habit and do my touring with a book in my backpack rather than with a guide herding a group of 40 of the bored who don't know the difference between Neanderthal and Renaissance and are not curious enough to find out.

MickeyB Wrote:
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> I often feel the opposite. I look around at the
> beautiful places and am quite proud of myself for
> figuring out how to stay at these amazing places
> (Eg I did a 6 night stay where total
> hotel/food/drink bill was 14,0000 - completely
> beyond my budget) without being rich! It makes me
> feel brilliant and terribly ingenious.
>
> I do agree about the side problem of never having
> time to hang out with friends (though as a
> divorced person, I often travel with a friend, so
> that helps there)

(Eg I did a 6 night stay where total
> hotel/food/drink bill was 14,0000 -

I HAVE to ask. How much did you have to put up front?

I had to put up front the entire amount - so $14,000. I did have to float the balance for several months. I felt it was worth it for what I received in return.

Linda M,

My goal is to earn enough reward points to buy four nights at the Ritz (and get the 5th night free). Then I get to go and relax, maybe find a couple of dinner shops wherever I go so I don't have mystery shopping withdrawal. :-)

Oh Flash, I am looking for someone on this coast who likes to travel that way. I keep telling my friends I would love to travel with them but they need to ditch the tours including the tours once they arrive, get up late, wander around town and not have the entire day and trip mapped out to the minute etc., eat in whatever hole in the wall looks interesting etc. and stay in a small place the locals stay. I get an assortment of guide books from the library and take the best one with me. Luckily my husband will go with me but I wish my friends would do some trips my style.
Linda M my solution to you is to stay in a lower end place once in a while and you will suddenly feel like you are the richest person around. Puts your life in a better perspective than always comparing yourself to the 2% at the top. I stayed in one of the "not yet refurbished" of a lower end chain that was bought out by a mid priced chain not realizing what that would be like. It was quite interesting. The biggest problem was the lack of working internet connection in my room as almost the entire report was no, no, no with explanations of each no and I had 36 or so "problem" pictures to download. The bed was clean...cannot say that much for the rest of the room though. Suffice it to say I did not walk barefoot. And there were quite a few people living in these one rooms long term.

On day 3 of a 6-nights shop, I realized I was the only one working at an Caribbean couples resort, except for the resort employees.

On the positive side, I was lounging on pool side with tropical drinks and only writing at night. I'd rather do that than cook and clean rooms.

We could afford our own vacation there, but then I would not have the incentive to take a tour and climb the falls, go canoeing, get a facial, eat at a different restaurant every meal (15 restaurants in that resort) and attend the nightly entertainment.

I am retired and like to travel. I have been able to find a few hotel shops and enjoy them. What are some good shopping companies to find more hotel shops?

Hmm... I thought I have hooked up with all hotel shopping companies but I guess not! The longest I have seen is three days. Time to do more research but... maybe not. I am cutting back!

cubbiecat Wrote:
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> On day 3 of a 6-nights shop, I realized I was the
> only one working at an Caribbean couples resort,
> except for the resort employees.
>
> On the positive side, I was lounging on pool side
> with tropical drinks and only writing at night.
> I'd rather do that than cook and clean rooms.
>
> We could afford our own vacation there, but then I
> would not have the incentive to take a tour and
> climb the falls, go canoeing, get a facial, eat at
> a different restaurant every meal (15 restaurants
> in that resort) and attend the nightly
> entertainment.

It amazes me that you wrote about wealthy families paying $50.00 per plate. You are fortunate that you are getting paid to do these kind of shops. Do you have a real job. Mystery shopping is only a supplement to a real job or career. Maybe you need to re-think why you do mystery shopping in the first place.

gbarnes Wrote:
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> It amazes me that you wrote about wealthy families
> paying $50.00 per plate. You are fortunate that
> you are getting paid to do these kind of shops.
> Do you have a real job. Mystery shopping is only
> a supplement to a real job or career. Maybe you
> need to re-think why you do mystery shopping in
> the first place.

Thank you for clarifying why everyone mystery shops. It is always wonderful to hear from an expert on the subject.

gbarnes, mystery shopping is not necessarily only a supplement to other income. I shop part time and it is a supplement for me, but I can see that it could be a legitimate sole source of income for the right person in the right place. Why do you feel it is only useful as a supplement?

There are quite a few people on this board whose sole source of income is mystery shopping. Hey, whatever floats anyone's boat, as they say. I'd probably shoot myself if I had to do MS full time. The reports are killers!

I love to travel! I wish I could find out who does 3-4 day hotel stays. I can sometimes find the extreme lower end shops where I stay one night and others are practically living there. Needless to say, it was not a pleasant experience.

Can anyone hint to me where I might be able to find out? I shop for about 12 different companies but none have the nicer hotels.