I do luxury hotel mystery shops. I love them. I try to keep two minds when doing them: be personally humble, polite and gracious that I get to stay in wonderful places for free, but also try to remember that the kind of people who can plop down mega bucks for a vacation tend to be very needy and expect a lot of service.
So I got sent out to review a hotel out in the Hamptons: one night cost me $525. The "hotel" is in a converted summer camp, touted on their website as having grills. So when I gotta call up the hotel before my stay and ask questions, I ask if the grills are gas or charcoal, and if fuel is provided. I was told charcoal was provided so, hey, great, toss some franks and some ground beef into my suitcase and prepare to grill when I get there.
Turns out they don't have charcoal though. Okay, no big deal. I'm told by the person checking me in that I can rent a bike from the hotel and go to the nearest supermarket and buy some. And here's where the two mentalities in my brain start to come into conflict.
I'm a healthy young man who wouldn't have an issue biking on a beautiful clear day in the Hamptons, though it would take me a half hour or 45 minutes I planned to spend relaxing.
If I pretend I'm a more typical guest at a luxury hotel though: should I expect them to offer to have someone go GET me charcoal? Again, I'm dropping $525 a night, you'd think they'd be bending over backwards for me, right?
So when it comes time to say whether or not the hotel "owned and executed" my requests and "proactively offered assistance", what should I say, yes or no? Mentality 1 says yes, mentality 2 says no. I'm opening it up to you guys to see what you'd say.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2015 04:44AM by Misanthrope.