evening hotel parking lot audits for About Face.

Was solicited for eve parking lot audits at hotel sites. Per the instructions, you report to a specified location, geo verify, take a pic, complete the inspection and report. It seems if you find zero "leads" per their definition then one receives zero compensation.
I sent an email questioning this and received an immediate response. It supported the program but confirmed what I conveyed although the respondent stated no survey had to be completed if there are no "leads." I am unsure what the reporting entails except a photo submission and geo verify will be required even for locations with "no leads."
I am wondering what others think of this? All I can think is what is About Face thinking? I have asked this of the contact that send out the solicitation in a second e-mail which was not responded to (yet?) I am in disbelief that About Face would think this is a reasonable way to treat a shopper. Am I missing something here?

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It seems to me if you performed the shop you should get paid no matter what but if the shop instructions are firm on the no pay for zero leads, then those are the rules. Then it's upto you whether you want to risk doing the shop.

Seems that whenever you report at the location where you are supposed to be, that the situation is as it is, you report it that way and should be compensated. If it doesn't work that way (oddly) this should be clear in the guidelines.

They don't give you specific locations to go to. You can go to any hotel on the list of acceptable ones as long as they are within 50 miles of one of their target cities. So say you're doing a route at night (since it's from 6pm till 11pm for the parking audits) and you pass a Holiday Inn. You drive through the parking lot noting any work vehicles, snap a picture of the sign (making sure location tagging is on, you don't need to geoverify) and you're off. Then you just report the companies that were parked in the lot with as much detail as the car/truck had on it. If there aren't any work vehicles, it took you 2 minutes max to drive around the parking lot so you're not out anything.

You are out two minutes. Regardless, showing up on a site deserves some sort of compensation, period.

@jasimon1 wrote:

If there aren't any work vehicles, it took you 2 minutes max to drive around the parking lot so you're not out anything.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

The key is though, they didn't tell you where to show up; you chose when and were to be out those 2 minutes. It would be different if they gave you a route of hotels to go to and you had to stop at each one and potentially not get paid for some. This is at will, you stop when you want to, don't when you don't want to. The client isn't going to pay them for a bunch of no lead stops so why should they pay you for them?

@LisaSTL wrote:

You are out two minutes. Regardless, showing up on a site deserves some sort of compensation, period.

@jasimon1 wrote:

If there aren't any work vehicles, it took you 2 minutes max to drive around the parking lot so you're not out anything.

I did this project the first time around back in July. They've changed the rules now, they used to pay a nominal $1 if you had a location with no leads but the price per lead was slightly less.

I was paid via Paypal about 6 weeks later. I found the data entry to be onerous, especially late at night. We have a lot of hotels in my town so I was able to do about $40 for 3 hours of work.

Obviously we each place a different value on our time. I don't pull off the road unless it is for a personal errand or I am being paid. According to the OP, they still had to take a picture and report the visit in some way. All things that deserve pay.

@LisaSTL wrote:

Obviously we each place a different value on our time. I don't pull off the road unless it is for a personal errand or I am being paid. According to the OP, they still had to take a picture and report the visit in some way. All things that deserve pay.

That's fine. I quit doing it because they limited the cities you could do it in and I was only doing it on business trips when my choice was sit in a hotel or drive down hotel row making some extra cash. With the new rules, you don't do anything if you don't see a work vehicle which is why you don't get $1 anymore for reporting no leads. It was sort of pointless to report no vehicles before since then you couldn't report that hotel again for a month. It's not like anyone knew you were only reporting it when you saw a car and thus got $5 instead of $1.

Effective 10/9/2017, payment has increased from $1.50 per lead to $2.00 per lead.

I just looked at doing this locally, but I'm not close enough to a major city.

As far as payment, I'm guessing the MSC only gets paid for leads, which is why they are only paying for them.

The short list just made me wonder which hotel/motel chain (or business-to-business company) it is. I know someone who works in construction and often goes out of town in just this kind of vehicle, and they usually stay in the cheaper places that you can find almost everywhere.

I believe its a company that books travel for companies and not a specific hotel chain.

of course now I am curious what they are trying to find out by this shop.

They are trying to get sales leads. We tell them what companies need hotel rooms and they contact them.

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