Anyone else doing the hotel signs audit where you run around 2 consecutive days a week to take photos of meeting room signs at 8 hotels? How is your experience? I completed the first week today, and am considering resigning. The hotel staff recognized me from the day before and starting to watch me like a hawk!

That job doesn't sound too fun!

I've done the event board audits for a little over 2.5 years now. I currently have 5 that I visit. I visit them 3 days per week (T/W/SA). Over the 30 months I have been to 11 different hotels. Of the 6 that I no longer visit, there were 3 of them where I obtained little/no valuable information and I was told to not visit them anymore. Another location I'm not sure why they told me not to visit anymore, and 2 of the locations I was kicked out and told not to return.
The idea of people entering hotels and obtaining information on events being held is not new. The Knowland company has been sending their spies into hotels for decades. Also, individual hotels also send their sales teams into competing hotels with the goal to obtain the events happening in the competing hotels.
My advice would be to not give up. The amount in visit fees for 8 hotels is many thousands of dollars in the course of a year.
Take some time and study the hotels entrances/exits/hallways. For the 5 hotels on my route, I can either entirely or nearly entirely avoid ever being seen by the front desk staff by using alternate entrances/exits that avoid the main front entrance. Just yesterday I did all 5 of my visits and I never used any front entrance. I realize that this isn't always possible, but it's worth putting in a little extra time to drive/walk around the site and see the location of ALL entrances/exits.
If possible, you could also vary the time of day when you visit so as to not be seen by the same person(s). Again, I know that this isn't always possible.
I would also email Shannon at the MSC and ask if she has a general list of tips.
If you're visiting your 8 hotels each 3 times per week like I do, that's $240 per week, which $12K per year. Don't you dare give up that kind of money without putting in some time/effort to make it work! You'll love the 20th of each month when the payment hits your PayPal. I know I do. And hey, as I write this it's almost the 20th!
Good luck, I hope it works out for you.

where I live there is no free parking -- and when I have asked if they reimburse parking I did not get a response at all.

Do you have Shannon's email address to share?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2025 08:20AM by BarefootBliss.

That's the dealbreaker for me.

@teacherguy wrote:

and 2 of the locations I was kicked out and told not to return.

@BarefootBliss, it's Shannon@bestmark.com

@jazzzyjd, the pay is just the flat fee with no reimbursements for parking or anything else.
For my 5 assigned hotels, 2 of them are in a suburban area and have large parking lots and unattended front entrances, so parking at those is not an issue.
The other 3 hotels that I visit are downtown. They all have valet attended front entrances. There was 1 single time that I parked at the front entrance, telling the valet that I would be only a few minutes. He was fine with it and I had no further problems that day.
Otherwise, I park on the street. Monitoring of the street parking doesn't begin until 9am, so I try and visit the downtown hotels before 9am so I don't have to pay. Sometimes my schedule won't allow for that, so I just take a chance and park on the street anyway. I've not yet received a parking ticket.
One of the downtown locations does have 3 parking stalls in their parking lot that are "10 minute parking for check in/out." Sometimes I use 1 of those stalls when I'm visiting after 9am. I've had no issues with using one of those stalls.
The MSC suggests in the guidelines that you park at the front entrance, in a place that is out-of-the-way as possible. Tell the valet that you will be inside for just a few minutes, and usually they will be fine with it. That strategy really doesn't do it for me.
If I had to pony up a buck or 2 each time to park downtown, I would do it. My 5 hotel route 3 days per week generates $7.5K in fees annually. A few hundred in unreimbursed expenses would not deter me, but of course I am unaware of your specific situation and how much in potential expenses that you're facing.
As I said in a previous post on this thread, taking the time to circle the property will most likely create opportunities. You might find good/free places to park. You might find alternate/advantageous entrances and exits that will allow you to avoid being seen by the front desk staff. This is a lucrative gig, research it thoroughly before giving up on it. I hope it works out! Cheers!

@MSF, it's just part of the gig. The interaction might be uncomfortable, but it will be uncomfortable for about 1 minute. You'll be exiting the property immediately, and your email to the MSC explaining the interaction is something they have seen many times before. Trust me, you're not the first person to email them and tell that you got kicked off a property.
I've been kicked off property twice. One of the instances was as pleasant and professional as it could be. The hotel person had watched me on their security cameras taking pictures of the event signs, and she approached me and asked why. I told her that I was the data gathering person for a research project that is noting the events happening in select hotels in the city (which is true, btw). The staff member paused for a bit, then asked me who was sponsoring the project. The MSC guidelines state at this point to go ahead and tell them the sponsor, and so I told her. She was familiar with the company name and the project that they sponsor. She politely asked me to leave, and I wished her a good day and immediately left the property.
The other instance wasn't so pleasant, but it was no big deal. The facility staff person asked, "What are you doing here you don't belong here." As I started to answer his question, he interrupted me and told me that he really didn't care why I was there. He told me to turn around, leave the property, and never return. So I did.