I have been rather disillusioned about them. I signed up after seeing repeated ads for shoppers needed in a few areas reasonably close to me. I immediately got a restaurant shop at a seaside resort, but not for fine dining--for a very medium-grade sports bar. I also was disappointed in the score I got for something I worked hard on. I lost a point for lateness even though I alerted them immediately that I was ill the morning after I did the shop. Anyway, I thought I was getting my foot in the door and earning experience points.
There was nothing else advertised for months. Then there was a hotel shop in a nearby city I visit often. I know they advise that you get lots of experience with restaurants before expecting to land a hotel, but I wasn't getting any opportunities for experience. Also, I had evaluated hotels for three other companies, including two MORE upscale hotels in the same city than the one they were listing, and had even stayed previously in the one that was to be evaluated. Not only did I not get the hotel shop, but they kept it listed as open, only without letting me know one way or the other, for weeks after I applied. I finally contacted them to see if I was even still in the running, and they told me that it had been assigned to another shopper.
After several more months of seeing nothing listed, I wrote and asked whether or not they actually had any restaurants within 100 miles of my home other than the sports bar I had already shopped and was ineligible to do for a year. I noted that I was really hoping to get experience in order to be able to compete for any other hotel shops. They confessed that they only had one other restaurant client in my region, and it has yet to show up as a listing.
When they said they needed shoppers in these areas, I was expecting to see more than one restaurant listing per year. I feel this was misleading, and I was really hoping to earn some nice shops from them. As I mentioned, I am very experienced at restaurants and hotels. I have done nicer hotels and have even done a spa, but that seems to not be good enough. Just think if I applied for a cruise!