@OHGuy wrote:
Fees and reward points only go so far when you factor in the cost of travel and the value of your time writing up the report.
I think that's really the heart of the discussion about lifestyle shops and the differences between the various MSCs that offer them. Good points from OHGuy.
While I certainly have been guilty of losing money to take some assignments, those particular assignments carried a value to me that was greater than the cost. The main point being with most lifestyle shops (for me at least) is that it doesn't generally matter if a shop pays $75 or $100. That $25 differential would not make me take or cancel an assignment. My time in performing the assignment and completing the report is worth so much more than the MSC could possibly pay, the experience generally has to be the payoff.
I start back to work full-time this month for the remainder of the year, so my hotel shopping has com to a close for this year. I took two final hotel assignments to close out my year; One from Coyle that offered a luxury experience in a seaside town I wanted to visit. Another from Regal for an airport hotel where I really wanted the points. Both offered the same pay rate and Coyle gave me enough enough travel $$ so my financial profit from each would have been nearly identical.
The Coyle report was arduous. They upgraded my status with the hotel chain and that required yet one more additional form I had to fill out, as well as extra attention fro the staff that created even more work. Per my usual M.O. I didn't do any reporting at the hotel, but it took me all day Saturday and Sunday after returning home to complete the report. That said, it was an amazing experience at the hotel. Food was covered for the entire stay and the restaurant was one of the best I have been to in a while. The bill was around $2,000 for everything, and we had a bottle of wine and snacks sent up to the room on top of that. I was a great vacation that I was moderately happy to exchange a weekend sitting in front of my computer for.
The Regal report would also have been arduous. Upon going over the instructions and speaking with the scheduler, I was informed that i could not utilize my status with the hotel chain upon check-in. I could only request points for the stay after check-out. Now...this is an airport hotel. Getting the worst possibly available room at this very basic property when I have platinum status with the hotel chain, not receiving any points for all of the F&B that had be paid in cash, waiting for the cash reimbursement and eating breakfast from the airport hotel buffet was starting to seem like a bad deal, especially with a reporting window much tighter than Coyle (albeit less narrative required). I was feeling hesitant after having such a great experience at the previous hotel and then the jury duty summons showed up for the very day I was scheduled to check in.
Perhaps it was divine intervention. I was looking for a sign and there it was. Despite the fact the the hotel is literally walking distance for the court I need to be at, there was no way I was going to sully my final hotel stay of the year by sitting in a jury pool al day for $15, drinking cheap vodka at the hotel bar in the evening for another $75, and then staying up all night to report on it. I scanned the jury summons and sent it the scheduler. They were happy to release me and the hotel was immediately scheduler to another shopper. Someone that hopefully needed the hotel points more than I did. We all have our own priorities....