The main thing for hotel shopping noobies to realize is that you are going to be working on your reports all of the time that you are on the property. There will be little to no time for anything else, and be sure to double check everything that cannot be re-done once you check out. Roldan, for all of his tedious ways, was kind enough to review with me ahead of my first time what these gotchas would be.
Like much of mystery shopping, the real issues are in the level of real compensation for the time spent, gas money, wear and tear on your vehicle. I was a little stunned that I outlaid more than $1200 to make, what, $100 per day on a luxury hotel assignment. I was hoping to parlay this into more frequent luxury hotel assignments, but it turned out that being there without actually being able to enjoy the place, for so little pay, was just untenable.
If hotels, or any other mystery shopping client, want quality work they will have to triple or quadruple what is actually going to the shoppers. Right now, the whole system seems predicated on churning and burning newcomers instead of compensating experienced shoppers. Everyone is chasing a perfectly reasonable dream of being their own boss and having the freedom of the open road and little supervision, and if you didn't have to stay up all night and wear out your car to do it, for a quarter of what your old job paid, that could be wonderful.
The work that I did on this luxury hotel, and other high-end, high-narrative shops that I've done, brought me many times that level of pay for similar work when I was a professional in industry. That mystery shopping asks professional level work from us at minimum wage shows the con in the gig eCONomy.
(Edit to reflect another poster's comment): TrueGuest pays in par, or better, than others for hotel/restaurant/bar shops. The pricing issue is an industry one.
(Edit to Edit: Actually, they pay below par. See thread below)
Doing my best, every day
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2019 09:24PM by Shoshi99.