Hey everyone

I'm a newbie to Mystery Shopping (Be Gentle), however a veteran of Hotel Management. Coming from 14 years of senior hotel management in Australia, Canada and Indonesia. I'm currently looking at applying at Coyle for Customer Experience Mystery Shopping. I was wondering if someone can give me a heads up of what to expect? If I can come in prepared and knowledgeable then I think I'll have a much better shot.

What does a checklist look like for a Hotel Mystery Shop? What do you grade?

Here's SOME of what you should expect in a package of surveys:

Reservations Call - Time and Date of call, formatted to their specifications. How many rings? Correct scripted greeting? Type of rooms available and their features? Did they ask for the sale? Closing quote? Narrative. (This alone took 10 paragraphs.)

Valet - Time and Date? Greeting? Assistance with vehicle? Assistance exiting from vehicle? Opening quote? Closing quote? Narrative.

Bell Arrival/Acclimation/Departure - Time and Date? Greeting? Assistance with luggage? Opening quote? Closing quote? 3 separate narratives.

Front Desk - Time and Date? Greeting? Opening quote? Room and rate? Closing quote? Narrative.

Housekeeping - Initial Impression/Stay Over/Turn Down/Request - Capture images of where luggage placed. Images of room from different angles. Images of defects. 4 separate narratives. Numerous images - initial/before/after. Scheduled for a two night assignment? It's possible that you test stay over and turn down service twice.

Service Recovery - Time and Date? Greeting? Opening quote? Sense of urgency? Issue resolved? Closing quote? Narrative.

Room Service - Time and Date of call, formatted to their specifications. How many rings? Correct scripted greeting? Knowledge of menu? Did they upsell? Did they ask for the sale? Expected delivery time? Closing quote? Arrival time? Temperature of food? Expectations met? Table set up correctly? Order correct and complete? Opening quote? Closing quote? Tray pick up request. Tray pick up time. Images of covered plates. Images of uncovered plates. Narrative.

Facility - Similar to room, but instead for the property.

Maintenance - Similar to Service Recovery.

Pool - Specific to the pool.

Fitness Center - Specific to the Fitness Center.

Bar - Well if you're up to a hotel shop, then you know what to expect.

Lounge - See above.

Dinner - See above, in addition to separate narratives for reservations process/call, management, food/facility.

Breakfast - See above.

Spa - reservations, facility, treatment, service recovery, cashier - times required. Five separate narratives. Six, if you test retail.

Front Desk Observation - Observe for 30 minutes. You know the drill.

Bell Observation - See above.

Wake Up Call Request - Time and Date? How many rings? Greeting? Opening quote? Closing quote? Narrative.

Wake Up Call Receipt - Time and Date? How many rings? Greeting? Opening quote? Did they provide the day's weather forecast? Did they offer coffee/tea/to connect you to In Room Dining? Closing quote? Narrative.

PBX - Time and Date? How many rings? Greeting? Opening quote? Closing quote? Narrative.

Bell Departure Interaction - See above.

Front Desk Departure Interaction - Yep, by now you know what they're looking for. Narrative.

Valet Departure Interaction - See above.

Subjective/Overall Impression - Let loose with your subjective opinions. "Tell the client what they might not know."

One of my recent hotel evaluations had 37 pages of single spaced, 10 pt. font text - just for the narratives. Expect to capture approximately 30-40 images that need to be uploaded, and formatted and labeled to their specifications.

You may also find this thread helpful: www.mysteryshopforum.com/read/6/447295/447633#msg-447633

Please let us know if you decide to apply for the opportunity - and if you are scheduled, how it goes.

Good luck!

***Edited to reorder sequence of interactions.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2019 05:23PM by Professional Guest.

Oh, and you probably have to complete a few restaurant surveys before they are willing to assign you a hotel survey.

Sometimes they will require up to 10 phone call shops and restaurant shops before they give you a hotel shop. It depends on how badly they need the shop filled and what the shopper pool in the area you want to shop is like. If they have lots of proven shoppers in that area, you might not get a hotel shop for awhile. Definitely register with them and start applying for shops. There have been shoppers who were able to get a hotel shop right away because of special circumstances. I personally like Coyle shops. There are others who hate them.

@Goodman_DJ wrote:

Hey everyone

I'm a newbie to Mystery Shopping (Be Gentle), however a veteran of Hotel Management. Coming from 14 years of senior hotel management in Australia, Canada and Indonesia. I'm currently looking at applying at Coyle for Customer Experience Mystery Shopping. I was wondering if someone can give me a heads up of what to expect? If I can come in prepared and knowledgeable then I think I'll have a much better shot.

What does a checklist look like for a Hotel Mystery Shop? What do you grade?

You have 14 years of senior hotel management and have no clue what a hotel mystery shop checklist looks like?

I guess his hotels never got shopped.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

I guess his hotels never got shopped.

I think the correct assumption would be that his hotels never got shopped by COYLE.

My assumption is this person wants some feedback on Coyle reports before hiring them. Perhaps I have the wrong assumption.

@bgriffin wrote:

My assumption is this person wants some feedback on Coyle reports before hiring them. Perhaps I have the wrong assumption.

If this was directed towards my most recent reply, it wasn’t directed to you.

I think your assumption is correct, other than the fact that the OP would not be hiring Coyle, but instead deciding to move forward in the application process for a hotel assignment.

Pretty certain Griff knew that you were directing your reply towards me.

Here are the points that stick out to me in that post:

1. 14 years of SENIOR hotel management means probably either a GM or management level in a company that owns multiple hotels. That would probably be a person in the position to HIRE a company to perform mystery shops.

2. 14 years of senior hotel management sounds like someone who has been around long enough to be making well above average income but likely not retired. Not a typical mystery shopper. Plus if they're in hotel management they likely would not be interested in performing even more hotel type work as a hobby.

3. The use of the phrase "Customer Experience Mystery Shopping" is fairly formal sounding. Like perhaps the phrase Coyle might use in sales literature or emails. Not the phrase someone who was interested in becoming a shopper for Coyle would use.

4. Most people who would be interested in becoming a shopper for Coyle would be most interested in the process for getting a shop, not what the shop would look like. However someone who was interested in hiring Coyle might be very interested in what a shop might look like.

5. I still find it hard to believe that someone who has SENIOR hotel experience in 3 different countries would have 0 experience with hotel mystery shopping.

Or I could be way wrong. It happens like 549 times a day......