Does anyone do these? Someone must. I'm just curious about how they are to work for. I'm not stranger to long reports. I've done alllll the Coyle shops with ACL easily being another favorite. I just haven't made the jump, but I also feel like the Regal HG are harder to come by.

I had a pretty bad experience with them. I worked with Coyle for years (still do), and I would do a Coyle Hotel shop over Regal anyday.

For one, they pay via check (insanely late too). I had an issue with my check never coming and after it ended up getting sorted out, they disqualified me from performing future shops. Insane..

I completed approx. 1/2 dozen shops for Regal, but after the last, I received a letter stating their payment terms were changing from net 45 to net 90. I quickly terminated our agreement. Any time an MSC takes three mos. to pay, either they are experiencing cash flow problems or they desire to use my money as an interest free loan; the first reason is bad and the second not good.

Shopperbob with another "termination." I love these stories..

I'm thinking @shopperbob has terminated more relationships than most shoppers have signed up with.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2023 02:21PM by hbbigdaddy.

My credit card bill for the hotel stays came due before the reversal from the hotel. I had to pay it to avoid interest and fees. Then when the reversal came through I had a large credit on my account and had to wait a couple of months before the credit card company would issue a check for the large credit. I only use that card for work related expenses and the cost of the 2 hotels was more than I usually spend in many months doing other types of shops.
When I contacted Regal about the timeline for the expense reversals, I was told that it was up to each hotel manager to process it for the stay at their location.

So, what I'm hearing is have a lot of money laying around and it is ok, mostly?

Good to know. I was recently assigned to a hotel but there is no cancellation policy. When I contacted the scheduler, they said that if i cancelled, I would have to pay. Even for unforeseen circumstances. Doesn't seem right.

I did a three night resort , laid out about $1500. My biggest concern was that they weren't dilighted with my report and it would be rejected. Returned to me multiple times for revisions but they did pay me within 2 months. It was my first and only shop with them. Seems that I was assigned a difficult shop prematurely, where they usually assign easier shops to newbies for them to evaluate for later.

Yikes, I’ve been waiting for some October and November hotel shops I’ve had my eye on, but I think I better stay away from them. No one’s really discussed the report content and length? Time to complete a one-night shop? Worse than Coyle you say?

@ravensr4real wrote:

Yikes, I’ve been waiting for some October and November hotel shops I’ve had my eye on, but I think I better stay away from them. No one’s really discussed the report content and length? Time to complete a one-night shop? Worse than Coyle you say?

Definitely worse than coyle.

Does Regal pay travel allowances like Coyle? Do you have to put your bid in when you apply?

@redpanda711 wrote:

Does Regal pay travel allowances like Coyle? Do you have to put your bid in when you apply?

For me they covered my airport transport (the uber from the airport to the hotel because I traveled out of state for them) but that was it.

Interesting. So most shoppers are either local to the hotels, already traveling there, or are willing to pay their own travel costs.

Thanks!

Most of the hotels I've seen offered are in major metropolitan markets. I'm guessing shoppers are taking them for staycations.

I recently did a shop for them. I had mamy questions prior to and on property that I needed help with. The responses I received were either read guidelines or zero response. Well i read them and on one page it says one thing; sample writing said something different and notes said something else. Called for clarification was told would get a response. Wrote draft on property as each interaction took place (5 hours), wrote report at home (8 hours) and did revisions (10 hours). Will not know for 75 days if I will be reimbursed the out of pocket of $980. I do not mind waiting but to not know if you will be reimbursed is very frustrating. Perfer to work with companies that communicate with shoppers.

i have worked for this company on several occasions and do agree with the above… on at least a couple of occasions, they had to revamp their whole report once i pointed an issue out. they do have very poor & confusing instructions.

Prior to Covid, I completed many shops with Regal and had a very good working relationship with one of their schedulers. When Covid hit, I had a heck of a time getting payment for a shop I had done. Now that things have ramped back up, I've applied for 2 shops and didn't get either of them. After reading these comments, I guess I should be grateful I wasn't accepted.

I had a similar issue with one recent job I did for them. The reviewer kept telling me that I did not follow the instruction for one outlet. I had to copy/paste the instruction and sent to her via email to explain. Apparently, what she was expecting was not aligned with the instruction.
That was what I got after a long night of working on that report. I felt that my hard word was not appreciated. One item (in her view, one mistake) in a 150+ pages report, and she told me that I need to review the guidelines. I wanted to throw the 25-pages guidelines back to her face and told her that I read it 5 times already and it was her, who did not read it well, lol.
I am not working for RHG in future, not worth my time.

All I saw is “150+ pages” and that’s all I need to see to know I’m not working for this company

I was looking to apply for a 2 night hotel stay with them. Anyone have any advice?

Same advice as stated in discussions you may find using the Search button

1. Use the verbiage and formatting they require (third person and specific closing paragraph).
2. Make a schedule for yourself before you get to the property and clarify any questions several days before the evaluation
3. Treat the two night stay as the two day work days and write as you go along - if you wait until the evaluation is over you'll be very hard pressed to complete/submit the assignment by the submission deadline.
4. Bring a guest with you so that someone is enjoying the facilities
5. Prepare for significant cash outlay ($500-$1,500) and have the right denominations with you.

Perhaps start with one night stay first and see if this is a good fit for you.

Good luck!

I shopped for them quite a few years ago and stopped because of a payment issue. I figured that whoever worked there at the time had probably moved on and decided to start shopping for them again as 2 of my favorite schedulers are now scheduling their shops. I took a restaurant shop on the beach when I was in the area. After reading the multiple pages of confusing instructions & a shop report that didn't match the instructions, I placed a call to Regal & went somewhere else to sit until they got back to me. My call was never returned so I cancelled the shop. I saw on the shop instructions that it takes up to 90 days to get reimbursed for expenses. I also saw in red (just like the red flag that it ran up with me) something to the effect that they reserve the right to not pay/reimburse for shops that have any mistakes in them. I've done numerous hotel shops for other companies and always have had the folio charges reversed on my credit card within 3 business days (usually sooner). Since they can't even return a call of a shopper who is about to do a shop that day, there is no way that I would put my financial butt on the line for several hundred to over $1,000 in hotel charges. Minor mistakes are a fact of life and are going to happen from time to time. I seriously doubt an entire hotel shop would be rejected by the client for 1-2 minor mistakes. I wonder how many shops Regal gets paid for that they don't pay their shoppers for...

I have done a few for them. There are resort evals and ones that focus on cash payments. You must carry a bunch of cash in small denominations. You front a lot of mobey between the cost of the room and everything that must be purchased during the stay. There is a very detailed way to write up your observations. The full resort evals have several scaenarios that must be followed to test several aspects of the resort. They usually want clarification on something in my report and I generally do not get this with my other reports with other MSCs. I have never had a report rejected though. I do get nervous about having paid out more than $1,000 per stay at times.

I just stopped any incoming emails from them and deleted them from my list of MSC’s. I’ve heard enough.

Where did you see that they don't pay for reports with mistakes? That seems a bit extreme.

I have personally experienced this. Of my three shops, they deducted my pay by 33% (despite me clearly stating it was my first ever hotel shop). It happened on my first and second ever hotel shops. The third one I got a near perfect score.
The second hotel shop I performed the next day, so it was not like I got my feedback and made the same mistakes.

Anyways now I'm banned LOL.

@Luv2Travel123 wrote:

Where did you see that they don't pay for reports with mistakes? That seems a bit extreme.

meant to quote this

Wow! You're banned? I didn't know they could do that.

@jaos02 wrote:

I have personally experienced this. Of my three shops, they deducted my pay by 33% (despite me clearly stating it was my first ever hotel shop). It happened on my first and second ever hotel shops. The third one I got a near perfect score.
The second hotel shop I performed the next day, so it was not like I got my feedback and made the same mistakes.

Anyways now I'm banned LOL.