So, I'm brainstorming a cool idea, I think, but want to run it past experienced shoppers for their input.

I am retired and so far I'm doing MS for the extra cash and for the amusement factor (you have to admit there IS a humorous factor in doing this, yes?) In my real life, I frequently go on little weekend trips about 100-200 miles from home, I find a nice hotel or B&B and just chill out for the weekend. I walk around, see the sights, find nice restaurants and bars, and maybe hit the spa for some pampering.

I'm wondering if I could incorporate MS in my travels?

I'm thinking I could find a hotel shop in a certain town, stay there for 2 nights, and make it worth my while by finding nearby restaurants, spas, or other activities that I could mystery shop. But I don't know where to begin trying to organize and coordinate all of this. I guess finding a company that offers hotel shops would be a place to start, anyone know one of those?

Also, I'm thinking I would have to work with each scheduler in advance and let them know that I'm doing a 'travel-shop' (yea, I just made that up!). I'd probably have to ask to be allowed a little more flexibility with the specific dates and times I perform shops during the trip and also a little more lenience on due dates for reports.

Boy oh boy, this is sounding complicated to coordinate....but I'm willing to try.

Does anyone have thoughts?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2016 04:16PM by who_am_i.

Check out "route" shops on the forum. There are TONS of route shoppers, I don't happen to be one. Just do a search on "route" and you should be able to get info. Happy shopping!

Realize that there are varieties of hotel shops. If you are shopping an upscale or even mid scale hotel you are very likely to need to spend a good deal of your time writing up the report(s) for the hotel. An upscale hotel assignment is likely to have you evaluating the restaurants within the facility as well as room service so exploring other restaurants would not be a very likely opportunity. Mid scale and lower hotels are likely to be a one night gig.

@who_am_i wrote:

Does anyone have thoughts?

First of all there's nothing wrong with your goal of finding shops that will provide you with a fun weekend away. And though you mentioned being overwhelmed by potential coordination issues, there's no need for coordination to be difficult for something like this once you have some experience as a shopper.

I see that you're brand new to this so for now I'd advise you to keep dabbling in different types of shops, find out what types you like and don't like, and just keep gaining experience. And it's always helpful to continually sign up with more MSC's. And finally, read up on the forums. Most MSC's that have hotel shops are discussed on this forum and you can learn a lot by just reading.

But experience is the key. You're not going to want to rush into hotel shopping until you have developed a general confidence in your shopping abilities on some intermediate to difficult retail and restaurant shops. Just think back to your first shops you discussed here where there was difficulty even in as small a detail as getting a receipt. Even if you happen to find a MSC willing to assign you a hotel shop with little shopping experience, you'll not want to risk hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on a hotel shop until you can consistently complete complicated shops mistake free. And though most MSC's will try to work with you to overcome mistakes on a hotel shop, there are certainly mistakes that cannot be overlooked and may result in invalidation of a report putting you out of a good chunk of money.

I do it. I travel to 3 neighboring states. I am willing to drive to another state if I can stack no fewer than 3 hotel shops in a row. I have done as many as 5 in a row. You spend a great amount of your time writing reports and handling tasks. Its really not a pleasure cruise most of the time. When I would check out of one hotel- I would then write the report before I checked in to the next. Thats a good amount of the time in between. On average my hotel reports take as few as 1.5 hours and as many as 4 hours. It really depends on the client. I have managed to obtain a lot of different reward credit cards with awesome initial spend bonuses. The MSC shops help me to spend a lot in a short amount of time and I get the rewards. For example: Hilton American Express had a 70k bonus if you spent 3k in 3 months. With several MSC shops and hotel shops - I spent it in 5 days. Then I moved on to a new card with similar rewards. I was able to build more airline, hotel and car rental perks than I could mention. You have to have good credit to make it work. Apply for the cards all on the same day. Then just build your trips around it. Some people would say it is not worth it; but, I was able to go to Hawaii with my spouse with free airfare, hotel and car. We priced it at a 14k trip once you added everything together - so It's all in how you look at it. We also just redeemed points for a free 7 night cruise on Royal Carribeans largest ship. Its all in perspective. The thing about doing this is - you have to be able to float the amount owed to you. There were months that I was owed in excess of 4k. Thats risky. I built a rapport with the MSC before ever attempting this to make sure they were reliable in their payment. Some of the MSC that have hotels are very competitive- all I can say is that It takes time. But, the rewards far outweigh my expenses.

Wow, I need to thank each of you: CureMS, Flash, Saacman and Whatagirl for sharing with me a tremendous amount of information! What I take away is that my idea is possible but perhaps not advisable until I have some more experience. It is true after all that I am only into my second week of mystery shopping and only one week ago I wrote about forgetting a simple receipt....

I will definitely be doing some more reading and research and I'll keep practicing with various types of shops. So far I've completed two apartment shops-which I really enjoyed doing, a few furniture shops, a gym shop and a dozen or so drive through photo shops. This week I am trying out a utility shop, a reveal audit with a healthcare company, a restaurant shop and yet another apartment shop.

The bottom line is that I'm really happy I found mystery shopping, and while I am enjoying myself, I need to keep these grandiose ideas in check and pay my dues as a newbie....at least until I gain a little more experience. Nonetheless, I think I'm here to stay folks! :-)

Thanks again!
Hugs*