I'm new to the Mystery Shopping area, I'm looking for hotel shops and was curios if anyone would be kind enough to share with me the companies that specialize in this or companies that offer such shops. Thanks in advance for all your help.

Freeman Group does a group of budget to mid-priced motels. They pay twenty bucks and reimburse you for the cost of your room. They take a while to pay, so be prepared to wait a few months for your money. The reports are pretty easy, so if I have a need to spend the night to make for a good route of shops, I do them. I just did two last week.

Shoppersteven:

I just looked at their website, I'm not finding a place to sign up with them, do you know where? I must just be over looking it.

Thanks

Here's the web address to the sign-up site:

[shopper.application.freemangroupsolutions.com]

Don't know why they don't seem to have anything in Kentucky but they do in Indiana and West Virginia. I need some motels in southeastern Kentucky.

I'm doing a mid priced one today....there suites and across from the water, except it's threatening to rain, there goes my retreat and walk on the beach. This is a test for a new account coming to one of my favorites MSC's. Hotels go fast, gotta check all the time. I'm guessing Freeman is now o.k., going by this thread.

Yeah, I got paid only two weeks late for a set of shops that I did in December for Freeman. I also didn't even have to ask them about it. That is pretty okay for them, right?

Overall, I agree that they aren't the most reliable company. I only shop for them when I would otherwise be needing to buy a hotel room anyway. That way 3-4 months later when the money comes back with a 20 dollar fee, I'm pretty happy.

I've never *not* been paid nor have I seen any other shopper claim they were never paid.

Irene_L.A. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm doing a mid priced one today....there suites
> and across from the water, except it's threatening
> to rain, there goes my retreat and walk on the
> beach. This is a test for a new account coming to
> one of my favorites MSC's. Hotels go fast, gotta
> check all the time. I'm guessing Freeman is now
> o.k., going by this thread.

Coyle does hotels, and from what I understand pays in a resonable fashion.
Blessyah...check with MarketStat, I know they do hotels, not sure about Kentucky, alot in LA and worth a try, zero work in CA.

Thanks Irene. I'll hunt them down and apply and see what shows up. I am going to have to have some motel or hotels for overnights. Might as well get paid for it. lol

What would you do....I just did a medium priced hotel and called to make reservation after looking online. Phone call charged $25.00 more a nite than online. I told clerk this and asked if he could meet price online. He said no, I should go ahead and make reservation online, which I did. I explained this in report mentioning name of clerk. I just received an email saying report is being sent in, but NSC not sure it will be accepted due to not booking it by phone......clerk would not make it on phone call, told me to book it online...25.00 is quiet a big difference, anyone smart would make it online, if this report is not accepted, what should I do? I would never have gone there on my own.

You could offer to do a "fake" reservation (call - book the reservation, write a narrative/score the standards, and then call back and cancel). This shouldn't cost anything out of pocket and everyone wins.

Regarding the situation in the first place - sometimes we have to do things that "normal" people do not do. For example, a high end hotel during check-in offers to upgrade you from your "low-level" room to a nicer room in a nicer part of the hotel on an upper floor, and you have to say no because the evaluation is specific to the part of the hotel that you orginally booked. You have to say something like you are "afraid of heights" and don't want the very nice upgrade. Obviously not something that any rational person would do (turn down the upgrade). And yes, I have had to do this.

I am assuming that the assignment asked you to raise an objection when booking the reservation, which is why you mentioned to the agent the $25 discrepency. If this is the case, when I was making the reservation and if the $25 deduction was refused like happened to you - I would hesitate and ask to still make the reservation, commenting that you are uncomfortable with the idea of putting your personal info and credit card into the Internet to make a reservation. My mother is like this - and she is always paying more to do stuff over the telephone. Of course WHY she thinks the telephone is any more secure than the Internet is another story. But I digress.

I'm in agreement with Mickey that you should be able to make a dummy reservation call and report it. I would, in fact, just do it and have the info ready for the MSC. You can make the reservatin under a fake name and then cancell it the next day. I don't know of any companies that require the reservation call to be linked to the stay. If you are reporting on the reservation process, they are clearly trying to evaluate the reservationist so it makes sense to require the phone reservation.

I made a reservation for a hotel shop yesterday where I was specifically instructed not to take any 'package' rates when booking a reservation. For $20 less, I could have gotten the same room with free breakfast and free parking. Who would not take that? I know if screams "Shopper", but that the breaks.

The report has been sent in telling the story and mentioning names. I did get the required info. from clerk when I called in to make reservation, but when he told me to book online, he couldn't meet the price, I didn't want to scream shopper......I think he should get kudo's for not coming down in price. I guess it's up to them, since I did call, I think I'm in the right. What purpose would booking a false reservation at this point do?

Thanks Mickey and Steve for your response, yes, I see what you both mean, but still....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2011 05:26PM by Irene_L.A..

It all depends of what's being judged in the reservation call, Irene. That varies by MSC and client. For instance; if there's a standard for receiving an email confirmation within a certain amount of time, then it's important for the purpose of the shop to have a completed reservation made.

If the only requirement was to get the clerks name and judge how they reacted to an objection, I suspect there would have been no question about the shop to begin with.

My suggestion was made to be sure you are prepared to give the client whatever they need to make this a valid shop and get reimbursed for it.

Some clients might want the reservation agent to stick with the quoted price. Others may ding him for potentially loosing a client and not lowering the price. My point is that we shoppers are rarely privy to the inside policies of the clients, and they are rarely interested in the shopper's opinion of what's correct. Guessing at that is one of the main communication breakdowns I've seen between shoppers and MSC's.

The lesson I recently learned is that's it's better to scream, "Shopper" than be stuck with a hotel bill!

Steve,

I get it and will make a false reservation...I guess that is what they wanted in the first place, and yes, better to be "caught" than out the $$, in today's world, everyone would check online, don't ya think? Let's see what happens, but I'll be prepared just in case.

A real-life "no internet" scenario.... two weeks ago I had the kids in the car in Omaha. We took their dad to emerge at one of the big hospitals per instructions by the small hospital in our town. We hung around at a mall, drove around... and finally decided to get a hotel because we were not certain if he would be admitted or not and it was past the kids' bedtime. With a one-year-old and a three-year-old in tow, and without internet service on the phone, I had to internet access. Dragging the kids into a wifi hotspot was not going to happen....

If I had been on a shop, I might have called "from the road" and mentioned I had no internet access at that point.

Update...all looks good, no news is good news, got review and score, report was accepted.