@kpersaud wrote:

Nope! I don't get anything in this area from them but folks I've spoken to on Reddit seemed to seemed to be active with them. Similarly, other folks use TrueGuest but I can't find anything from them. Maybe both of the MSCs are regional. I've never seen anything in the NE from them.

TrueGuest definitely has stuff in the NE - however, I think that they must only show shops to a small sub-set of people that are signed up with them. I just looked and I can see hotel shops in the NE right now. I think back when they first started out, they were casting a wide net but now that they have a group of shoppers they work with regularly, they no longer publish their list of hotels for anyone that is signed up with them to see.

I think with SQM you will be able to see whatever they have - but it will be hard to get assigned a shop unless you pass their SQM shopper levels (they go up to 9). And some of them are a real PITA and take real perseverance. I went through their levels back in 2003 when I first started shopping.

@Okie wrote:

Curious if anyone has done a shop with Regal Hospitality Group? I signed up some months ago and a round of locations posted from a chain. There was one within 10 miles of me. This specific location seemed to be on the simpler and straightforward side based on the description. Overnight stay, dinner and bar, breakfast. I figured I work up a sweat near that area with someone and crash there. I debated whether it was worth it, but didn't seem that bad and might be a good way to get experience with them.

I did one about 10 years ago - it was very straightforward and typical - no surprises. Reimbursement came without issue, and no questions from the editor. I never got the fee (which was small - maybe $40). I emailed once and they said they would look into it, but it never came. I didn't pursue it because it was a relatively small amount, but just never worked with them again. My guess is that probably it was just an oversight - but I am not interested in chasing payment. I do know people who work with them regularly and have nothing but good things to say, and this WAS 10 years ago, so things most likely have changed for better or worse.

Most Coyle hotel shops require two people. Do you have a companion always on your travels?

@Luv2Travel123 wrote:

Most Coyle hotel shops require two people. Do you have a companion always on your travels?

Clarification; Most Coyle shops are PERMITTED for two people, but are acceptable to do solo. You can confirm with support for any specific hotel, but I did them solo for years and would sometimes invite friends to join me for meals.

My current hotel assignment states: "Evaluator and one Adult Guest is permitted - No Children". That means solo or with an adult guest

Regal is late paying. I did three shops for them in the last quarter: one in July, one in August, and one last week.

The July payment was late, so I emailed accounting, and was told that the person signing the check is away until early October. So that payment is on standby, in the best of cases, I will get paid over 90 days after the shop was performed, which is contradicting their pay policy,

The August shop was scheduled with an overnight reimbursement promised. After doing the shop and filling their expenses report, accounting emailed me saying the overnight would not be reimbursed. The form had not been updated, so the accountant followed the form. I emailed the email where an overnight was promised, but until that same person returns in early October, I have no guarantee this overnight will be reimbursed.

Not very professional to say the least. They have nice properties, but you should be ready and willing to wait a long time before getting paid.

@charlhenri Thank you for sharing! I appreciate it, it's helpful to know.

Also, I hope all of your payment issues get resolved!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/2024 08:46PM by Okie.

Thanks Steve. I emailed the scheduler last year when my partner could not make the trip and the scheduler herself stated that if it says "The visit is for two adults" it means 2 adults are required. Not sure when that changed, but I, too had been doing solo hotel shops for them for a number of years. The property was quite upscale and I did not want to risk being out all of that money doing it solo, so I had to cancel.

@Luv2Travel123, I had a similar experience with Coyle a couple of weeks ago. It may be specific to each individual customer. I can mostly only travel alone now, and this is part of the issue with finding appropriate shops.

@Luv2Travel123 wrote:

Thanks Steve. I emailed the scheduler last year when my partner could not make the trip and the scheduler herself stated that if it says "The visit is for two adults" it means 2 adults are required.

Yes;; it seems that some clients have modified the requirements to require two guests. It's strange at some of the fancier resorts to check in alone, I guess.

The other issue is that the current person handling the hotel scheduling was not around years ago when solo visits were always allowed, and they just regurgitate the posted requirements back to people.

My advice would be to always reach out to support with questions about guest requirements. Not scheduling. It's different people, and you may get a different answer. The schedulers are all contractors these days and probably have not ever actually done a hotel assignment themselves.

I think you're right about True Guest. It's funny, I still didn't find anything on True Guest BUT I did just get something from True Guest on Gigspot that is not listed on my True Guest account. Weird but also, thanks for the flag!

Regal, I did a very nice resort stay for them about 5 years ago, so my data may not be current. They were reasonable, the report was reasonable and I was paid, though it did take awhile.

True Guest, I'm still wearing those scars.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a single thing listed on Regal within 250 miles of any location I've traveled to. I would have loved to try it otherwise.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2024 12:51PM by kpersaud.

I did my first True Guest shop last month. It was a little tedious, because of their preferred writing style. I found the scheduler to be a little irritating, but not by any means awful. The report was accepted with no questions or feedback Payment was right on time within two weeks. I know people beat up True Guest, but I had no issues.

getting beaten up can be a two way street lol....I haven't seen any MSC here becoming the subject of negativity or complaints, in an unwarranted manner.....when there's at least a couple members reporting similar issues....this group is more/less fair.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2024 02:12PM by BarefootBliss.

I’m in New England also and do the exact same methodology! Have you or anyone ever applied for international mystery shops? I am willing to travel for sure but I don’t know if they have people based in those countries. Each company seems to have a limit on how much they’ll reimburse.

I completed approx. six dinner shops, 15 or so yrs. ago, for Regal. Out of the blue, they sent me a notice payment was being increased from net 45 to net 90; I terminated our agreement. Anytime an MSC does not pay for 3+ mos., they are either in financial difficulty or they are using my money as an interest free loan; one situation is bad and the other is not good.

@kelly622 wrote:

Have you or anyone ever applied for international mystery shops? I am willing to travel for sure but I don’t know if they have people based in those countries. Each company seems to have a limit on how much they’ll reimburse.

The reimbursement is way down from what it as years ago. My first shops in London were back to back hotels and I got flights for me and guest fully reimbursed. After that I had to gang up more and more hotels to get international trips covered.

Now I am just happy to get an extra hundred or two to help offset my travel costs. They have people in most countries that will take the shops, so I have to complete with locals when bidding for travel.

Thanks to kpersaud for starting the thread and everyone providing their input.

I'm not sure if this helps, but I thought would share. On Coyle, five resorts from a chain posted in my area. These are the same ones that usually post two times a year. Around this time last year, I applied for the first time, for all five, but all got rejected.

Earlier this year, I applied for the top four I was targeting, but all got rejected. I applied for the remaining one, but I requested a higher pay amount and travel reimbursement. That one got accepted.

This recent round, I applied for the top four I was targeting again. I bid a fair amount given the posted range and higher on travel reimbursement. This time, I made all applications for the same day, to keep it simple. Previous times, I thought I could actually get more than one, so maybe that confused things. In my application, I stated how I did a previous similar one. Of the four, I got my third choice. Looking back at it, maybe I should have stated my priority/ranking of the resorts in the applications.

But one thing I learned is to bid a pay amount and travel reimbursement that you think is fair. While sometimes it got rejected, I don't know if that was the reason. But I have also been surprised with some of the shops where the pay amount and travel reimbursement that got accepted. Of course, being a local helps. I still try to find that balance to also get the shop as well. But if it's a relatively small difference, then I am willing to give up a little.

Editing to add: I do always look to schedule on ideal days. I'm not sure if that plays a deterring factor.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2024 08:42PM by Okie.

@Okie wrote:

Looking back at it, maybe I should have stated my priority/ranking of the resorts in the applications.

When I double up applications, I always put an order of preference. I get my preference probably 50% of the time, though.

Thanks for flagging this! Some folks on this forum have been super helpful.

I'm not sure why I don't get some evaluations assigned to me. Coyle has been very unpredictable for me. I get the best results from emailing the schedulers over applying on the site.

I want to say thanks to everyone who shared their experiences. After charlhenri shared his/her experience, it helped me avoid another potential headache.

I just wanted to share that in addition to the resort that I got assigned, I was given the option to pick up another one. I had bid different amounts for these. But later my pay and travel allowance for both shops got adjusted to the maximum stated range for picking up both. Also, for these specific shops, my loyalty status got adjusted. Have one shop coming up this weekend. Planning to take girlfriend and also niece for parts of it. Perfect weather right now with the right amount of chilled breeze and bringing bikes. Also informed ahead of time that an upgrade to suite is available.

I've done this same report for a different resort in the past, but I'm going to track how long it takes me to complete this report. The last time was the quickest I've done it, even with the most evaluation elements involved. But looking to be even more efficient on this one.

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences! you have been very helpful, I look forward to learning how your shops go

@Okie wrote:

for these specific shops, my loyalty status got adjusted.

Last time they adjusted status for me, it stayed for a year!

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@Okie wrote:

for these specific shops, my loyalty status got adjusted.

Could you explain what this means?

@SteveSoCal wrote:

Last time they adjusted status for me, it stayed for a year!

That would be nice. Within a year, if I don't get another shop with this client, I could still see myself using a credit card reward to book at this client again and utilize the status.

@kpersaud wrote:

@Okie wrote:

for these specific shops, my loyalty status got adjusted.

Could you explain what this means?

For these shops, the client manipulated my loyalty membership tier at the hotel and upgraded it to a higher tier. For this report, there's certain questions to see if the front desk offered a room upgrade and items that are provided with the associated membership tier.

Whoa! Cool fringe benefit that you got to enjoy for a year. Glad I inquired

Was this through Coyle? I had high status through a different MSC a few years ago.

@Okie wrote:

@kpersaud wrote:

@Okie wrote:

for these specific shops, my loyalty status got adjusted.

Could you explain what this means?

For these shops, the client manipulated my loyalty membership tier at the hotel and upgraded it to a higher tier. For this report, there's certain questions to see if the front desk offered a room upgrade and items that are provided with the associated membership tier.

@JimmyP wrote:

Was this through Coyle? I had high status through a different MSC a few years ago.

Correct, these were through Coyle.

I finished my first report. This was a two-night stay. The total time I want to say strictly on the report itself was around 8 hours. I do get distracted easily and take frequent breaks. I rounded up and may have overstated, but in total duration including small breaks, I believe that's accurate.

Input, answering questions, and uploading pictures and receipts - around 1 hour in total. I answered all of the questions on-site except for the checkout parts, and entered short comments for "no" answers. I short-handed bullet points in narrative boxes as an outline. I reviewed all of the pictures and receipts I needed one last time. I uploaded the pictures and receipts at home.

Did all of the narratives back at home. For narratives, I always write it from scratch. Other MSCs allowed me to repurpose certain narratives for generic areas of the report like building and exterior, but starting some years ago, I write everything from scratch.

Narrative for hotel part (valet, check-in/out, bellhop, other staging elements) - 1.5 hours
Narrative for other elements (room service, dinner, bar, breakfast, coffee shop) - 2 hours
Narrative for spa - 1 hour
Small breaks - 1 hour

At this point (6.5 hours including 1 hour of breaks), I believe this was a good and solid report. Of all the narratives, I was the most passionate about the spa part, and went into great detail with that. But based on my overall experience at the hotel and value I received, I decided to further enhance the report by adding more details and critical feedback / suggestions where applicable.

Additional details and feedback, enhancing narratives - additional 1 hour
Added an additional 30 minutes to arrive at a total of 8 hours - for things I may not be accounting for like entering the travel expense support and cash tips

I had some time to spare to submit the report, but I wanted to get it done before the work week started.

Looking back at the overall shop and report, it went more smoothy than the similar one before. I made a note of the mandatory checks that had to be done on specific days. The food and beverage parts were flexible, and I spread those out. For the second day, we woke up early and enjoyed most of the day riding our bikes, walking the trails and areas nearby, and being near the water. Working up a sweat, it made the meals more enjoyable. The hotel had a good wine selection, and most food and beverage elements allowed for glasses of wine. With the hotel reward program, we were able to get additional alcoholic drinks or handcrafted beverages at the coffee shop. Late checkout into mid afternoon helped to fit in some extra stuff on the last day and spread out the evaluations. Also, in the past I used to print these documents. But this time, I went paperless which eliminated a lot of clutter and made me less dependent on having to refer to instructions and questions.

This might seem like a crazy amount of time to spend on the report, but on some level, I do enjoy the writing aspect of it and recapping it. I feel like what I got back in total reimbursement and the upgrade to a suite on this shop ending up being worth it. Also, I personally place a large value on the spa and massage element for treatment and recovery.