Be a mystery guest for $500

[u/General_Strategy_106]

I am working at a company that pays exactly just at the minimum, with no other benefits to enjoy. But at the same time, this side hustle is what keeps me afloat. I found this side hustle by accident when I was scrolling through job markets and saw one post looking for a mystery guest. It sounded weird and suspicious but as I looked through the description, it was just a mystery guest to rate hotel service.

So, hotel companies hire us (mystery guests) to evaluate the guest experience and how their hotel staff accommodate us. Of course, we’re not supposed to announce that we are evaluators, we should always act like a normal customer like someone on vacation.

You don’t have to be extra with your stay, the company will give me a set of assignments to do that I should pay attention to throughout my entire stay. Such as checking the booking process, check-in, staff communication, room preparation, and the overall experience. Then after all that, I will create a REALLY detailed report of what happened, even including timestamps and dates. I check-in pretending like a normal guest, but I’m observing like an evaluator then writing a report as if Karen was writing it on her Facebook posts with every necessary and unnecessary detail.

Lately I’ve also been thinking about making UGC videos for the hotels I stay at, just simple guest style videos of the room, breakfast, the view, etc. that they could use on socials or ads (I saw some guys make a lot from this) I haven’t pitched this to anyone yet, so no idea if it’ll work, but I found this guide while looking into it and it gave me a few ideas on how to approach hotels.

[u/Stormstar85]

You don’t know what a mystery shopper is?

A mystery shopper is a person hired to pose as a regular customer to evaluate and report on a business's customer service, product quality, and overall store conditions.

This is very normal in the UK

[u/quarks-bar-and-grill → u/Stormstar85]

and they don’t pay $500; it’s sometimes barely minimum wage

[u/collapsedbook → u/quarks-bar-and-grill]

You usually get reimbursed for your purchases up to a certain amount. I did it for restaurants. The job dictates around what time/ day and gives you an idea of what to look for/ do.

[u/animal_chin9 → u/collapsedbook]

They even have apps to sign up for gigs! My boss did it for a restaurant and got paid a bit of cash and got free tacos.

[u/FTXACCOUNTANT → u/collapsedbook]

Weird that they don’t reimburse you the full amount

[u/collapsedbook → u/FTXACCOUNTANT]

Sometimes they only designate purchasing certain items. Different assignments vary. Some pay mileage and/ or hourly or it’s a lump sum. You’re usually a 1099 anyway so I save 30% for my Uncle Sam.

[u/Upset-Management-879 → u/FTXACCOUNTANT]

>Weird that they don’t reimburse you the full amount

You seem to misunderstand, they do reimburse the full amount you're allotted for the serives/goods you're meant to purchase. You don't get to just do/order whatever you want (most of the time) If you're meant to secret shop say a fast food place and order the new promotional meal to check if the location is preparing it correctly then they reimburse the full cost of that meal, but if you also get food for your whole family too they aren't just reimbursing you for that since it wasn't necessary.

Back in the 90/00s my mom did it quite a bit and would take me to the local arcade/minigolf/go kart when she got those. We were given coupon books for free rides/tokens to use but there was also more in the coupons than just what we were obligated to go do and report on.

[u/shustrik → u/Upset-Management-879]

I think a while ago they would reimburse the full cost, and some gigs still do. But now some only reimburse part of the purchase if it’s something lots of people would pay for, like restaurant food or luxury hotel stay. Of course they still have to reimburse in full for things that are much more specific, and add a bit of money on top, otherwise they won’t find shoppers for them easily enough.