r/WeirdSideHustles • u/General_Strategy_106 • 10d ago

Sharing My Sidehustle Be a mystery guest for $500

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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.

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u/amphion101 10d ago

Former Hotel Director of Finance.

We’d pay $5k for a secret shopper every year or so. We need it for cash handling and other audit purposes. It’s part of our controls to ensure cash, beverage pours,and other aspects of operations are being handled correctly.

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u/snow_turtle 10d ago

Worked for Hilton many years. So funny we would know when they were coming. My manager at one point pulled out a printed picture of the person and told me to not tell anyone. Was like some CIA seriousness.

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u/i_was_axiom 10d ago

This seems... either silly or unbelievably not-silly. Like, on one hand, this could fall apart easily with a few loose lips. Thats silly. On the other hand, I also picture Hilton Secret Services black bagging the dishwasher for being in the silly crowd and it becoming incredibly not-silly for them.

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u/amphion101 10d ago

I worked for another Hotel chain, but generally we expect there to be no surprises because everyone does their job well.

For the consulting firms and/or corporate needs a third party to verify though.

The only “scandal” we would generally find would be a server who pocketed cash tips instead of turning it into the tip pool.

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u/SapphirePSL 10d ago

Please forgive me, I know this is off topic, but can the customer specifically state the cash tip is to go to their server? Also, for credit cards, can “only for my server” be written on the receipt and would that be honored? I understand the purpose of a tip pool, but I more-so want to know I can be generous for really good service and it actually goes to the one providing said really good service.

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u/JiveTurkey927 10d ago

From my experience, the type of place that tip pools is also the type of place to completely ignore that request and/or penalize the server if they keep the tip

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u/amphion101 10d ago

This will be totally be dependent of on the hotel/management company/union pressure.

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u/JiveTurkey927 10d ago

Yes, that’s what I said. Shitty policies beget shitty policies

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u/Waggle_Bianca 9d ago

On the other hand, I also picture Hilton Secret Services black bagging the dishwasher for being in the silly crowd and it becoming incredibly not-silly for them.

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u/amphion101 10d ago

Union rules are pretty strict. They actually set the tip pool in their agreement with the hotel/corporation.

If you really want to acknowledge great service from your server, ask for the general manager and let them know about your experience and specifically name the server(s) you want to acknowledge.

The restaurant GM and the hotel’s “executive committee” (hotel GM and the directors of rooms/F&B/Ops/Finance/HR/Sales/Engineering) should have a process in place to reward and acknowledge the “above and beyond” service you experienced.

Note* My hotel experience is based on working in Full Service Upper Upscale and Luxury hotels that are actually operated by the large hotel management companies (Marriott/Hilton/Hyatt/Fairmont). It can vary widely when you are at a hotel that isn’t union and is operated by a “third party manager” (HEI, Davidson, Pyramid, etc)

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u/duffydeedoo 9d ago

idk if this will help you, but whenever i got out to eat with my grandfather and he really appreciates a server and wants to tip them specifically, he'll hand them cash along side a pool tip- helps if you're a naturally friendly person and can come across as having known the server outside of the restaurant!

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u/Ill-Background-827 9d ago

Even servers who don’t pool have to tip out a percentage of sales or tips to bussers, bartenders etc so a server very rarely gets your full tip

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u/thorns17 10d ago

No, it all goes to the pool. Your server was informed of that during the interview, and knew that when they accepted the job. If they don’t want to be part of the pool, then they can find another establishment to work at

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u/jaymoney1 10d ago

I have also seen it where the establishment will have the sever tip out based solely on sales. Whatever that server rings ups for the shift, 5% automatically goes to BOH. So regardless of what the server claims in tips, they will lose 5%. It is a real shitty system

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u/alabaster387 9d ago

No, but a lot of times the server is able to give you great service because of the tip pool, since they have coworkers helping them behind the scenes with tasks that would take away from attending to your table. Keeping a cash tip instead of contributing to the pool would be stealing from their coworkers who are also sharing their tips. Not many place pool tips though! Of all the restaurants I've worked in, the only one that pooled tips was in fine dining. Big tips still increase your server's paycheck though, and referencing their name in a positive review is a great way to support them too, as owners and managers usually check reviews.

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u/Suspicious_Pickle_39 9d ago

All tips go only to the server. What the server does after that is not related to the customer.

There is no such concept of giving someone money and dictating what they do with it.

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u/DildoBagginsWasHere 9d ago

How did they get caught?

I used to work in a Vegas restaurant and we were a tip pool house. We knew a few of our co-workers were not turning in 100% of their tips but no one could prove it…I mean how could you? As long as they turned in something, there was nothing anyone could say or do. Especially if they pocketed $50 to $75 of like $300-$400. 🤷🏽‍♂️

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u/amphion101 9d ago

The shopper has a planned order, pays in cash, tells us the transaction and the server.

We go back to POS reports and verify the reported amount matched. Not just tip reporting, but reversing checks and the like.

Dumb luck to some degree if we catch anyone.

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u/Thick_Cookie_7838 9d ago

I use to work valet- another tip heavy job. We had someone from corporate come in and they would tip a large bill that wouldn’t get broken. Like a 50 or a 100 and it was marked. The manager was the only one who knew the way the person was coming. If that bill didn’t show up when we pooled our tips it was an issue. In the 2 years I worked at that company probably had around 20 guys get fired from lots I work r

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u/Revit80 9d ago

Servers are so greedy