There is no doubt that the mystery guest profession has become increasingly popular in recent years. This job, which emerged in the 1940s in the United States, initially for retail chains wishing to check sales performance, has become increasingly popular in recent decades also in Europe and Italy.
A popular profession: what are the possible risks?
The widespread popularity of this profession is fostered in the collective imagination by movies, stories and television programmes of various kinds that often have nothing (or little) to do with the Mystery Guest profession. This contributes to creating a distorted communicative narrative, breeding ground where many companies, claiming to be institutions in the auditing world, promote training courses to certify Mystery Guests. But this in itself is healthy and natural in the market.
What’s the problem?
They often do this by promising generous fees, an alternative job and selling illusions with the sole purpose of filling a classroom for a few days. In this context, we would like to raise our hands and, from our experience, share some food for thought to help those who read us create a more critical and conscious point of view.
Is the Mystery Guest a recognised profession?
The answer is: partially.
Italian legislation has recognised the importance of this professional figure, codifying the guidelines and requirements through the UNI 11312-1:2017 standard. This standard establishes the general criteria for the design, planning and performance of incognito audits, ensuring that they are effective and representative of the goals set.
Furthermore, UNI 11312-2:2022 defines the requirements for the skills and qualifications of the professionals involved, ensuring high-level guidelines with a focus on autonomy and accountability.
The adoption of these standards, which to date are voluntary, has standardised the practice of mystery auditing, contributing to a substantial improvement in the transparency and quality of services provided and offering companies a strategic tool for continuous improvement and customer satisfaction.
At the same time, there is currently no official register for the mystery guest profession in Italy.
Can Mystery Guest be a full-time job in Italy today?
Excluding the luxury world, such as international chains affiliated to the well-known circuits of LQA, Forbes, Michelin, etc., which have their own Mystery or which rely on partner companies, the independent accommodation facilities that are adopting the mystery guest service today in Italy are still a small slice of the market (which is however growing).
Different, but not excessively so, is the situation for those doing mystery audits in the retail world, where the opportunities are certainly greater, but where the economic sustainability of the fees is often far from guaranteeing a monthly income such as to make this a full-time profession.
In short, those who enter this profession do it out of passion, curiosity and aptitude. But these skills should be clearly matched by the awareness that Mystery Guest in Italy can now represent a secondary job, to supplement one’s income and gain personal and professional experience.
Whoever says otherwise is probably talking a lot of nonsense.
Mystery guest as over-remunerative activity?
The answer here is again: it depends, on one’s expectations.
Unlike mystery auditing activities in retail, mystery guests in the hotel context can certainly receive higher salaries. This difference is due to the amount of work involved in reporting. It is quite different to write a report for a 30 minutes experience in a shop than for a stay of more than 12 hours in a hotel, with multiple interactions in various departments.
The fee, outside the luxury world, is around hundreds of euros per day, varying according to the time dimension of the experience (1,2,3 nights, etc.). In a real world where a good mystery can work 2/3 times a month, you understand that the economic income can be significant for some, less so for others.
Of course, expenses incurred in the execution of the agreed scenario are always reimbursed.
We have heard of figures promising course candidates 5- digit monthly fees: it is up to your critical thinking to come to a conclusion.
Mystery guest as a paid holiday?
The answer here is more definitive, and that is: no.
Mystery guesting is an exciting and dynamic profession, but at the same time requires great attention and focus. Organisations that use this service rely on other companies, such as ours, who in turn commission trained, skilled and professional mystery guests/auditors.
The final report, which is the ‘product’ of the mystery service, is the tool that is then shared with the client, who has no contact with the mystery. Free judgements, outbursts and pointed fingers are banned from the report document. The mystery is not a critiquer, and he or she is not asked for advice or to share prophetic insights.
The mystery is an observer recording the story and the quality of his or her experience; and to do this as objectively as possible we assure you is not easy. You understand that the job is at the opposite end of the spectrum to what you might see on TV, and it is an experience where you relax and enjoy the facility and where, at the same time, you work with great responsibility and professionalism.
Hospite and ethical commitment in the world of Mystery Guest
Now that we have clarified many aspects, we would like to tell you about our reality and our vision regarding this profession.
Ever since we opened our Academy to train Mystery Guest professionals, i.e. in spring 2020, we have realised that in order to ethically introduce people to this profession, it is necessary to face them with reality.
In fact, when we start the enrolment process for our training course with an aspiring Mystery Guest, we are keen to share some important information in a transparent way:
- Taking part in a Mystery Guest training course does not give any guarantee of future employment, but provides a solid training basis for receiving an assignment as an Auditor.
- Not all course participants will receive one or more assignments as Mystery Guest. In fact, the difference is made by professionalism, excellent work in the classroom, the quality of the post-course exam and the individual and personal characteristics that are demanded by hoteliers and company managers when designing audit projects.
- Professionalism beats curiosity. To work as a Mystery Guest with Hospite, it is not enough to be enthusiastic, happy to embark on a new career path or to be curious and detail-oriented. It is essential to have ethics, professionalism and work reliability.
If you would like to learn more about the world of Mystery Guest and our methods, I would also like to suggest reading our book Professione Mystery Guest, written by myself and my business partner Nicola Bolzan.
We hope that these insights have helped to raise awareness of this very stimulating and, for this reason, easy prey to looting and mishandling.
Michele Prete
Co-founder of Hospite & Head of Research & Development