- Jim Coyle started the secret-shopper firm Coyle Hospitality in 1996 after working in a hotel.
- He now manages 80,000 freelance inspectors, whom he deploys to secretly review establishments.
- Their jobs including rating staffers, cleanup, and general atmospheres for wealthy clientele.
The idea to start a secret-shopper firm came to Jim Coyle, now 57, when he was working as a duty manager at a Manhattan hotel. The hospitality-school graduate had just seen his property undergo a standard inspection, carried out by a secret shopper-like road warrior posing as a guest. It tooks weeks to receive the final report, long after issues it raised had potentially dissipated, he told Insider. Worse, it focused mostly on quantitative rather than qualitative feedback. Coyle knew he could do better, so he set out to create a new kind of on-call gumshoe for luxury hotels.
That was in 1996, and almost three decades later, Coyle Hospitality is at the apex of its industry. The company has 80,000 freelance inspectors on its roster and a who’s who of hotels as clients — including Marriott, Hyatt, and IHG (owner of Six Senses, Kimpton, and Regent) who have all tapped his team to assess properties, using the company’s firsthand reporting to help them improve all aspects of their hotels. Coyle has also broadened his inspection expertise beyond hotels to restaurants, real estate, retail, and even healthcare.
Here’s a look at how his company works.