Compare

A free Mystery Shop, a DIY audit, or an agency?

Three ways to find out what is costing your hotel direct bookings, compared by what you are actually trying to do. They are not mutually exclusive, and the right choice depends on whether you want a baseline, a fix, or someone to run the work over time.

When to use which

Use a free Mystery Shop when you want an evidence-backed baseline of how your hotel shows up in search and to AI assistants, with no cost and nothing to install. It is a starting point that tells you what is wrong and what to fix first. Use a DIY audit when you have in-house web skills and time, and you want to check specific issues yourself with free tools; it suits small fixes and ongoing housekeeping. Use an SEO or marketing agency when you need someone to implement the fixes and run the work continuously, and you have the budget for a retainer. The three are not mutually exclusive. A common path is to run the free Mystery Shop first for the baseline, then either fix the issues in-house or hand the prioritised list to an agency to execute.

Compared by what you are trying to do

Each row is a job a hotelier wants done. Each column is one way to do it.

Comparison of a free Stiplo Mystery Shop, a DIY website audit, and an SEO or marketing agency across the jobs a hotel is trying to do.
What you are trying to do	Free Mystery ShopStiplo reads your live site and AI answers, then sends an evidenced report.	DIY auditYou check the site yourself with free tools and a manual review.	SEO or marketing agencyAn external team runs an audit and ongoing work on a retainer.
Get a fast, honest baseline of where your site stands	Free report on one property, with no card and no account. We review each request and respond within one business day.	Possible with free tools, but you assemble the picture yourself and decide what matters.	Thorough, but it often starts with a scoping call and a paid engagement rather than a quick free read.
See whether AI assistants can find and describe you	Asks ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude for a hotel like yours and records what they say, with the exchange as evidence.	You can ask the assistants yourself, but reading the result against your schema and content is hard to do consistently.	Some agencies now offer this; many still focus on traditional search rather than AI answers.
Catch broken links, weak trust signals, and slow mobile pages	Checks links, trust signals, structured data, and mobile page health, each finding backed by the evidence behind it, a screenshot or the source data.	Free crawlers find broken links and speed issues; trust and credibility gaps still need a human eye.	A full technical and content audit is standard agency work, delivered as a written report.
Get evidence you can act on, not just a score	Every finding comes with the evidence behind it, a screenshot, the source data, or the assistant exchange, ordered by what is most likely costing you bookings.	Tools give you numbers and flags; turning them into a prioritised fix list is on you.	Recommendations are detailed, though the depth and turnaround vary with the retainer.
Have someone implement the fixes for you	Stiplo reports the issues and how to fix them; the changes are made by you or your developer.	You do the work, so this fits teams with in-house web skills and time.	Hands-on implementation is the main reason to hire one, and the main reason for the fee.
Keep the site monitored so problems do not creep back	Ongoing monitoring with score tracking over time is a paid plan, priced per property in a short conversation.	A one-off DIY check is a snapshot; nothing watches for new breakage unless you repeat the work.	A retainer covers continuous work, at a recurring monthly cost.
Follow the booking journey and check prices stay accurate (coming soon)	A capability in development: we are building a layer that follows the journey a guest takes and checks the prices and offers stay accurate. It is not part of the free report yet.	Hard to do by hand, because it means walking the full path a guest takes on every key offer.	A revenue or distribution specialist may review rate parity, usually as a separate engagement.

Free Mystery Shop

Stiplo reads your live site and AI answers, then sends an evidenced report.

Get a fast, honest baseline of where your site stands: Free report on one property, with no card and no account. We review each request and respond within one business day.
See whether AI assistants can find and describe you: Asks ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude for a hotel like yours and records what they say, with the exchange as evidence.
Catch broken links, weak trust signals, and slow mobile pages: Checks links, trust signals, structured data, and mobile page health, each finding backed by the evidence behind it, a screenshot or the source data.
Get evidence you can act on, not just a score: Every finding comes with the evidence behind it, a screenshot, the source data, or the assistant exchange, ordered by what is most likely costing you bookings.
Have someone implement the fixes for you: Stiplo reports the issues and how to fix them; the changes are made by you or your developer.
Keep the site monitored so problems do not creep back: Ongoing monitoring with score tracking over time is a paid plan, priced per property in a short conversation.
Follow the booking journey and check prices stay accurate (coming soon): A capability in development: we are building a layer that follows the journey a guest takes and checks the prices and offers stay accurate. It is not part of the free report yet.

DIY audit

You check the site yourself with free tools and a manual review.

Get a fast, honest baseline of where your site stands: Possible with free tools, but you assemble the picture yourself and decide what matters.
See whether AI assistants can find and describe you: You can ask the assistants yourself, but reading the result against your schema and content is hard to do consistently.
Catch broken links, weak trust signals, and slow mobile pages: Free crawlers find broken links and speed issues; trust and credibility gaps still need a human eye.
Get evidence you can act on, not just a score: Tools give you numbers and flags; turning them into a prioritised fix list is on you.
Have someone implement the fixes for you: You do the work, so this fits teams with in-house web skills and time.
Keep the site monitored so problems do not creep back: A one-off DIY check is a snapshot; nothing watches for new breakage unless you repeat the work.
Follow the booking journey and check prices stay accurate (coming soon): Hard to do by hand, because it means walking the full path a guest takes on every key offer.

SEO or marketing agency

An external team runs an audit and ongoing work on a retainer.

Get a fast, honest baseline of where your site stands: Thorough, but it often starts with a scoping call and a paid engagement rather than a quick free read.
See whether AI assistants can find and describe you: Some agencies now offer this; many still focus on traditional search rather than AI answers.
Catch broken links, weak trust signals, and slow mobile pages: A full technical and content audit is standard agency work, delivered as a written report.
Get evidence you can act on, not just a score: Recommendations are detailed, though the depth and turnaround vary with the retainer.
Have someone implement the fixes for you: Hands-on implementation is the main reason to hire one, and the main reason for the fee.
Keep the site monitored so problems do not creep back: A retainer covers continuous work, at a recurring monthly cost.
Follow the booking journey and check prices stay accurate (coming soon): A revenue or distribution specialist may review rate parity, usually as a separate engagement.

Built in Possible, with effort or extra cost Not what it is for In development

Common questions

When should I use a free Mystery Shop instead of a DIY audit?

Use a free Mystery Shop when you want a fast, evidence-backed baseline without doing the work yourself. Stiplo reads your live site and what AI assistants say about you, then sends a prioritised report with the evidence behind each finding, on one property, free. A DIY audit makes sense when you have the in-house skills and time to check specific issues yourself with free tools.

Do I still need an agency if I run a Mystery Shop?

They do different jobs. A Mystery Shop tells you what is wrong and what to fix first, with the evidence. An SEO or marketing agency implements the fixes and runs the work over time on a retainer. A common path is to run the free Mystery Shop for the baseline, then hand the prioritised list to an agency, or to your own developer, to execute.

What does the free Mystery Shop check?

It checks how findable you are in search and to AI assistants, and how much your site earns a guest's trust: broken links and dead ends, trust signals, mobile page health, structured data, AI readability, and a live test of what ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude say about you. Following the booking journey to check that prices and offers stay accurate is a separate capability still in development, not part of the free report yet.

How much does each option cost?

The Mystery Shop on one property is free, with no card and no account. A DIY audit is free in tools but costs your own time. An SEO or marketing agency works on a fee, usually a recurring monthly retainer. Stiplo's ongoing monitoring is a paid plan priced per property during a short conversation.

Start with the free baseline

Whatever you do next, see where your hotel stands first. A free Mystery Shop reads your property the way a guest, a search engine, and an AI assistant do, then shows you what is costing you direct bookings.

Run your free Mystery Shop