Today, you can rate your stay or overall experience at any hotel on review sites like Trip Advisor and Yelp or on reservation platforms like Hotels.com and Booking.com. But now, an exclusive group of 520 small, independent hotels located in over 80 countries around the globe is completely changing the guest review model, possibly for the better.

Small Luxury Hotels of The World (SLH), which sells itself as keeper of the world’s most luxurious small hotel experiences, no longer wants their guests to have to rely on third-party sites to share reviews of the group’s elite lodging options. SLH has recently announced the new “Mystery Inspector” program as part of the hotel collection’s 25th-anniversary celebration. According to SLH, the program will recruit guests to act as secret inspectors of the hotels they are visiting, and then report back to SLH at the end of their stay on that particular hotel’s performance, ranging from dining options to special deals or packages they may have been offered.

This unique program will reward guests for their intel by giving them one free night at their SLH hotel. Not a bad deal for secretly assessing your hotel stay, right? Most guests, especially those staying at higher-end accommodations, have been increasingly turning to online reviews to make their buying decisions. In fact, according to a recent report, travelers read 6-7 hotel reviews before finally booking. Offering incentives for guest reviews, while remaining honest and transparent (i.e. sharing the good along with the bad) is a refreshing approach.

If the SLH Mystery Inspector program is a success, and SLH sees increased sales due to guests feeling a greater sense of truth in the reviews shared online, it will be interesting to see if other luxury hotels adopt similar programs, or what other industries may try this strategy. Most hotels and some attractions and destinations already send emails requesting guest feedback. SLH’s approach is innovative because they are engaging guests as their experiences unfold.

This guest-driven inspection model can work out extremely well for hotel management, if handled properly. Guests who dedicate time during their stay to actively review and scrutinize their experiences are highly likely to notice when recommended changes are implemented or valued hotel assets are maintained. Seeing these positive changes as a result of their insights can transform guests into brand advocates, likely to both visit again and to share their experiences.

For some guests, reviewing and analyzing experiences at hotels, museums, amusement parks, and other attractions earns them followers on blogs and social media. In these cases, the opportunity to evaluate a new experience is incentive enough. For others, special accommodations and rewards make the commitment worthwhile. Will the offer of a one-night free stay be enough to lure new “Mystery Inspectors” for SLH? We’ll have to wait and see. If your attraction is looking into operating a similar program, be sure to understand what makes your visitors and guests tick, and what keeps them coming back for more.