About Us

About Us


Introducing HGEM

Our Story

HGEM are the market leaders in Guest Experience Management. With nearly 20 years of experience and having worked with most of the brands across UK high-streets throughout the years, you can be sure HGEM are the experts in helping hospitality businesses grow through actionable guest insights.


HGEM - Hospitality Guest Experience Management

HGEM has always been a pioneer. We created the term ‘Guest Experience Management’ (GEM) in 2016 as part of our mission to empower hospitality businesses through adopting GEM as a core business discipline. We wanted to go further than just monitoring feedback by actively managing the experience of guests and generating a culture of continuous improvement within teams.

Fast forward a few years, and we can proudly state our mission is flourishing - Guest Experience Management is now considered a common business practice across the industry. Many businesses are employing ‘Guest Experience Managers’ that use our original GEM framework and award-winning platform - The Hub.

But the pioneering spirit goes back further than that. In our original guise as The Mystery Dining Company, back in 2003, we created the term ‘mystery dining’ as a specialist form of mystery shopping. It reflected the deeper and longer experiences that are typical in hospitality, as compared with retail. Hot on the heels of the dot.com explosion, we were the first to use the internet to provide next-day reporting.

Throughout our story, we have valued working with clients that have a similar pioneering spirit. Together, we drive each other forward, always striving for innovative ways to achieve the ultimate goal of giving guests a great experience that they talk about, in order to build future sales. Some of our larger clients include wagamama, Pret a Manger, Brewdog, Lounges and Heineken’s Star Pubs & Bars. But we also enjoy working with many smaller businesses, sometimes with only a handful of sites but with bagfuls of ambition and creative ideas. Altogether, we support over 10,000 restaurants, pubs, hotels, cinemas and caterers.

Our service includes designated Client Success Managers, who ensure our clients get the best value out of our products. Most of the Client team have hospitality backgrounds, which enables them to understand the operational challenges and the factors that lead to success within a hospitality business.

We believe in developing close partnerships with our client contacts, helping them become the heroes of their team and leading the business to success.


Our People

Many of our people have joined us having worked in the hospitality industry and so it truly has shaped who we are and the way we behave. We understand the pressures and challenges of your teams because we have been there, and we’re passionate about supporting you to deliver a great guest experience every time. We were also crowned Employer of the Year at the Bath Live Business Awards.

Steven Rein

Steven Rein

Software Engineer

I really love working with folks that take ownership of a product from ideation all the way to production and maintenance.

Nick Fisher

Nick Fisher

Mystery Guest Advisor

I really enjoy my role as everyday is different and the team are really friendly.

Steven Pike

Steven Pike

Managing Director

It's really important to me that we put our clients in the driving seat and coordinate all our resources in pursuit of your objectives.

Dana Winston-Day

Dana Winston-Day

Mystery Guest Advisor

I love working around so many genuinely kind and supportive people, I instantly feel at home.

Polly Werran

Polly Werran

Mystery Guest Advisor

I’m really happy to be a part of a supportive team that strives to deliver excellent feedback to our clients.

Gary Bond

Gary Bond

Senior Web Engineer

I care most about getting stuff done right and helping my team to focus on that too.

Keit Vende

Keit Vende

Head of Sales & Marketing

I wish I had tools like The Hub when I helped manage a bar 10 years ago. My mission now is to get the word out there about how hospitality tech can help.

Rebecca Moore

Rebecca Moore

Assessor Recruitment Coordinator

I care most about maintaining our high standards of quality, and ensuring each report gives useful insight to our clients.

Ghervana Tanzarella

Ghervana Tanzarella

Support Coordinator

I’m very lucky to be part of a team that is supportive, kind and consistently working hard to help push the standard of hospitality.

Olivia Charlton

Olivia Charlton

Client Success Manager

I like the opportunity to help provide solutions for our clients by mystery dining and evaluating their standards of service through Hub data.

Megan Gibbs

Megan Gibbs

Support Coorinator

I absolutely love working with such a friendly and supportive team! I enjoy helping diners with any queries they have and helping to make their overall experience positive.

Pradnya Nimbalkar

Pradnya Nimbalkar

Software Engineer

I care about continuously improving the quality of my work in the organisation and delivery of well designed, easy to use software which is enjoyable and simplifies users' life.

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Our Mystery Guests

At HGEM we are fortunate to have a fantastic community of mystery guests that we try hard to nurture and support as stakeholders in 'empowering hospitality'. In return, they go the extra mile to provide detailed and practical feedback on their experiences.

If you are interested in becoming one of our mystery guests, please go to mysterydining.net.

Learn more about what we do