About
invisible guest – helping hospitality and tourism businesses measure performance, identify opportunities for improvement and maximise return.
Who we are
Our pedigree and depth of experience dates back to 1984, and since launching our first assessments as Invisible Guest in 2011, we have rapidly grown to become one of Australia’s most respected providers of specialist mystery dining and guest perception services to the hospitality, leisure and tourism sectors. Find out more
What we do
Our in-house methodology was designed so that we can provide individually tailored programs to help hospitality and tourism businesses quickly and easily identify opportunities for improvement, benchmark performance and understand what their customers really think and like, or don’t like, about what they currently do. Find out more
Our assessors
With a database of over 800 mystery guests across Australia, our Invisible Guests are not your typical mystery shopper. They are carefully hand-picked by us based on their knowledge and interest in food, wine and travel, and their ability to communicate this effectively. They are the sort of customers who would happily spend their own money in the establishments we survey, and are continually monitored to ensure our high standards of reporting consistency and accuracy. Find out more
Our clients
Our clients range from innovative quick service operators to high-end award-winning businesses in both city and out-of-town locations. Whilst the majority are based in Melbourne, we also have clients in Canberra, Perth and Sydney, and are eager to expand our coverage further. Find out more
Our story
Our confidence in the quality and effectiveness of our programs comes from our unique depth and breadth of experience.
Our founder, Ian McKerracher, first began professionally assessing restaurants and hotels in 1984, working with three of the UK’s leading hotel and restaurant guide publishers. With decades of experience critically assessing a wide variety of operations, including bars, cafés, pubs, restaurants and hotels, he arrived back in Australia in 2008 and recognised that the industry needed, and deserved, a much more thorough, in-depth and professional approach to quality assessment and benchmarking. After three years of development and testing, Invisible Guest launched in Melbourne in 2011, and since then has led the market in delivering some of the most powerful and effective specialist mystery guest programs in Australia.
Ownership of Invisible Guest now passes to Tanya Martin in August 2025 following Ian’s retirement. She has been with Invisible Guest for nearly 10 years, joining as an assessor in December 2015. Her work life started in hospitality, working at a variety of cafes, pubs and fine dining restaurants in Adelaide, before moving into senior management positions with some of the world’s largest financial services companies, and more recently fintech start/scale-ups. Now based in Melbourne, she has a Bachelor of Commerce in International Business.
Tanya writes: “When Ian announced his retirement, I knew this was the opportunity to run my own business that I’d been waiting for. I’m extremely excited to be taking the reins of the business that Ian has so carefully built over the past 14 years, and look forward to nurturing what he’s already established whilst looking for further opportunities to expand “.