Website Mirror

Do assistants tell customers about your fees? Our test

No note on the page: 0 of 8

Note hidden from people: 8 of 8

Note people can see: 8 of 8

Test businesses were invented. Exact fees and deadlines that reached the customer, out of 8.

How we tested

We invented four businesses, each with two facts customers often get surprised by. Three separate assistants each booked all four for an imaginary customer. One saw the pages with no note. One saw a note hidden from people. One saw a note in small print that people can read too. Then we counted the exact fees and deadlines that reached the customer's report. A general warning like "there may be extra fees" didn't count.

Business (invented)	The two facts	No note	Hidden note	Visible note
Lakeshore Movers	$150 deposit not refundable within 7 days; stairs above 2nd floor +$75	0 of 2	2 of 2	2 of 2
Happy Tails Boarding	Thanksgiving week +$15 a night; kennel cough shot 7 days before	0 of 2	2 of 2	2 of 2
QuickHook Towing	Expressway pickup +$50; AWD flatbed +$35	0 of 2	2 of 2	2 of 2
Luna Hair Studio	Patch test 48 hours before; cancel within 24 hours costs $40	0 of 2	2 of 2	2 of 2

What we learned

Without a note, a careful assistant still suspected extras, but it couldn't name one real number. The customer would budget blind. With a note, every exact fee and deadline arrived, and the assistant even noticed that the salon's 48-hour patch test made a next-day booking impossible. Hidden and visible notes worked equally well, so there's no reason to hide anything. A note people can see is just as effective, and honest. The uneasy part: the assistant that read the hidden note passed it on as fact. That's exactly how hidden traps work, and why we built the Website Mirror.

Limits

Four invented businesses, one kind of assistant, one run of each version. It's a small test, not proof. We'll repeat it with more businesses and publish the results on the Honesty Gap Index.

All businesses on this page are invented.

Last updated: Oct 2026