01 / Unarmed
Unarmed security guards
Approachable officers for shops, hotels, offices, clinics, campuses and apartment buildings.
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Guide
Planning security for a Santa Cruz hotel, motel or inn.
A planning guide for lodging managers: what to settle before the first officer starts, and how to adjust through the year.
The overnight desk.
At most lodging in town, the night clerk works alone. That’s fine on a quiet Tuesday in February. It feels very different at one in the morning on a summer Saturday, when guests are coming back from the beach and the bars, and someone who isn’t a guest walks in looking for a room or a restroom.
An officer posted near the front desk gives the clerk backup without changing the welcome guests receive. The officer greets people, keeps an eye on who comes through the door and handles anyone who needs to be asked to leave, so the clerk can keep checking people in.
Setting the order of the rounds.
Decide with your manager which parts of the property each round covers and in what order. A common pattern starts at the desk, climbs the guest floors by one stairwell and comes down by the other, then finishes at the pool gate and the far rows of the lot. Moving the starting point from night to night keeps the pattern hard to predict.
Agree too on what belongs in the morning report. A door closer that no longer pulls shut, a room door found ajar or a dead light over a stairwell is easy to fix once it is written down, and hard to spot from the front desk.
What goes in the post orders.
Post orders are the written instructions every officer on your property follows. For lodging they usually cover where the officer stands between rounds, how to tell a guest from a visitor once quiet hours begin, when to bring in the night clerk and who gets called about a car break-in or a guest who refuses to leave.
Keep them short enough to read before a shift, and update them when something changes, like a new code for the side entrance or a wedding block checking in late. A fill-in officer on a summer Saturday then works from the same page as your regular.
Sizing coverage to the property.
A 20-room motel with doors opening onto the lot and a 150-room hotel with an interior lobby need very different plans. Three questions settle most of it: does the night clerk work alone, do rooms open straight onto parking, and how many entrances stay unlocked after midnight.
When the answers point to a small, simple property, patrol visits through the night are often enough, with a posted officer saved for the weekends that sell out. Larger hotels usually keep someone near the desk every night. Our patrol or posted officer guide goes through the choice in detail.
Planning for the busy season.
Summer, holiday weekends and the big events that fill every room in town are when lodging security matters most. Book extra coverage early, and share the dates you expect to sell out so officers are scheduled before the rush.
With month-to-month agreements and no minimums, adding officers for the season and scaling back in the fall is a simple change, not a new contract.
Services
Services this guide covers
02 / Patrol
Mobile patrol
Marked patrol cars checking your property at unpredictable times through the night.
View detailsWorking with your night clerk
The officer and the night clerk work as a team. Agree on how the clerk will flag the officer when someone at the desk becomes difficult: a quiet word, a phone call or a simple signal. Put it in the post orders so every officer who works the lobby handles it the same way.
Tell the officer about anything expected: a late group arrival, a wedding party coming back from the reception, a maintenance crew working overnight. Expected visitors get a friendly welcome, and unexpected ones get a closer look.
Reports the general manager will read
Every shift ends with a report by email: rounds with their times, anyone asked to leave, noise complaints checked and anything found broken or open. Car break-ins in the lot come with photos and the space number.
Over a season, those reports show which nights and which parts of the property need more attention. That makes it easier to decide where to add hours next summer, and where patrol stops are enough. The hotel security page has an overview of the options.
A few useful answers
Common questions.
Will guests notice the officer?
They will see a friendly person near the desk and on the grounds. Our officers keep a welcoming manner that fits the feel of the property.
When should we send you our sell-out dates?
As soon as you know them, ideally in spring, so officers for those nights are on the schedule well before the weekend arrives.
Is patrol enough for a small inn on weeknights?
Often, yes. A few stops at changing times through the night check the lot, the room doors facing the parking and the office, and a posted officer can be added just for the busy weekends.