A hotel security officer walks the guest floors, garage, pool and back of house, and answers alarms and guest complaints. They act first in a fire or medical emergency, write up each incident, and check ID before anyone gets into a guest room.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Annual pay: 10th percentile $31,610, middle half $36,160 to $45,270, 90th percentile $55,660. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
Reports to
Director of Operations
Department
Security
Schedule
Day, evening and overnight shifts · The post is covered all day, every day, so nights, weekends and holidays rotate; patrols go outdoors in any weather
Also called
Hotel security guard · Loss prevention officer · Safety and security officer · Security agent
Hotel security officer job description template
This is our Role Blueprint, word for word. Replace the highlighted fields and adjust the example targets and pay to fit your company.
Security Officers keep guests, employees and the property safe around the clock. You'll patrol inside and out, respond to alarms, noise complaints and incidents, enforce room entry and key rules, write clear incident reports, and act first in a fire or medical emergency until responders arrive. You protect guests' privacy as well as their safety.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Patrol guest floors, parking areas, the pool, back of house and the building exterior on a set route, and log each round.
Respond to fire alarms, medical calls, disturbances, noise complaints and suspicious people, and call emergency services when needed.
Verify identity before opening any guest room, and follow your welfare check and room entry procedures.
Write accurate incident reports with times, names, witnesses and photos.
Enforce pool hours, smoking rules, parking rules and room occupancy limits, and ask trespassers to leave or call police as your written policy directs.
Lead evacuations and meet fire and police responders at the door.
Audit master key logs and track down keys that weren't returned.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Start the shift by reading the incident log and pass-on notes.
Check exits, stairwells, fire doors and extinguishers on your patrol route.
Answer radio calls from the front desk and managers.
Check doors, lights and cameras around the building, and report problems to engineering.
Log and turn in lost and found items found on patrol.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Response time to incidents and alarms: [your target].
Patrol rounds completed: [your target].
Incident reports completed by end of shift: [your target].
Life-safety problems found and reported: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
A security guard license or registration, where your state requires one for in-house officers.
First aid, CPR and AED certification, or willingness to earn it within [30] days.
Writes clear, factual incident reports.
Calms conflicts with words, not force.
6. Preferred Experience
Hotel, hospitality or campus security experience.
Verbal de-escalation training.
Experience with camera systems and access control software.
7. Physical Requirements
Walk and climb stairs for most of the shift, including outdoor patrols.
Reach any part of the property quickly in an emergency.
Lift and carry up to [40] pounds, such as emergency equipment.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Day, evening and overnight shifts, including weekends and holidays.
Indoor and outdoor patrols in all weather.
[Unarmed] position, in a uniform the hotel provides.
Deals with intoxicated, upset or aggressive people at times.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new security officer gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
Guards at offices, stores and warehouses protect buildings that empty out at night. A hotel fills up at night, with a full house asleep behind locked doors, and the officer serves guests as well as the company.
A guest room is private
Officers open a guest room only under your written procedure. A lockout needs confirmed ID before the door opens. A welfare check, such as a worried relative calling from out of state, means two staff, a knock and a clear announcement, and a log entry afterward. The officer doesn't go through belongings or say who is staying, even to a caller who insists it's urgent.
Panic buttons call the officer to a room
In Washington, every hotel housekeeper, room service attendant, janitor or guard working on their own must be handed a panic button. One press must call a coworker, a security guard or a manager to the spot and show where the worker is. Managers must be trained to respond. The rule covers a hotel's own officers but not licensed contract guard companies. When security answers these calls, drill the fastest route to every floor. Look up whether your state or city has a similar law. Source: RCW 49.60.515: Hotel, motel, retail and security employers, panic buttons (Washington State Legislature).
Master keys open every door
A master key card left in a stairwell can open every room on a floor. Officers check the master key log at each shift change, track down cards that weren't turned in, and have the front desk cancel a missing card in the lock system right away. When a guest reports a theft, the lock's entry record is often the first thing the officer pulls.
Noise, lockouts and late swims
A sold-out weekend brings noise complaints after midnight, a guest locked out in a towel, a party in a room booked for two, and swimmers in the pool after closing. Officers settle most of it with a calm word at the door. Your written policy decides when they ask someone to leave and when they call police, and the officer sticks to it.
When the alarm sounds, people are asleep
A fire alarm in the middle of the night means waking guests who don't know the building. The officer reads the fire panel for the zone, checks the alarm, meets fire crews at the door and helps clear floors under your evacuation plan. That's why every patrol round checks exits, stairwells, fire doors and extinguishers.
How much hotel security officers make
The closest BLS group for hotel security officers is security guards. Security guards who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $18.95 an hour ($39,420 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s above the $38,020 median for security guards in all industries. About 31,310 of the 1,283,470 security guards in that survey work for hotels and resorts.
Hourly with overtime, often with a higher rate for overnight shifts. Guests rarely tip this job, so the offer has to hold up against contract guard companies and other local employers hiring for the same night hours.
Hotels and resorts
$39,420$39,420 median Middle half $36,160–$45,270 10th–90th $31,610–$55,660
All industries
$38,020$38,020 median Middle half $35,210–$46,200 10th–90th $30,210–$58,840
$20k$30k$40k$50k$60k$70k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Hotels and resorts
$31,610
$36,160
$39,420
$45,270
$55,660
All industries
$30,210
$35,210
$38,020
$46,200
$58,840
BLS groups hotels, resorts and motels as traveler accommodation. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Writes clear, factual incident reports with times, names and witnesses
Calms angry or drunk guests with words and knows when to step back and call police
Keeps up patrol rounds and stays alert through a quiet overnight shift
Comfortable walking up to a stranger in a hallway and asking if they're a guest
First aid, CPR and AED certification, or ready to earn it soon after hire
A state guard license or registration where your state requires one
Teach these on the job
Your patrol route, master key log and room entry procedures
The fire alarm panel, the evacuation plan and where to meet responders
Your camera and door access systems
Signs of human trafficking and your steps for reporting them
Pool hours, parking rules and room occupancy limits
Officers carry a radio and a phone, log rounds with a patrol app or checkpoint tags, and watch the camera system and door access software from the security office. During an alarm they read the fire alarm panel, and between alarms they keep the master key log. Time on any camera or access system carries over, but learning a hotel's back halls, roof doors and garage levels takes weeks on foot.
Hotel security officer interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Each template KPI ends in a blank. Fill them from a month of patrol logs and incident reports, and judge overnight shifts on their own, since a quiet night and an event night ask very different things of one officer.
Response time to incidents and alarms
Use the radio or dispatch log: call received to officer on scene. Review fire alarms and panic button calls apart from noise complaints, since those minutes matter most.
Patrol rounds completed
Compare checkpoints scanned or logged with the rounds the post orders call for, by shift. A missed round needs a reason in the log, such as an incident that pulled the officer away.
Incident reports completed by end of shift
Count reports filed before the officer clocks out, out of all incidents logged. Read a sample weekly for missing names, times, witnesses or photos.
Life-safety problems found and reported
Count blocked exits, propped fire doors, missing extinguishers and dead lights logged on patrol and sent to engineering. Track how long each one stays open.
Career path
Contract security guardLearns patrols, report writing and post orders at an office, store or campus.
Security officerProtects guests, staff and the building on every shift.
Security supervisorLeads a shift, trains new officers and reviews each incident report.
Security or loss prevention managerOwns the safety plans, cameras, key control and officer training.
Director of operationsOversees security alongside other departments across the hotel or the group.
It depends on the state, and on whether you hire the officer or a guard company. In California, an unarmed in-house officer who wears a uniform and deals with the public must register with the state. They take training before and after they register and pass an FBI and state background check. Florida exempts unarmed officers who work only on their own employer's premises. Check your state's licensing board before you post the job.
How much does a hotel security officer make?
Security guards who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $18.95 an hour ($39,420 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $36,160 and $45,270 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Should hotel security officers be armed?
The template marks the post unarmed, as a fill-in you can change. In California and Florida, the in-house rules cover only unarmed officers. Arming someone takes the job outside those rules in both states, so ask your licensing board what applies. Talk with your insurer and a lawyer first. Then ask whether a fast call to police already covers the need.
Should a hotel use in-house security or a guard company?
In-house officers learn the building, the regulars and the staff. They answer to your managers and your service standards. A guard company handles hiring, licensing and sick calls, which helps a small group of hotels that can't staff every night. You can also mix the two: a core of your own officers, with contract guards for overnights or big events.
Can a hotel run background checks on security officers?
Yes, with care. A check bought from a screening company falls under the federal FCRA. That means a separate written notice and the applicant's signed permission first. If the report may cost someone the job, share it with them, along with their FCRA rights, and give them a chance to respond before you decide. Some state and local laws limit how criminal records may be used. Where the state licenses officers, it runs its own check as well; California's includes fingerprints.
