A hotel detective is a person in plain clothes hired to monitor the security of a hotel and investigate various security, morality, or rule violations therein.
They are distinct from uniformed
security guard
A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) from a variety ...
s employed by a
hotel.
Hotel detectives are often retired and/or ex-
police officers with additional training. They have prominence in certain
noir fiction, especially in the works of
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...
and
Philip Kerr, and are sometimes referred to as "house dicks".
See also
*
Detective
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
References
External links
U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics: Private Detectives and Investigators
Hospitality occupations
Detective
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
Private detectives and investigators
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