The hotel detective is a common figure in film noir and hard boiled detective stories from eighty years ago. Who are these people? What exactly does a hotel detective do? Professional travel writer Luke J. Spenser explores the history of this profession at Messy Nessy Chic.
Hotel detectives appeared in the United States by the 1870s. For Gilded Age America, travel opportunities proliferated and hotels boomed. Along with bellhops, cooks, maids, and clerks, hotel managers also hired security guards. These were commonly called "hotel detectives" or "house detectives."
Their primary role was to keep respectable hotels free from prostitutes and, worse, prostitutes who robbed their clients. In some cities, this was very much a full time job that required skills at blending in with the rest of the people at a hotel and spotting problematic characters early, then quietly removing such people from the hotel without causing disturbances. The good hotel detective was discreet in his work.
Other tasks included quieting down or removing drunkards. Solving murder mysteries was a far less common occurence, despite film noir stories. Read about their real adventures at Messy Nessy Chic.
Image: Heritage Auctions