StayPut vs. Hiring Overnight Security
A guard costs $200–$400 a night, every trip — and one person can't watch ten doors at once from the end of a hallway. StayPut watches every monitored door simultaneously and alerts the chaperones who actually know the students.
Some schools and event organizers solve the overnight question with money: hire a guard to sit in the hallway. It's a real option with real strengths. A visible adult presence deters wandering, and there's a person on-site to respond. Here's how it stacks up.
At a glance
| Category | StayPut | Hired overnight guard |
|---|---|---|
| Watches | Every monitored door, simultaneously | Whatever's in line of sight |
| Cost per night | $10 per room — $100 for 10 rooms | $200–$400+ per guard (4-hour minimums are standard) |
| Cost model | One-time hardware; pay only on trip nights | Recurring, every trip |
| Knows a door opened at 2:14 a.m. | Yes — timestamped, instantly | Only if they were looking |
| Knows your students | Alerts go to their own chaperones | A stranger to your group |
| Covers stairwells and lobbies | No — doors only | Yes — can patrol common areas |
| Can physically respond | No — your chaperones do | Yes, on the spot |
| After-trip record | Complete door-activity and alert log | Whatever gets written in a report |
| Booking | Order online, reuse every trip | Contract per event; availability varies |
The line-of-sight problem
Hotel hallways bend. Groups get split across floors or wings. A single guard posted at the elevator sees the doors near the elevator, and an 8-hour overnight shift is a long time for anyone to watch a quiet corridor without a break. None of that is a knock on guards; it's just geometry and human limits. Sensors don't have either problem: every monitored door reports the moment it opens, whether it's around the corner, on another floor, or in another wing.
Who responds matters
When something does happen on a trip, the best responder is usually a chaperone who knows the student by name, not a stranger with a flashlight. StayPut is built around that: the alert goes to the chaperone assigned to that room, who can be at the door in under a minute wearing their own authority as a teacher, coach, or parent. A guard can escalate to you; we just skip the middleman.
What hired security does better
A guard provides things sensors never will: physical presence in common areas, deterrence you can see, coverage of stairwells and exits, and an adult who can intervene immediately. Large multi-school events sometimes require hired security, and some venues mandate it, if yours does, that's not a choice StayPut replaces. For big conferences the best setup we've seen is both: security covering lobbies and exits, StayPut covering the room doors, chaperones sleeping until their phone says otherwise.
The math over a season
3 three-night trips in a school year, 10 rooms each:
Hired guard
$600–$1,200 per trip × 3 trips.
$1,800–$3,600 per year — and the same again next year.
StayPut
$500 hardware once, then $300 per trip.
$1400 the first year, $900 every year after — with every door watched, not just the visible ones.
Common questions
Comparing other options? See StayPut vs. Blue Painter's Tape and StayPut vs. SimpliSafe.
Every door watched. Every night.
One-time hardware, $10 per room per night, no subscription — less than an hour of a guard's shift.