If you sit on a strata council, manage a multi-unit residential building, or own a condo in Burnaby, the concierge security question usually comes up for a practical reason: a break-in in the parkade, package thefts in the lobby, a complaint about unmonitored visitor access, or an insurer asking what’s actually in place. Concierge security in Burnaby costs more than cameras alone but less than most councils expect once the scope is properly defined — the right coverage model depends on your building’s size, entrances, and risk profile, not a flat industry rate.
This guide covers what concierge security actually includes, what drives the cost of concierge security services in Burnaby, how it compares to mobile patrol and traditional on-site guards, and what a strata council should verify before signing a contract.
At a Glance
- What it is: A licensed guard at your building’s entrance or lobby, combining front-desk presence with access control, visitor logging, CCTV monitoring, and incident response.
- Who needs it: High-density towers, mixed-use developments, and strata buildings with multiple entrances, high visitor volume, or a history of break-ins or package theft.
- What it covers: Access control, visitor/contractor management, package oversight, CCTV monitoring, amenity supervision, and coordination with mobile patrol.
- What affects cost: Number of guards, hours of coverage, building size and entrance count, visitor volume, and access-control/reporting requirements.
- What to look for: BC security licensing, strata-specific experience, clear incident-reporting, and a written scope of coverage — not just a quoted hourly rate.
What Is Concierge Security for a Burnaby Condo or Strata?
Concierge security is a licensed security officer stationed at a building’s main entrance who combines a front-desk presence with active security duties, including access control, visitor screening, and incident response. Unlike a receptionist, a concierge guard is trained and licensed under BC’s Security Services Act, authorized to intervene, document incidents, and escalate to police when necessary.
For Burnaby buildings — from high-rise towers near Metrotown and Brentwood to mixed-use developments along Lougheed — concierge security sits between a fully staffed on-site guard force and a lighter mobile patrol arrangement that checks the property on a schedule rather than staying on-site continuously.
What Does a Concierge Security Guard Actually Do?
A condo concierge security guard manages who enters the building, monitors CCTV and common areas, logs visitors and deliveries, responds to alarms and disturbances, and documents every incident for the strata council. In practice, that means:
- Verifying residents, guests, and contractors before granting access
- Monitoring lobby, elevator, and amenity-area CCTV feeds in real time
- Managing courier and delivery drop-offs to reduce package theft
- Enforcing building rules around after-hours access and amenity use
- Writing incident reports for the strata council, insurer, or police
- Coordinating with mobile patrol for parkade and exterior checks outside the guard’s direct line of sight
This differs from a general uniformed security guard on a construction site or commercial property — concierge roles pair the same core licensing with stronger customer-service skills, since the guard is resident-facing for hours at a time.
What Does Condo & Strata Security Cover?
A well-scoped concierge security contract for a Burnaby strata typically covers:
- Access control — fob/key management, visitor sign-in, contractor verification
- Lobby and common-area presence — a visible deterrent at the building’s main entrance
- CCTV monitoring — active review of camera feeds, not just after-the-fact footage pulls
- Package and delivery management — reducing theft from mailrooms and parcel rooms
- Incident response and documentation — formal reports for the strata council, property manager, and insurer
- Amenity supervision — pool, gym, party room, and rooftop access during operating hours
- Coordination with parkade patrol — since a single concierge desk usually can’t watch an underground parkade continuously
What it doesn’t typically cover on its own: exterior perimeter patrol, parkade monitoring, or after-hours coverage when the desk isn’t staffed — which is why many strata buildings pair it with scheduled mobile patrol checks.
How Much Does Concierge Security Cost in Burnaby?
Concierge security costs in Burnaby vary widely based on coverage hours, number of guards, and building size — there is no single flat rate that applies to every strata. A single-guard, peak-hour-only arrangement (evenings and weekends, when visitor traffic is highest) costs meaningfully less than 24/7 coverage requiring multiple guards to cover shift rotations, statutory holidays, and vacation relief.
Rather than quote a specific hourly figure that may not reflect your building’s actual scope, the most useful starting point is an on-site assessment: how many entrances need staffing, which hours see meaningful risk, and whether your insurance or bylaws require a minimum coverage level. A provider should walk your property and price the contract against that — not a generic per-hour rate pulled from a national average.
Managing a Burnaby condo or strata building? Securisquad can build a concierge security plan around your building’s entrances, resident traffic, operating hours, parking areas and specific security concerns. Request a customized security assessment today.
What Factors Affect Strata Security Pricing?
When a Burnaby strata council requests a quote, these are the variables that move the price up or down:
- Number of guards required — a single-entrance low-rise needs less staffing than a multi-tower complex
- Hours of coverage — 24/7 vs. peak-hour-only (e.g., 3 p.m.–11 p.m.) makes a substantial difference
- Building size and entrance count — more doors generally mean more coverage points
- Visitor and delivery volume — heavy courier traffic needs more active access management
- Access-control requirements — fob systems, visitor logs, and contractor sign-in add administrative load
- Patrol requirements — whether parkade and exterior checks are bundled in or handled separately
- Reporting requirements — detailed incident logs take more guard time than minimal logging
- Event or amenity coverage — extra staffing for AGMs, move-in/move-out days, or amenity-heavy buildings
- Level of risk — a building with a history of break-ins may warrant higher staffing than one with a clean record
Concierge Security vs. Traditional Security Guards
Strata councils often compare three coverage models before deciding. Here’s how they differ for a Burnaby condo or strata property:
| Concierge Security | Mobile Patrol | Traditional On-Site Guard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | High-rise condos with a staffed lobby | Parkades, exteriors, buildings without a desk | A constant presence at one fixed point |
| Coverage | Continuous, at the entrance/lobby | Scheduled checks per shift | Continuous, one fixed post |
| Access control | Active — sign-in, fob management | Limited — spot checks only | Active, if posted at an access point |
| Resident interaction | High — customer-service focused | Minimal | Moderate |
| Patrols | Coordinated with a separate service | Core function | Limited to the post area |
| Cost considerations | Highest — continuous presence | Lower — shared across a route | High — less resident-service focus |
| Ideal building type | High-density towers, mixed-use | Any property needing exterior checks | Commercial/industrial, single access point |
When Does a Burnaby Condo Need Concierge Security?
Concierge security tends to make sense once a building hits a certain density or risk threshold. Common triggers include:
- Multiple entrances that are difficult to monitor with cameras alone
- A documented pattern of package theft, tailgating, or unauthorized access
- High visitor, contractor, or delivery volume
- Mixed-use buildings with retail or commercial office space sharing entrances with residential floors
- Insurance requirements or a strata bylaw specifying on-site security
- A council decision following an AGM discussion about safety concerns
Smaller, low-rise strata buildings with a single controlled entrance may find that scheduled patrol checks cover the same risk at a lower cost — concierge security is generally the right call once continuous, resident-facing presence becomes necessary.
Key Security Risks for Burnaby Condo Buildings
The City of Burnaby’s Property Crime Dashboard, launched in late 2025, lets residents and property managers track reported theft of auto, theft from auto, and break-and-enter incidents by neighbourhood on a monthly basis. According to Burnaby RCMP’s most recently published quarterly statistics (Q2 2025), overall property crime rose 11% year-over-year, driven largely by a 16% increase in break-and-enter offences (17% for businesses, 3% for residential) and a 29% rise in shoplifting, while theft from vehicle (-5%) and theft of vehicle (-16%) both declined.
For condo and strata buildings, the risks that show up most often are:
- Tailgating — unauthorized individuals following a resident through a secured door
- Package and parcel theft — particularly in buildings without a monitored parcel room
- Parkade break-ins — vehicle and storage-locker theft in underground parking
- Unauthorized short-term rentals — creating access-control gaps outside the strata’s control
- Vandalism in common areas — particularly in unsupervised amenity spaces
None of this is cause for alarm at every building — but it’s exactly the building-specific, address-level detail that should inform how much coverage a given strata actually needs.
How Access Control, CCTV & Mobile Patrol Work Together
Concierge security, CCTV, and mobile patrol are complementary layers — a concierge guard actively manages entry and monitors cameras in real time, CCTV provides recorded evidence and coverage of blind spots, and mobile patrol extends checks to parkades and exteriors the front desk can’t see. Relying on one layer alone tends to leave a gap: cameras without active monitoring only help after an incident happens, and a concierge desk can’t watch an underground parkade at the same time.
For most Burnaby strata buildings, the practical setup is a concierge guard at the main entrance during peak hours, CCTV covering blind spots around the clock, and scheduled mobile patrol checking parkades and stairwells at intervals the desk can’t reach directly.
What to Look for in a Burnaby Concierge Security Company
Before signing a contract, a strata council should be able to answer these questions with confidence — not just accept a quoted rate:
10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Condo Security Company in Burnaby
- Are your guards individually licensed under BC’s Security Services Act, and can you provide proof?
- Do you carry liability insurance specific to residential/strata security work?
- What experience do you have with condo or strata buildings specifically, as opposed to commercial or retail sites?
- What does your incident-reporting process look like, and how quickly does the strata council receive reports?
- How do you handle guard call-offs, vacation coverage, and shift gaps?
- Can you provide references from other Burnaby or Lower Mainland strata clients?
- What’s included in the base contract versus billed as an extra (special events, AGM coverage, statutory holidays)?
- How do you coordinate with mobile patrol or CCTV monitoring if we already have those in place?
- What’s your guard-training process beyond the minimum provincial licensing requirement?
- What’s the process if a guard needs to escalate an incident to Burnaby RCMP?
Licensing & Training: What Should Strata Councils Verify?
Yes — every security guard working in British Columbia must hold a valid security worker licence under the province’s Security Services Act, administered by the Security Programs Division. Guards hold either a supervised licence (working under direct supervision, no formal training required) or a full licence, which requires a Basic Security Training Certificate from JIBC or an approved school, gaming security certification, verified prior law-enforcement experience, or a valid out-of-province licence from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, or Ontario.
One detail worth verifying with any provider in 2026: JIBC stopped issuing physical Basic Security Training certificates as of December 15, 2025 — completions after that date are verified directly with JIBC rather than through a paper certificate. A strata council is well within its rights to ask for proof of each assigned guard’s current licence before coverage begins, not just a general assurance that “all our guards are licensed.”
Burnaby Condo Security Trends in 2026
Two things are shaping how Burnaby strata buildings are approaching security this year. First, the City’s Property Crime Dashboard has made neighbourhood-level crime data public and searchable, so councils can now check reported break-and-enter and theft trends for their specific area rather than relying on city-wide averages. Second, Burnaby RCMP’s most recent published data shows break-and-enter and shoplifting offences rising faster than overall property crime, while vehicle theft continues to decline — a pattern that points toward building-entry risk, relevant for condo lobbies and mixed-use towers, rather than parkade vehicle theft as the bigger concern this year.
The practical takeaway isn’t to over-react to a single quarter of data — it’s to treat security coverage as something to review against current, address-specific information rather than a decision made once and left unchanged for years.
How Securisquad Provides Concierge Security in Burnaby
Securisquad is a Burnaby security company providing licensed concierge security, mobile patrol, and uniformed guard services across the Lower Mainland. For strata and condo clients, that means individually licensed guards, a scope of coverage built around your building’s actual entrances and traffic patterns rather than a generic package, and coordinated concierge-plus-patrol coverage. Councils evaluating concierge security for the first time, or reviewing an existing provider, can request a walkthrough as the starting point for a quote.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is concierge security?
Concierge security is a licensed security guard stationed at a building’s main entrance who combines a front-desk, customer-service presence with active security duties — access control, visitor management, CCTV monitoring, and incident response — rather than just staffing a reception desk.
How much does concierge security cost in Burnaby?
Cost depends on coverage hours, number of guards, and building size, with 24/7 multi-guard coverage costing significantly more than peak-hour-only staffing. There’s no single flat rate; an on-site assessment of your building’s entrances and risk level is the most reliable way to get an accurate quote.
What does a strata security guard do day-to-day?
A strata security guard manages building access, verifies visitors and contractors, monitors CCTV, oversees package and delivery handling, and documents incidents for the strata council and property manager.
Is concierge security worth it for a condo or strata building?
For buildings with multiple entrances, high visitor volume, or a history of theft or unauthorized access, concierge security is generally worth it because it provides active, real-time management rather than after-the-fact camera review. Smaller, single-entrance buildings may get comparable value from scheduled patrol instead.
Do concierge security guards monitor CCTV cameras?
Yes — monitoring lobby, elevator, and common-area camera feeds in real time is a standard part of the concierge role, in addition to physically managing the entrance.
Can a concierge guard control building access and key fobs?
Yes. Concierge guards typically manage visitor sign-in, verify residents and contractors, and can be given administrative access to fob systems depending on the scope set with the provider.
Do concierge or patrol guards check parking garages?
A concierge guard at the main lobby generally can’t monitor an underground parkade continuously, which is why most strata buildings pair concierge coverage with scheduled mobile patrol checks for parkades and exteriors.
How does concierge security help prevent package theft?
An on-site guard can manage courier and delivery drop-offs, monitor parcel rooms via CCTV, and verify packages are collected by the correct resident — reducing the unmonitored windows where package theft typically happens.
Are security guards in BC required to hold a licence?
Yes. Under BC’s Security Services Act, every security guard must hold a valid security worker licence (supervised or full) issued by the province’s Security Programs Division before working in the field.
Does every Burnaby condo need 24/7 concierge coverage?
No. Many strata buildings only need concierge coverage during peak visitor and delivery hours, with mobile patrol or alarm monitoring covering overnight periods. Whether 24/7 coverage is warranted depends on the building’s entrance count, incident history, and insurance or bylaw requirements.
Get a Concierge Security Assessment for Your Burnaby Building
Choosing the right level of concierge security in Burnaby comes down to your building’s actual entrances, resident traffic, and risk profile — not a generic package. Managing a Burnaby condo or strata building? Securisquad can build a concierge security plan around your building’s entrances, resident traffic, operating hours, parking areas and specific security concerns. Request a customized security assessment today.