The expensive conversation is rarely the one in the boardroom. It is the one in the suite afterwards, when the advisers have gone and the principal says what they actually think. The suite is a room that dozens of people have held a key to, and in 2026 a camera is the size of a screw head, a microphone fits inside a phone charger and a tracker goes under a bumper in the time it takes to park. People who negotiate anything that matters have the room swept before they move in. This is what that involves.
What a sweep is, and what it is not
Technical surveillance counter-measures, TSCM, is a professional inspection of a room, a building or a vehicle for cameras, microphones, transmitters, trackers and foreign connected devices. It uses a radio spectrum analyser to find anything transmitting, a non-linear junction detector to find electronics whether they transmit or not, a thermal camera to find powered devices behind surfaces, a physical inspection of fixtures, furniture, chargers and fittings, and an audit of what is actually connected to the Wi-Fi you are about to use. It ends with a written finding. A pocket detector bought online is not a sweep, and sending one instead of a specialist is the industry's most common deception.
The hotel suite
The most common request. The suite is swept once, between the last housekeeping visit and your arrival, and then sealed or watched until you walk in, so that the finding still holds an hour later. In practice this is a few hours of specialist work, scheduled so that you never wait in a lobby. The hotel learns what it needs to know and nothing more; staff see a technician, if they see anyone. Before a negotiation, a board week, a legal matter or a private stay in a city where visitors are routinely watched, it is simply part of the arrival, like the car and the floor plan. See advance positioning.
Villas, chalets and the long stay
A villa rented for the summer, a chalet for the season, an apartment used a few weeks a year. These are the spaces where a family relaxes, and where a connected television, a camera left by a previous tenant, a baby monitor nobody remembers and a Wi-Fi network full of unknown devices sit quietly. The property is swept at the start of the stay and again after any contractor has been through, with the home automation and the network audited for devices nobody can account for.
Cars, boardrooms and the deal
A car you did not choose, from a rental desk, a dealership or a driver supplied by someone else, can carry a tracker, a recorder or telematics reporting to a third party. A borrowed boardroom can carry anything. Before a negotiation the room and the vehicles are swept the day before and held, and the participants are briefed on what stays outside: phones, smartwatches, the assistant who did not need to be there. Yachts on charter and leased aircraft cabins are swept at anchor or on the apron before boarding, because the previous charter and the crew are unknowns.
What happens when something is found
You are told, with photographs, and the device is removed or left in place on your instruction. Finding a device is sometimes the start of a legal matter rather than the end of a security one, and leaving it where it is while lawyers are consulted is often the right call. The written report is yours, in a form a lawyer can use. Inspecting a space you are entitled to occupy is lawful everywhere we work; what happens to a device afterwards is a legal question in that country, which is why it is documented properly and nothing is installed by us, ever.
What it costs, and when to book
A sweep is quoted against the space: a suite, a villa and its outbuildings, a boardroom and its anterooms, a vehicle, a yacht. The variables are size, the number of rooms and connected devices, the city and the notice, because a licensed TSCM specialist is the rarest professional in private security and the good ones are booked. Seven days' notice is the minimum; under 48 hours carries an urgency fee and no guarantee, and if the slot cannot be met to our standard we say so rather than send someone unqualified. When the sweep is part of a protection assignment it is quoted on the same brief as the officers and the advance work, which is usually the better route. See how close protection works.
Need a suite, villa or boardroom swept?
Tell us the address and the time you arrive. We name the specialist, confirm the slot and send one figure, under NDA from the first message.
See TSCM bug sweep