Your lobby may close early on Wednesday while a tenant works through Friday. The cleaning company may move its Thursday visit to Saturday. A contractor might use the long weekend to finish work that would be disruptive during business hours.

An office building can be closed for Thanksgiving and still have plenty of authorized activity.

Thanksgiving building security depends on matching access permissions, monitoring instructions and response contacts to those temporary arrangements. Before the break, property managers should confirm who will be on-site, review doors and camera coverage, approve exceptions and assign someone to check the building before it reopens.

At EyeQ Monitoring, our commercial real estate security services support office complexes, commercial parks and other commercial properties. For a holiday closure, the important planning question is straightforward: does the security team have the information it needs to understand what should be happening at your building?

Use this holiday security checklist to work through that question with tenants, vendors and your building team.

Confirm Tenant Schedules Before the Holiday Closure

Start with the last normal business day and work forward to reopening. Don’t assume every tenant follows the same calendar, or that closing the management office means everyone else will leave.

Ask each tenant’s designated contact for expected operating hours, planned visitors and any work scheduled during the break. You generally need the location and timing of approved activity, rather than a detailed list of everyone’s holiday plans. A tenant expecting two employees on Friday presents a different access need from one hosting a contractor across several floors.

Build a shared internal schedule that includes management staffing, lobby hours, tenant exceptions, cleaning visits, deliveries and maintenance. Give temporary arrangements a clear beginning and end. If a tenant hasn’t confirmed its plans, follow up instead of treating silence as confirmation that the suite will be empty.

Then check how those schedules fit together. Suppose an approved contractor arrives Friday morning, but the employee assigned to admit them won’t return until Monday. That is an unresolved access arrangement. Name the person who will meet the contractor or agree on another approved process before the building closes.

Send tenants a concise notice explaining the hours that affect them, how authorized employees should enter and how to report a problem. Make clear whether reception, loading facilities or other services will be unavailable. Share sensitive access details through approved channels rather than putting them in a public closure notice.

Before signing off, confirm:

• Each tenant’s closure and reopening schedule.
• Any employees, visitors or vendors expected during the break.
• The entrance and parking arrangements those people should use.
• A reachable tenant contact for questions about approved activity.

Keep the schedule somewhere authorized staff can reach it while the management office is closed. A current version matters more than a long document that nobody can find.

Adjust Access Control for Employees, Cleaners and Vendors

Review the actual access schedules programmed into your systems. A holiday on the office calendar doesn’t necessarily change a door controller, garage gate or elevator permission. Ask the responsible building or access-system team to confirm what will happen at each relevant entry point.

Coordinate any change with tenants who retain a legitimate need to use the building. An employee authorized to work Friday should know which entrance will accept their credential and whom to call if it fails. Accessible entry arrangements need to remain practical as well.

For cleaners and contractors, approve a defined work window and permitted route. Where the system supports it, use temporary credentials limited to the necessary times and areas. If that option isn’t available, arrange an appropriate staff-assisted process. Avoid distributing permanent codes simply because the usual receptionist will be away.

Give After-Hours Exceptions an Owner

Record who approved each exception, who can change it and when it expires. If a contractor requests an extra day, the approval should reach the people managing access and monitoring. A text to one tenant employee can leave the rest of the building team working from outdated information.

Check physical doors before the closure, too. A valid credential policy won’t address a service door that fails to latch. Have qualified personnel resolve faults or approve temporary precautions, and document who remains responsible until the repair is complete. Preserve required emergency exit functions when changing entry arrangements.

Review delivery plans with tenants and vendors. If nobody will accept a shipment, agree on rescheduling or another authorized arrangement. Drivers shouldn’t have to improvise by trying side doors or leaving equipment near an unattended loading area.

Before leaving, have the building team verify the approved holiday settings and their scheduled end time. Include garage access and shared entrances in that check; reviewing only the main lobby door can miss the route people actually use after hours.

Review Office Building Security Monitoring During the Break

Holiday monitoring needs accurate context. A person carrying tools through a service entrance could be an approved contractor. The same activity outside the agreed work window may need further review. Share the schedule early enough for your provider to confirm what changes it can support.

Provide approved activity windows, relevant locations, contacts and any temporary equipment or construction that affects camera views. Request acknowledgment of the agreed instructions. If work runs late, use the established process to update them rather than assuming someone will recognize the crew.

Our Virtual Guard services combine AI-assisted video analytics with human review to support security monitoring and response. Our U.S.-based Security Operations Center handles incoming alarms under established protocols. Your property’s monitored areas, service hours and authorized responses should be confirmed against its agreement and site procedures.

Ask practical questions before the holiday:

• Which entrances, parking areas and service routes are included in coverage?
• How will approved work be distinguished from activity requiring further review?
• Who receives notifications while the usual property contact is away?
• What happens if a camera or connection becomes unavailable?

Keep the distinction between detection and authorization clear. Analytics can identify configured activity, but they don’t establish criminal intent or independently prove that someone has permission to enter. Human review and current site instructions help guide the next action. Around-the-clock service also doesn’t mean an operator continuously watches every camera.

Walk priority areas with the building team before the last staffed shift ends. Check exterior lighting, door condition and usable camera views, particularly around parking garages and loading areas. A temporary dumpster, parked truck or new decoration may affect visibility. Confirm known system faults and the plan for addressing coverage gaps; don’t leave the issue with an unavailable employee.

If fewer people will be present, agree on what physical checks are needed and who can perform them safely. Video monitoring supports the plan, while tasks such as repairing a lock or checking a reported leak require an appropriate on-site response.

Assign Emergency Contacts and Escalation Procedures

A holiday contact list should identify available people with clear responsibilities. The usual property manager’s number is of limited use if they’re away and everyone assumes someone else is covering.

Name the primary on-call contact and a backup. Confirm their availability for the dates involved and agree on the handoff when coverage changes. Include the appropriate tenant contacts and service providers for urgent building problems. Check numbers before the holiday rather than discovering an outdated entry during an incident.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Security Planning Workbook emphasizes defining communication roles, initial emergency notifications and backup communication methods. Apply those principles to your building’s holiday arrangements: who receives the first call, who can make a decision and what happens if that person cannot be reached?

Distinguish immediate emergencies from other concerns. Anyone facing an immediate threat, fire or medical emergency should call 911 and follow the property’s emergency procedures without waiting for management or a monitoring review. A routine credential problem or uncertain vendor arrival needs a separate path to the person authorized to resolve it.

Give the on-call team usable building information through secure channels. They may need the correct address, entrance designation and approved arrangements for responder access. Explain who can authorize an urgent repair and who will communicate a service disruption to tenants. Keep access codes and detailed security instructions restricted to people who need them.

Test the handoff with a brief hypothetical situation. For example, a garage gate won’t close on Friday evening. Who receives the report? Who calls the repair company? Who evaluates interim precautions? The exercise can reveal that everyone has a phone number but nobody has accepted the decision-making role.

For employees visiting the building, keep reporting instructions simple and easy to find. They should know how to seek help, avoid entering an area that appears unsafe and report a problem without trying to investigate it themselves.

Complete a Post-Holiday Building Security Check

Arrange the reopening check before everyone leaves for the break. Give it an owner, a time and a backup. The person opening the management office may have other responsibilities and should know whether this task belongs to them.

Before normal arrivals, review entrances, locks, garage gates and relevant shared areas. Look for damage, doors left unsecured or signs of a problem that needs attention. Verify that temporary access permissions have ended and regular schedules have resumed as intended. Don’t assume that restoring the main entrance also restored every other setting.

Review holiday reports for unresolved issues. A service-door fault may still need repair even if nobody reported an intrusion. An unexpected entry may require follow-up with the tenant that authorized the visit. Separate what staff or monitoring personnel observed from explanations that still need confirmation.

Our incident reporting services support documentation and review. Where footage may be relevant, follow the approved process to request preservation promptly and confirm retention arrangements. Limit reports, access records and footage to authorized recipients under the property’s privacy and information-handling policies.

Use the reopening checklist to confirm:

• Normal access and operating schedules have resumed.
• Temporary credentials and exceptions have ended.
• Security faults have an assigned owner and follow-up plan.
• Relevant reports have been reviewed and necessary evidence preserved.
• Tenants know about any issue affecting their return.

If someone finds signs of a break-in or another immediate danger, follow emergency procedures rather than continuing the walkthrough. Once the building is ready, record completion and close any remaining handoffs.

A Thanksgiving closure works best when the return is planned as carefully as the departure. Confirm the exceptions, put a responsible person behind each decision and check that the building has returned to its normal operating condition.

Prepare Your Property for the Thanksgiving Break

Review your holiday plans with EyeQ Monitoring. Explore our Virtual Guard services to discuss your commercial property’s monitoring needs, authorized activity and response procedures before the Thanksgiving closure.

Common Questions

How should property managers prepare an office building for Thanksgiving?

Confirm tenant and vendor schedules, review holiday access settings, check doors and camera views, update monitoring instructions and verify on-call contacts. Assign a final pre-closure check and a reopening check so temporary arrangements have clear beginning and end points.

Should all building access be disabled during a holiday closure?

Access changes should reflect approved operations and preserve required emergency egress. Some employees, cleaners or contractors may still need entry. Coordinate permissions with tenants and the building team, limit temporary access where supported and confirm when regular schedules will resume.

What should a monitoring provider know before Thanksgiving?

Share approved work windows, relevant areas, temporary site changes and reachable contacts. Confirm the provider’s coverage and response procedures for your property, and obtain acknowledgment of agreed holiday instructions. Update those instructions if authorized activity changes.

Who should receive security calls when the property manager is away?

Assign an available primary contact and backup with defined responsibilities and decision authority. Tell tenants, vendors and monitoring personnel how to reach the appropriate person. For an immediate threat, fire or medical emergency, call 911 without waiting for an internal contact.

What should be checked when an office building reopens after a holiday?

Check doors, locks, gates and relevant shared spaces; confirm normal access schedules; end temporary permissions; and review unresolved reports. Assign repairs and request preservation of relevant footage through the approved process. Communicate any issue that affects tenants’ return.