Bodyguard cost in Luxembourg (2026)

A booking of €720 at TVA 17 % becomes €842 TTC. For residents claiming the service through a company, TVA is typically deductible on a professional invoice; for private household use it is not.

Format drivers:

• Minimum shift. Most agencies refuse single-hour bookings because officer preparation — route planning, threat briefing, kit check — already consumes an hour of unbilled time
• Overnight multiplier. Hours between 22:00 and 06:00 carry a 20–30 % surcharge
• Weekend and public holiday uplift. Saturdays, Sundays and jours fériés add 15–25 % on the base rate
• Standby versus active. A stationary residential shift is priced at the low end of the range, while active movement through Luxembourg-Ville, Esch-sur-Alzette or cross-border transfers to France or Germany sits at the top

Close-protection pricing in Luxembourg is not a commodity rate. Two quotes for "one bodyguard, eight hours" can land €200 apart because the scope is different in ways not immediately visible on the cover page.

The six drivers that matter:

• Threat profile. A routine escort for a corporate client attending a conference in Kirchberg is priced at the base rate. A known threat, public-figure exposure or a post-divorce domestic situation triggers a higher profile agent and formal risk assessment, adding €300–€800 to the week's contract.
• Officer count. A single officer works for low-risk coverage; a visible threat calls for two-plus, where the second officer costs only slightly less than the first because the briefing, equipment and coordination overhead carries across.
• Vehicle and driver. A discreet vehicle with trained driver adds €120–€180/hr on top of the officer rate, including fuel and parking across Luxembourg-Ville and the Grand Duchy.
• Qualifications of the officer. Ex-military, ex-Police Grand-Ducale, certified first-aiders and multilingual FR/DE/EN/LB profiles command the top of the range. Specialised skills — medic, evasive driving, crowd extraction — justify a further 10–25 % premium.
• Advance planning time. A three-day site survey and route reconnaissance before the main mission is often invoiced separately at €250–€500/day, and cannot be compressed without degrading the brief.
• Equipment and communication. Encrypted radios, body-worn alarm, discreet earpieces and a command channel add €80–€200 per officer per day. Firearms are heavily restricted under Luxembourg law and the default is unarmed protection — any armed escort requires specific ministerial authorisation and is rarely contracted for civilian clients.

A written mission order, signed before the first hour is worked, separates serious agencies from informal operators. Read it carefully — what is excluded matters as much as what is listed.

Included in a typical day quote (€550–€900):

• One licensed officer on duty for 10 to 12 hours
• Pre-mission briefing and simple risk assessment on file
• Standard communications equipment (radio, discreet earpiece)
• Insurance: civil liability up to €1 500 000 and employer accident cover
• Written mission order listing itinerary, contact points, rally points
• Debrief note at the end of the mission

Typically excluded, billed separately:

• Travel between the agency base and the client's start point (often Luxembourg-Ville) — usually €40–€80 if outside city limits
• Meals and accommodation on multi-day assignments — per diem €50–€90
• Parking, highway tolls, cross-border vehicle charges
• Advance site survey or route reconnaissance (unless bundled in the package)
• Any medical, legal or translation intervention beyond the officer's remit
• Extended standby beyond the booked window — charged at the hourly rate plus 25 % overtime premium

Ask specifically whether the quote includes the Ministère de la Justice agrément number, the agency's TVA number, and the professional civil-liability policy reference. An agency that cannot produce those three items on a quote cover page is not licensed to provide private security in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg regulates private security tightly. The core instrument is the Loi du 12 novembre 2002 relative aux activités privées de gardiennage et de surveillance, along with its implementing Grand-Ducal regulations. Any agency providing personal-protection services must hold a formal agrément issued by the Ministère de la Justice, and every officer in the field must personally hold a carte d'identification valid for five years.

What a compliant agency looks like:

• Autorisation d'établissement issued by the Ministère de l'Économie
• Security-specific agrément from the Ministère de la Justice
• Registered TVA number, invoices at TVA 17 %
• ITM registration and declared payroll for every officer — no cash-hand arrangements
• Professional civil-liability policy in force, annual attestation on file

What the client should avoid:

• Informal protection arranged on WhatsApp without a contract — any incident exposes the client to direct liability
• Foreign-registered providers without a Luxembourg agrément — an agrément from France or Belgium does not substitute
• Offers below the €50/hr floor — these almost always mean undeclared officers, invalid insurance, or both

For household clients in Luxembourg-Ville, Esch-sur-Alzette, Differdange and the rest of the country, declared protection is the only legally safe choice. The short-term saving of an informal arrangement is wiped out by the exposure if an incident occurs. Agencies licensed for private security typically also offer residential alarm response and static guarding, so a long-term client can consolidate the relationship for better rates.

Send the exact same brief to three licensed agencies. Without a standardised brief, you compare apples to pears and the €200 gap between quotes tells you nothing.

The brief to send:

• Start and end date-time, start and end address (Luxembourg-Ville, Esch-sur-Alzette, cross-border transfer)
• Threat profile in one paragraph — public figure, post-divorce, corporate event, known threat
• Number of officers required
• Vehicle needed, yes or no, and who drives it
• Advance survey window before the main mission
• Contact point on the client side and emergency number

The six checks that matter:

• Net versus TTC. All three net or all three TTC — do not mix. A quote quoted TTC at 17 % looks more expensive than an identical one quoted net.
• Minimum shift length. One agency's quoted day may be 10 hours and another's 12 — that's a 20 % difference before anything else moves.
• Overtime policy. Ask the overtime rate in writing — flat 25 %, hourly rebook, or capped per day.
• Officer substitution rules. Who is the named officer? If they fall sick, is the replacement sent the same briefing? Is there a rebate for mismatch?
• Cancellation terms. A reasonable clause caps cancellation at 24–48 hours at full rate, shorter windows at a percentage.
• Discretion and press handling. For higher-profile clients, a line in the contract on press or photographer interaction prevents confusion on the day.

Three licensed agencies briefed identically typically land within ±15 % of each other. A larger spread always points to a briefing misread — before signing the lowest, have a 15-minute call with each to close the gap.

Most cost surprises in close protection are not in the hourly rate — they are at the edges of the mission.

The hidden costs to ask about in writing:

• Fuel and mileage on the agency vehicle. Some contracts include the first 100 km; others bill from the first kilometre at €0,60–€0,90/km.
• Driver versus officer double-billing. On missions with a driver plus an officer, confirm you are billed for two people, not one person doing both.
• Hotel and meals on a multi-day detail. On cross-border missions to Paris, Brussels or Frankfurt, accommodation at €150–€250/night and meal per diem at €50–€90 are usually pass-through client costs.
• Weekend extension surcharges. A Monday-to-Friday brief extended into Saturday often hits a 25 % weekend rate plus a €100–€200 replanning fee.
• Equipment rental for specialised gear. Encrypted radios, ballistic vests, GPS trackers, medical kit — some agencies include, others rent at €60–€200/day.
• End-of-mission debrief billing. Two hours of debrief and report writing billed at the officer rate is legitimate but should be declared upfront.

Red flags:

• No written mission order, only verbal agreement
• Agency refusing to produce agrément number or TVA number
• Cash-only payment or discount "if invoiced to a private name"
• Officer arriving without identification card or in personal clothes without insignia
• Quote significantly below €50/hr — always indicates one of: undeclared officer, no insurance, or a marketing hook with a large invoice to follow
• Pressure to sign without reading the cancellation clause

The €50–€80/hr range covers distinct mission types, each with slightly different pricing logic.

Corporate events. A product launch at LuxExpo or a conference at the Chambre de Commerce typically books two to four officers for the 10-hour setup-plus-event day at €1 200–€2 400 all-in. The mission sits at the base rate because the environment is controlled, visitors are pre-screened by the host, and the officers work static or soft coverage.

Airport VIP transfers. A pickup at Luxembourg-Findel and discreet transfer to the city, Kirchberg or a hotel runs €350–€600 including the standby window at the airport. Cross-border transfers to Frankfurt, Brussels-Zaventem or Paris-Charles de Gaulle sit at €800–€1 600 day-return, often with an overnight add-on.

Residential and family protection. Protection around a family home during a sensitive period — high-profile news, contested custody, post-threat — commonly runs a two-officer 24-hour rotation at €2 500–€3 800/day with a minimum three-day booking. The agrément rules require the host property to be documented in the mission order.

Court appearances and deposition days. A legal-proceeding escort in Luxembourg-Ville, Diekirch or at the cross-border Saarbrücken courts books at the standard day rate but often requires specific discretion clauses in the contract.

Short-notice missions. Under 48 hours' notice adds a 15–25 % rush surcharge because officer rostering, insurance notification and equipment reservation compress into a short window.

Avoid mixing mission types on a single contract — a week that starts as event coverage and drifts into residential protection should be re-briefed and re-priced, not stretched into the same hourly envelope.

Ten questions sent in writing flush out most issues before the first hour is billed. The answers arrive in two or three sentences; an agency that dodges them is not the one to pick.

The ten questions:

• What is your Ministère de la Justice agrément number and its current validity?
• What is your TVA number and do you issue invoices at TVA 17 %?
• Who is the named officer for this mission, and what is their background?
• Is the officer armed, and if so, under what Luxembourg authorisation?
• What civil-liability ceiling does your professional insurance cover?
• What is your minimum billable shift and overtime rate in writing?
• How is the vehicle billed — kilometre rate, included, or third-party rental?
• What is your cancellation policy between T-48 h, T-24 h and T-0?
• Who replaces the named officer if they are unavailable, and is the replacement briefed?
• Can you provide two recent references for similar missions in Luxembourg?

Red-flag answers:

• "We can invoice to your private name with a reduced TVA" — not legal in LU
• "We don't have an agrément yet but we've applied" — not authorised to operate
• Vague insurance numbers or unwillingness to name the insurer
• Refusal to name the officer in writing before signing
• Any answer suggesting cash payment, informal arrangement or cross-border workaround

Three licensed LU agencies, asked these ten questions, typically land within ±15 % of each other on final price and offer a tight, declared contract. If one answer is missing from one of the three, move to the next candidate — do not negotiate the answer into existence.