Miami Beach, Fla. ? With his thumbs hooked through the belt of his holster, Leo de la Hoz walks his beat in the steamy afternoon hours. That’s when the enemy he stalks is the greatest danger to his people.

On a recent Saturday, he has barely begun his rounds when he sees he’s too late for one victim: Megan Titus, a 37-year-old woman from Boston, is sprawled before him, a picture in red.

“Where were you yesterday, when I needed you?” the very sunburned Titus asks de la Hoz.

Armed with sunscreen in three levels of SPF and an easy charm, de la Hoz is the new “tanning butler” at the Ritz-Carlton South Beach, strolling the pool deck and beach on weekends and holidays to guard the hotel’s discriminating clientele against the searing south Florida sun.

He spritzes Evian water on the overheated.

He cleans smudged sunglasses with a cloth tucked into a pocket of his lotion holster.

And at the slightest encouragement, he ever-so-decorously slathers protective lotion on the bodies – male, female and transitional – roasting in the sun.

In a struggling economy, the little extras may be disappearing from some accommodations, as the hospitality industry competes for the cost-conscious traveler. But for high-end hoteliers catering to the very affluent, pampering and excess are lucrative investments.

The greater Miami area led the nation in hotel occupancy with 80.5 percent the first four months of 2008, with the luxury market leading the way, according to Smith Travel Research.

“There’s a certain segment of the population that is never really impacted by economic downturns,” says Michelle Payer, area public relations director for Ritz-Carlton and the creator of the trademarked World’s Only Tanning Butler.

Ritz-Carlton South Beach has been sold out most of this year, she said, because it delivers a luxury experience that includes “value-adds” like gourmet nibbles and drinks offered on lobby sideboards, plus club-level accommodation featuring five daily food and beverage “presentations.”

And then there is the tanning butler.

De la Hoz is the fifth bronzing coach since the hotel created the position upon opening New Year’s Day 2004. He succeeds his friend and fellow model Malcolm Vincent, who had a loyal following for three years.

A 22-year-old model studying to be a paramedic when he’s not rubbing lotion into the shoulders of the rich and famous, the tanned de la Hoz navigates the white chaise lounges wearing a white T-shirt that stretches across his toned torso.

As a model, de la Hoz is accustomed to the flash and flirtation of the fashion world, and to the freewheeling south Beach lifestyle that blends Hollywood glitz with the Latin music scene and a Vegas-like what-happens-here-stays-here bacchanalia.

He sought the $30-an-hour job because it doesn’t conflict with his paramedic training and the pay is more reliable than modeling stints.

He’s not bothered by the frivolity of his position or the superficial attractions he elicits.

“People are going to like you for your personality,” he says, smiling at the wolf whistles from poolside cliques of both sexes.

Although a new Las Vegas hotel plans to offer what it calls “tanning concierge service” – a mobile unit to “airbrush” sunless tans onto guests – the South Beach Ritz position remains the only known tanning butler service available.