A porter is an employee who ensures cleanliness, order, and renders assistance within places such as hotels, hospitals, office buildings, and apartment complexes. Through their attention and detail and being helpful porters enhance the environment by assisting guests, moving luggage and managing facilities. This article will give an expansive exposition of the porter job description, requirements, salary expectations and responsibilities and questions most people ask regarding the job.
Porter Job Description
A porter also known as a bellhop or a doorman works in a hotel or restaurant in a variety of jobs including maintaining the cleanliness of all the public areas in the establishment. Porters work in a variety of places in hospitals, hotels and even residential complexes where they help in carrying items, cleaning and sometimes security by standing at the doors and checking who goes in and out.
This is a job which requires physical strength as porters spend the better part of the day standing up while lifting or ferrying goods to different locations. Moreover, they also provide memorable services to clients and residents who make requests such as us when they go to a hotel, thus making their role important in improving guest or resident satisfaction.
Job Summary as a Porter
Working as a porter calls for tremendous unyielding strength and cooperation with either clients or residents, a skill which is a necessity for any applicant vying for this position. Refer to this snippet of a resume sample which provides a better understanding of a porter job description:
“Porters possess a satisfying enthusiasm for client satisfaction and are great at putting in the exact amount of effort needed to ensure that high standards of cleanliness are maintained in a room. Always can be seen helping guests to carry bags and perform light fixes and would make sure that public amenities are neat and in an order. Work ethics include being very attentive, physically fit and strong, and very sociable and friendly in nature.”
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Estimated Salary
The average salary for porters fluctuates with respect to experience, place, or level of a facility offering the services. Below is an estimated expectation of a porter salary range:
- Employment Hourly Wage: $11 – $16 on an hourly basis.
- Annual Salary Range: Porters can expect to receive payment between $23000 to $35000 in a year.
- Experienced Porter Salary: Most experienced porters who are aware of skills and work in concierge level hotels or luxury buildings usually work at $17 – $20 hourly including tips.
Employment in hotels and other places as a porter can also compliment the earnings as tips from customers can boost the average earnings. Earnings as porters in cities that are hard to work in or in expensive property are much higher than the average earnings of a national porter .
Responsibilities
Porters are responsible for performing some functions which are helpful to guests as well as providing support as they keep the facility in check. Key responsibilities of a porter encompass:
- Assisting Guests or Residents: Assisting guest/s or resident/s with their luggage, guiding them, attending to their needs, and making their experience memorable.
- Maintaining Cleanliness: Scrubbing, mopping, dusting as well as maintaining that the common areas, the lobby, and corridors are indeed clean.
- Transporting Supplies: Relocation of the equipment, furniture, or supplies in the center as required by the managing authorities.
- Light Maintenance: Carrying out small repairs or informing the service team on larger maintenance queries such as faulty equipment or broken accessories.
- Monitoring Entrances: At times, ports are responsible for watching the entry points and preventing trespass and a duty to protect the building’s premises.
- Trash Collection and Disposal: Taking of waste baskets, observing the right procedures of disposing of wastes, and cleansing the waste dumping site.
- Restocking Supplies: Making sure that washroom and cleaning materials are placed in appropriate areas and are available in public areas.
Qualifications
Minimum education requirement that a person must possess to fill a Porter position is not high however, there are competition skills and qualifications expected of candidates who want to apply for that role:
- Education: A secondary school education or its equivalent certification is usually highly encouraged to apply for.
- Experience: Past experience in such professions may not be a requisite qualification but it would amount to bonus if an applicant has prior working background related such as customer service, cleaning or maintenance related work.
- Physical Stamina: Porters are required to have physical strength, endurance and be able to carry out certain tasks which involve standing for long durations and lifting of heavy items.
- Customer Service Skills: As porters attend to the guests, they are required to work effectively with the customers and with people in general.
- Attention to Detail: This includes the ability to keep the premises in a high profile of sanitation and to be able to perform tasks such as minor chores around the premises.
- Basic Maintenance Knowledge: Basic knowledge on small carpentry and plumbing and electrical work may be helpful for larger workplace.
FAQs
Q1: Porter and janitor, what is the difference?
Porters and janitors are both involved with cleanliness of a specified area. Porters are indeed required to clean too but in addition to that they are required to assist in the loading and unloading of baggage and to help in minor maintenance works. On the other hand, the janitors do not have other requirements, they only work in cleaning and may even never come in contact with residents or guests.
Q2: Are porters given gratuities?
In some situations such as hotels, porters in those kinds of businesses can be tipped for assisting guests with their bags and other helpful services. This is more so in hospitality business than in residential or office workplaces.
Q3: What are the career advancement opportunities for porters?
As they gain more experience more advances opportunities become available .such as lead porter, maintenance technician, and even more management positions in the hospitality industry or facilities services. Some may also move to other customer service positions in their facility.
Q4: Do you need prior experiences in order to get hired as a porter?
In most of the cases, a porter is hired without having to fulfill any set experience criteria. In some cases, customer service or maintenance experience would be advantageous but not required as most companies also offer training on the job.
Q5: What hours does a porter operate?
In most hotels and residential complexes operating round the clock, porters have flexible times schedules which include evenings, weekends, and even holidays.
Conclusion
To conclude, the physical demands and customer service skills needed to be a porter are manageable and the level of cleanliness needed for the job is high but a porter’s job is highly important in several places including hotels and office buildings as a wiper. In addition to this, the job is also great for people who wish to have an active physical role and climb the ranks in either customer service or facilities management as it has no prior requirements.