Porter Job Description: Duties, Template & Pay (2026)
“Porter” covers several different jobs. A hotel porter or bell porter handles guests' luggage and helps at the door. A dealership or lot porter moves, cleans and stages vehicles. A kitchen porter washes dishes and keeps the kitchen clean. A building or day porter keeps lobbies, restrooms and common areas clean while the building is open. This page gives you a porter job description template you can adapt to each, the pay BLS publishes for each version, what to require, interview questions and what it costs to reach candidates on social.
What a porter does
Every porter job is a support role that keeps something moving: guests and their bags, cars on a lot, clean dishes to the line, or a clean building through the working day. The work is physical, mostly on your feet, and usually needs no credential. What differs is who the porter serves and which equipment they use.
BLS does not publish a single “porter” occupation, so each version below maps to the closest federal occupation. O*NET lists bellhops and bell persons as reported titles for baggage porters and bellhops (SOC 39-6011), reconditioner and detailer for cleaners of vehicles and equipment (SOC 53-7061), and kitchen helper, kitchen steward and utility worker for dishwashers (SOC 35-9021). Building and day porters fall under janitors and building cleaners (SOC 37-2011). Pay figures on this page describe those occupations, not porters alone.
Porter duties common to most settings
- Keep an assigned area clean, stocked and safe during the shift
- Move items, carts, luggage, supplies or vehicles to where they are needed
- Follow safety procedures for lifting, chemicals and equipment
- Help customers, guests or coworkers with directions and simple requests
- Report damage, spills, maintenance problems or safety hazards to a supervisor
- Complete simple logs, checklists or tickets as assigned
Hotel porter job description
A hotel porter, bell porter or bellhop works the front door and lobby. O*NET's task list for baggage porters and bellhops includes transferring “luggage, trunks, and packages to and from rooms, loading areas, vehicles, or transportation terminals, by hand or using baggage carts,” greeting guests and escorting them to their rooms, explaining room features, assisting guests with disabilities, delivering messages and room service orders, and keeping lobbies and entrance areas clean.
- Greet arriving guests, unload and tag luggage, and deliver it to rooms
- Store and retrieve luggage for early arrivals and late departures
- Give directions and local information, and arrange transportation
- Deliver packages, amenities and messages to rooms
- Keep the entrance, lobby and bell stand clean and orderly
Tips. Hotel porters usually receive tips, so check the tip rules before you write the pay line. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, a tipped employee is one who works in an occupation where they “customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips.” An employer taking a tip credit must pay a cash wage of at least $2.13 an hour, and the FLSA “prohibits employers from keeping any portion of employees' tips for any purpose, whether directly or through a tip pool.” Many states set higher cash wages or do not allow a tip credit at all. See DOL Fact Sheet #15 and your state labor department. This is general information, not legal advice.
Dealership porter and lot porter job description
At a car dealership or rental location, a porter keeps vehicles moving between service, sales and the lot. O*NET's tasks for cleaners of vehicles and equipment include driving “vehicles to or from workshops or customers' workplaces or homes,” cleaning and polishing vehicle windows, and inspecting vehicles for cleanliness and damage.
- Move vehicles between the service drive, shop, wash bay and lot
- Wash, vacuum and prep vehicles for delivery or return to customers
- Stage and line up inventory on the lot, and keep the lot and showroom clean
- Check vehicles in and out, note visible damage and fuel level
- Run parts or shuttle customers, where the role includes driving off site
The requirement that matters here is driving. Most dealership porter jobs need a valid driver's license and a driving record your insurer will accept. Say that in the posting, and say whether you check the motor vehicle record, so candidates can screen themselves.
Kitchen porter job description
In restaurants, hotels, hospitals and catering kitchens, a kitchen porter (often titled dishwasher, kitchen steward or utility worker in the U.S.) keeps the kitchen running clean. The job is washing and returning dishes, pots and utensils, emptying trash and recycling, cleaning floors and equipment, receiving and putting away deliveries, and helping with basic prep when asked. Put the dish machine, the pace and the late close in the description; they are the job.
Building porter and day porter job description
A day porter or building porter cleans an office building, residential building, mall or hospital while it is open. Unlike a night janitor, the day porter works in front of tenants and visitors: restocking and cleaning restrooms, spot-cleaning lobbies and elevators, emptying trash, handling spills as they happen, and helping with deliveries or room setups. Customer manner matters as much as cleaning skill.
Porter job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields and keep the lines for your setting. Delete the rest.
Job title
[Hotel / Dealership / Kitchen / Day] Porter, [Company name], [City, ST]
Summary
[Company name] is hiring a porter to [help our guests arrive and settle in / keep our vehicles moving between service and the lot / keep our kitchen clean and stocked / keep our building clean and welcoming during the day]. It is an active, on-your-feet job and a good way into [hospitality / the automotive business / the kitchen / building services]. No experience needed; we train you.
[Shift and days, e.g. 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., including weekends]. [Pay range, and tips if applicable]. [One sentence on what is good about working here.]
What you will do
• [Hotel] Greet guests, handle and store luggage, deliver items to rooms, keep the entrance clean
• [Dealership] Move, wash and stage vehicles; keep the lot and showroom clean; check vehicles in and out
• [Kitchen] Wash dishes, pots and utensils; clean floors and equipment; put away deliveries
• [Building] Clean and restock restrooms, lobbies and common areas; handle spills; empty trash
• Report damage, maintenance problems or safety hazards
• Follow safety procedures for lifting, chemicals and equipment
What you need
• Able to work [shift] including [weekends / holidays]
• Able to stand and walk for the full shift and lift up to [X] pounds
• Friendly with guests, customers and coworkers
• [Valid driver's license and a driving record our insurer accepts (dealership)]
• [Pass a background check, if required]
Nice to have
• Hotel, restaurant, car wash, detailing or cleaning experience
• [Second language spoken by many of our guests]
What we offer
• [Pay range] [plus tips]
• [Meals, uniforms, parking]
• [Benefits and when they start]
• [Path: bell captain, front desk, service advisor, prep cook, lead]
How to apply
[One step. Say how fast you call back.]
Requirements: what to ask for, and what to drop
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Experience | Drop it. Porter work is taught on the job. Requiring prior porter experience shrinks the pool to people already doing it somewhere else. |
| High school diploma | Usually drop. It rarely predicts how well someone does this job. |
| Driver's license | Keep for dealership and shuttle roles; drop everywhere else. |
| Lifting | Keep, with an honest weight. Luggage, cases and trash bags are heavy. |
| Schedule | Keep, and be exact. Weekends, holidays and early or late starts are what define most porter jobs. |
| Guest-facing manner | Keep for hotel and day porter roles. Test it in the interview rather than with a requirements line. |
What porters earn
BLS does not publish a porter wage, so use the occupation that matches your version of the job. Median wages from 2025 BLS data, as published on O*NET OnLine and in the Occupational Outlook Handbook:
| Porter type | Closest occupation (SOC) | Median hourly | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel or bell porter | Baggage porters and bellhops (39-6011) | $17.83 | $37,080 |
| Dealership or lot porter | Cleaners of vehicles and equipment (53-7061) | $17.23 | $35,830 |
| Kitchen porter | Dishwashers (35-9021) | $16.73 | $34,810 |
| Building or day porter | Janitors and building cleaners (37-2011) | $17.71 | $36,840 |
For hotel porters, check how local postings present tips alongside the base wage, and state your own tip policy clearly in the ad.
Interview questions for a porter
These six questions work across settings. Adjust the examples to your building.
1. A guest (or customer) is upset because they have been waiting. What do you do?
A good answer: apologize, take care of them quickly, and bring in a supervisor if they need more than you can give. Arguing or ignoring the guest are the wrong instincts.
2. How would you move a heavy load safely?
Listen for using a cart or dolly, asking for help, and lifting with the legs. “I just grab it” predicts injuries.
3. (Dealership) Walk me through checking a car in from the service drive.
Good candidates mention walking around the car, noting existing damage, checking fuel and mileage, and tagging keys. Care matters more than speed.
4. You notice a spill in a busy lobby while you are in the middle of another task. What happens next?
The spill gets handled first, or at least marked, because someone can fall. Then back to the task.
5. Our shifts include weekends and holidays. How does that fit your life?
Ask it directly. It is better to hear a no now than to lose someone in week two.
6. Tell me about a time you noticed something broken or wrong at work.
You want someone who reports it and follows up, not someone who works around it.
What it costs to reach a porter
Our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark does not have a porter or hospitality support role family, so we have no porter-specific figure. Across all 891 campaigns the median cost per applicant was $13.88. The nearest hourly, no-credential role family we publish, warehouse / production, ran a $9.83 median with a 20 percent apply rate. Treat those as reference points, not a forecast for your market.
The biggest driver is the form, not the auction. Apply rate explained 70 percent of the variation in cost per applicant across the benchmark. A porter posting has no credential to screen for, so keep the form to availability and one or two questions, and call back the same day. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire.
Hiring the rest of the team? See the valet attendant, concierge, dishwasher, auto detailer and janitor job descriptions, and hospitality recruiting for the hiring side.
The job description is not the job ad
The template is for your files. The ad has to catch someone who has never searched for the word “porter.”
- Use the plain job in the headline: “Hotel bell staff,” “Car porter: drive, wash and stage vehicles,” “Dishwasher / kitchen porter.”
- Lead with pay, tips if any, and the shift.
- Say “no experience needed” if it is true. For most porter jobs it is.
- Keep the form short and call back the same day, before the candidate has moved on to the next posting.
- On Facebook and Instagram, job ads run in the Employment special ad category: a minimum 15-mile radius and no targeting by age, gender or ZIP code. See Meta's special ad category.
More on the ad and the interview is in what makes a good job ad and dishwasher interview questions.
Frequently asked questions
What does a porter do?
A porter is a support worker who keeps people, items or spaces moving and clean. A hotel porter handles guests' luggage and helps at the door, a dealership porter moves, washes and stages vehicles, a kitchen porter washes dishes and cleans the kitchen, and a building or day porter cleans lobbies, restrooms and common areas during the day.
What is a porter job description?
A porter job description names the setting, shift and pay, then lists the tasks for that version of the role, such as luggage handling in a hotel, moving and washing vehicles at a dealership, dish and kitchen cleaning, or daytime building cleaning. It should state physical demands, any driver's license requirement and whether you train people with no experience.
How much does a porter make?
BLS does not publish a porter wage, so use the closest occupation. In 2025 BLS wage data, baggage porters and bellhops had a median of $17.83 an hour, cleaners of vehicles and equipment $17.23, dishwashers $16.73, and janitors and building cleaners $17.71. Hotel porters may also earn tips on top of their wage.
What does a porter do at a car dealership?
A dealership porter moves vehicles between the service drive, shop, wash bay and lot, washes and preps cars for customers, stages inventory, keeps the lot and showroom clean and checks vehicles in and out. Many also run parts or shuttle customers. Most dealership porter jobs require a valid driver's license and an acceptable driving record.
What is a kitchen porter?
A kitchen porter is the person who keeps a commercial kitchen clean and supplied: washing dishes, pots and utensils, emptying trash, cleaning floors and equipment and putting away deliveries. In the U.S. the role is more often titled dishwasher, kitchen steward or utility worker, and O*NET groups it with dishwashers.
Do hotel porters get tips?
Usually, yes. Under the federal FLSA, a tipped employee customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips, and an employer taking a tip credit must pay at least $2.13 an hour in cash wages. Employers may not keep any portion of employees' tips. Many states set higher rules, so check yours before writing the pay line.
What is a day porter?
A day porter cleans a building while it is open, working in front of tenants and visitors. Typical tasks are restocking and cleaning restrooms, spot-cleaning lobbies and elevators, emptying trash and handling spills as they happen. BLS counts the job with janitors and building cleaners, whose median hourly wage was $17.71 in May 2025.
Do porters need experience?
Usually not. Porter work is taught on the job, and requiring prior experience narrows the pool to people already doing it elsewhere. What matters more is reliability on weekends and holidays, the ability to lift and stay on your feet, a courteous manner with guests, and a clean driving record for dealership roles.
What interview questions should I ask a porter?
Ask how they would handle an upset guest or customer, how they move a heavy load safely, what they do when they see a spill mid-task, whether weekends and holidays fit their life, and about a time they noticed something broken at work. For dealership porters, ask how they check in a car from the service drive.
How much does it cost to recruit a porter?
Boostpoint's 2026 benchmark has no porter role family, so there is no porter figure. Across all 891 campaigns the median cost per applicant was $13.88, and the warehouse and production family, the nearest hourly role, ran a $9.83 median at a 20 percent apply rate. That is cost per applicant, not cost per hire.
Related job descriptions
Hiring porters?
The description is the document. Getting it in front of hourly workers near your hotel, dealership, kitchen or building is the part we do.
Median wages, 2025 BLS wage data, from O*NET OnLine: baggage porters and bellhops 39-6011.00, cleaners of vehicles and equipment 53-7061.00, dishwashers 35-9021.00 (tasks and reported job titles from the same pages); janitors and building cleaners from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Janitors and Building Cleaners, May 2025. Tipped employee rules from U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Fact Sheet #15; general information, not legal advice. Cost-per-applicant figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 managed campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months. Read at source 24 September 2026.