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Useful experience for hotel porters includes:

• any hospitality experience, such as working as a waiter/waitress or bartender
• work in the tourism industry, such as being a tour guide
• customer service experience, such as retail work.

Hotel porters may provide some or all of the following services to guests:

• greet and take them to rooms
• move luggage
• run errands
• deliver mail, newspapers and messages
• deliver meals and drinks to rooms
• answer enquiries about local attractions and booking tours
• book taxis and restaurants
• park cars
• take and collect guests to and from airports and other locations.

Hotel porters may also cover for reception desk staff when needed.

Good demand for hotel porters

Job opportunities for hotel porters are good because low unemployment and an increase in job vacancies means there is a shortage of people available to do this role.

According to the Census, 456 hotel porters worked in New Zealand in 2018.

Porters employed by hotels and motels

Hotel porters may work for:

• international hotel/motel chains
• privately owned hotels/motels
• boutique hotels.

Hospitality New Zealand

0800 500 503- www.hospitality.org.nz

Service IQ

0800 863 693 - www.serviceiq.org.nz

Hotel porters may move into other jobs in the hotel such as hotel receptionist or waiter/waitress.

• Receptionist job information
• Waiter/waitress job information
• ServiceIQ website - career map of jobs in hospitality (PDF - 546KB)

Hotel porters need to be:

• friendly and helpful
• polite and tactful
• resourceful and reliable
• organised
• good at listening and communicating
• able to work well as part of a team.

As porters deal with a wide range of people, they should also have an understanding and awareness of other cultures.