Overview
The shift nobody schedules.
A nightly program resets the building for the morning. It cannot do anything about the restroom at two in the afternoon, the spill in the lobby at eleven, or the conference room that turned over four times before lunch. Day porter coverage is the answer to the hours between resets, and in a busy building it is the difference between a property that looks maintained and one that looks maintained only at 8am.
The role is deliberately visible. A porter in uniform, badged and known by name to your tenants, is a signal that the building is being looked after — and a first responder to the small failures that otherwise wait for a nightly crew or a work order. A matron program adds dedicated restroom attention on the same basis, which is what high-traffic retail, medical, and civic buildings usually need most.
What's included
The starting scope checklist.
Lobbies & entrances
- Detail entry glass, door hardware, and mats through the day
- Reset furniture and clear the reception area on a set round
- Spot-clean spills and tracked-in soil as they happen
- Police exterior entry, ashtrays, and the first few metres of frontage
Restrooms
- Scheduled checks with a signed sheet, not on request
- Restock consumables before they run out, not after
- Spot-clean fixtures, mirrors, and floors between nightly services
- Report fixture faults the same hour they are found
Common & amenity areas
- Break rooms, kitchens, and shared coffee points reset through the day
- Elevator cabs, call panels, and lobby touch points detailed
- Conference and meeting rooms turned over between bookings
- Stairwells and corridors walked and spot-cleaned
Waste & logistics
- Common-area waste and recycling emptied through the day
- Trash rooms and chutes kept clear and presentable
- Deliveries and event set-downs cleared from common areas
- Escalation of anything outside scope to one named number
Scope is written per site during the walkthrough. This is the starting checklist, not the ceiling.
Want this scope written against your property?
Program options
Program shapes, not packages.
We do not publish prices. Scope and price are written per site after the walkthrough — these are the shapes this service usually takes.
| Coverage | Typical profile | Hours | Reporting |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 hours, 5 days | Class A tower, high-traffic lobby | Business hours | Daily log, weekly walk |
| 6 hours, 5 days | Mid-rise office, medical plaza | Mid-morning to late afternoon | Daily log, biweekly walk |
| 4 hours, 5 days | Professional suites, small retail | Peak period only | Daily log, monthly walk |
| Matron, restroom-led | Retail, civic, high-volume public | Trading hours | Signed check sheet |
| Split shift | Buildings with a lunch and evening peak | Two blocks daily | Daily log |
| Event or seasonal | Turnover, trade days, holiday retail | Agreed per period | Completion sign-off |
How it works
From walkthrough to first shift.
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Walkthrough
We measure the areas, note access and traffic, and record current condition — usually within 4 hours of your request.
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Written scope & pricing
Task list, cadence, and price in writing, area by area. Nothing agreed verbally.
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Onboarding
Assigned supervisor, named crew, keys and access logged, and a start date you can hold us to.
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Supervision & inspection
Scheduled walks against the written scope, with corrections raised and closed in writing.
Properties we do this for
Where this program runs.
Equipment, products & standards
What the crew arrives with.
- Uniformed and badged, with a named porter assigned rather than a rotating pool
- Radio or phone contact with your building team through the shift
- Dilution-controlled chemicals carried on a compact service cart
- Wet-floor signage and safe working practice in occupied space
- Trained to work quietly and unobtrusively around tenants and patients
- Daily log completed and available to you, not filed internally
- Escalation path agreed in writing for anything outside the scope
- Cover arranged in advance for holidays and absence, briefed before arrival
Green-cleaning credentials and third-party certifications are held for {{GREEN_CREDENTIALS}} and {{CERTIFICATIONS}} — nothing is claimed here that has not been supplied and verified.
Why Unison for this service
Three things that hold the standard.
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A name, not a vendor
Your tenants learn one person’s name. That single fact resolves more small complaints than any reporting system.
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Checks are scheduled
Restroom rounds happen on a set cycle with a signed sheet, whether or not anyone has asked.
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Cover is planned
Holiday and absence cover is briefed on your building before the shift, not sent blind on the morning.
- Licensed
- Bonded & Insured
- Background-Screened Crews
- Directly Employed Crews
- Written Scope & Pricing
Insurance limits render from {{INSURANCE_DETAIL}}. A service-relevant testimonial is reserved here and withheld until real attribution is supplied.
Related services
Often run alongside.
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Commercial janitorial
Recurring nightly and day-shift cleaning for occupied buildings.
Explore janitorial →
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Disinfection & sanitation
Touch-point and restroom protocols on a documented cycle.
Explore disinfection →
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Facility maintenance
Light maintenance and repairs alongside the cleaning program.
Explore facility maintenance →
Frequently asked
Day porter & matron, answered.
What is the difference between a porter and a matron?
A porter covers the building generally — lobbies, common areas, waste, spills. A matron program is restroom-led, with scheduled checks and restocking as the core of the role. Many buildings run both, or one person covering both scopes in a smaller property.
How many hours do we actually need?
It depends on traffic rather than square footage. A quiet mid-rise may need four hours over the lunch peak; a tower lobby with ground-floor retail usually needs a full day. The walkthrough is where we work that out, and the scope states the hours explicitly.
Does the porter replace the nightly clean?
No, and any vendor suggesting it does is selling you a gap. The porter holds the building through the day; the nightly program resets it. They are scoped separately and priced separately so you can see what each one covers.
What happens during holidays and sickness?
Cover is arranged in advance from the same regional crew and briefed on your building before the shift. The substitution is noted in the daily log rather than left for your team to discover.
Can the porter handle small maintenance tasks?
Light tasks — replacing a bulb, clearing a blocked bin chute, moving furniture for an event — can be written into the scope. Anything requiring a licensed trade is escalated to one number rather than attempted.
Will the porter work around our tenants?
That is the whole point of the role. Crews are trained to work quietly in occupied space, and to time noisy or disruptive tasks around meetings, patient hours, or trading peaks.