Porter
Redesigning a better food and beverage experience
Imagine walking into a food hall with your family and everyone wants to order from different vendors. Well, there goes your next 20 minutes as you stand in lines instead of sitting with the people you came to be with. After designing three food halls, we decided there had to be a better way. And just as Airbnb challenged the established hospitality model, and Uber questioned what it meant to hail a cab, we set out to design a digital solution to a very analog set of problems.
Designing Food Halls
It all started with the design of three food halls. We had been hired to design a food hall experience, and it went so well that those same owners had us design a couple more. With each design, we continued to observe what was working (and not working), and finally decided to do something about the long lines.
A Quiet Set of Helping Hands
A porter was traditionally a quiet set of helping hands at hotels and on trains — someone behind the scenes moving experiences along without a hitch. And that is what we’ve named, designed, and built: an app that subtly delivers convenience. In an age of Delivery Apps taking so much from restaurants, we wanted to make sure each venue’s brand remained front and center, much like a porter helping guests enjoy their dining experience.
Winning Results
As we started to beta test Porter in the food halls we had designed, we began to see the results speak for themselves. Revenue was up, tips were up, and labor was saved. And we won a few awards in the process. So we started to look around at what other hospitality problems Porter could solve, which led to expanded services for hotels, stadiums, and office complexes.
Design & Innovation Awards
AVA Digital Awards 2021: Mobile Buying Experience, Gold
Hermes Awards 2021: Mobile & Web Based Technology, Platinum
NYX Marcom Awards 2021: Food & Drink Mobile App, Grand
PDX Max Awards 2021: Interactive
Design & Innovation Awards 2020: Business Model Transformation, First Place
Summit Creative Awards 2020: Online Advertising/Marketing, Gold
MUSE Creative Awards 2020: Food & Drink Mobile App, Platinum
W3 Awards 2020: Food & Beverage and Best Purchasing Experience, Gold
"It’s rare to find a product that both enhances the guest experience AND increases a hotel’s revenue. Porter does both."
Integrated Whitelabeling
In the spirit of being a quiet set of helping hands to those in hospitality, we began to offer deeper integrations with Porter, spinning up whitelabel solutions for brands to further elevate their guest experiences within their own digital tools.
