Just a Thought #1 | Tips to turn your car park into a money maker
Unused parking spaces are an often overlooked asset that, if utilised correctly, can bring in significant, passive income for your business. Today, we’re sharing some of our insider knowledge that will let you turn your parking spaces into a money-making machine.
You’ve got the supply. We have the demand.
Many businesses who try and push demand to their parking spaces often don’t see the results they were aiming for because they can’t reach the right target audience. By utilising the JustPark platform, you can instantly reach our community of almost 10 million drivers, including those specifically looking for parking in your area. You'll have your own profile page, so drivers can see parking instructions, Google Street View photos & images of your facilities, enhancing the overall parking experience for drivers.
Businesses we work with see a significant increase in demand for their spaces. That quick upturn evolves into a regular customer base who then go on to become repeat users of your car park. And all of this happens with minimal involvement from your end. Just list the spaces, set up your profile and watch as the bookings come rolling in.
Easy parking? There’s an app for that.
Today’s customers enjoy the modern, stress-free experience of booking services via apps. From holidays to taxis to your weekly shopping, people want a quick and seamless solution - and parking is no different.
By allowing bookable parking at your car park you’ll be tapping into an audience who look for this experience - in fact, car parks without these options are already seeing less traffic to their sites. So, stay ahead of the curve and move your offering into the ‘Bookable Age’, it’s good for your customers and great for you. One of our partners recently told us of an extra £58,000 in revenue they made through making their spaces available on the JustPark platform. Not bad!
Pleasant experience
A huge part of maximising the revenue generated from your spaces is repeat bookings. The game changer for this is the driver’s experience and that relies on how smoothly things go at the car park. A bad experience can lead to the driver not booking again, as well as a negative review; likely reducing demand and impacting revenue.
Checklist
- Have you got clear signage?
- Is the car park easy to find and drive around?
- Is it easy to pay for and book a space?
Working with our partners, we collaborate on making the best possible experience using our checklist. Over the last 12 months, we have been working with various clients and partners who had negative reviews and worked together to change them into 4 and 5 stars.
A good example of this is Regis Road in Camden. Drivers were finding it hard to know which spaces to park in. We took the feedback onboard and decided to update the signage and made significant changes to the space profile including clearer instructions and visibility with images of the location. Read more about it here.
As a result, we were able to notify users on which spaces were available and have since seen a great uplift in bookings and repeat ones. A pleasant experience for your drivers will lead to more income from your spaces.
Prime locations
There are two elements to having a prime location. Meeting the driver demand and exploring if there are any local business needs you can fulfil. It also helps to understand what type of people would be using these spaces. Is it commuters? Fans going to watch football? People travelling on holiday?
If you choose to set when your spaces are available, knowing this will help you choose the times which will have the highest demand. For example, if your spaces are close to a football ground then demand will typically be higher on a matchday.
The other side to consider is seeing what businesses are nearby and what their parking needs are. This is also a huge part of what we’re trying to achieve here at JustPark, enhancing the drivers' experience and helping communities with solutions that make parking easier, quicker and stress-free.
New parking innovations
Technology is continually evolving and improving, and technology within the parking sector is no different. Over the past few years, there have been great advances within the parking industry, particularly around how automation can improve efficiency for drivers. It wasn’t that long ago when drivers had to deal with massive queues at the ticket machines as well as not even knowing if there were any spaces available when they entered the car park.
An innovation which is hugely benefiting the experience is AutoPay and the use of ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition). In certain car parks, drivers can now enter the car park, park up and drive out without having to go to the pay & display machines or tap the app to pay. Thanks to a clever integration of ANPR and the JustPark app, the driver will automatically be charged for the parking transaction once they leave the car park.
The reaction from drivers to this has been a positive one. It’s not only providing ease of use but also improving customer safety with there now being no need to queue at pay and display machines. A valuable one to consider if you are focussing on improving the experience of your visitors.
