Could your car park be the hidden gem in your overall brand experience?
Working in hospitality is hard enough, juggling customer needs to deliver superior service with all the minutiae that goes into running a quality establishment around the clock, from cleaning and maintenance to broadband services and kitchen supplies.
Whilst all the focus rests on these elements, what’s often overlooked is that a first-class experience at your hotel begins the moment your guests enter the car park, with final impressions made as they drive out – no matter how hard your team work in-between.
Despite further industry growth reported by HotStats, a decline in conferences & banqueting and leisure services alongside rising overhead costs continue to put a strain on owners and managers alike to maximise profitability and delight guests.
This is where your car park can really make the difference…
Imagine a guest arriving at a poorly laid-out car park, waiting at a sluggish barrier to gain entry before struggling to get a space. All this before having to find a payment machine, which doesn’t accept notes and even if it did, won’t provide change. That’s not to mention the walk back to the car (probably in the rain) to display the ticket with an awkward struggle to remove the stubborn gluey residue to look forward when they return. Not great and a sure-fire way to drive up complaints, keep your reception team even busier and taint your brand reputation to boot.
There must be another way… there is.
Now let’s imagine a site supported by ANPR. To begin with, your guest can have the option to book parking as part of your online journey. If they do, the camera recognises their details on entry and automatically lifts the barrier (If you still need a costly barrier at all).
Your guest seamlessly drives in and has plenty of choice for where to park, as any unauthorised users will have been eradicated by issuing Parking Charge Notices (PCNs) to people abusing your site. There is no need for physical tickets either as the camera will have already matched the registration plate with the booking made online.
Payments can be made on-site at hard-wired or solar powered next-generation machines which displays the matched vehicle on a 19” touchscreen and payment due based on duration, accepting notes, cards and coins. Alternatively, payment can be made during the booking process or via self-serve terminals located at reception.
Here at ParkingEye we work with some of the largest hotel brands in the world and their teams to make life easier, from small boutique establishments with 15-space facilities to nationwide giants managing large hotel estates across multiple locations (like Marriot and Crowne Plaza to name a few).
We help businesses every day let go of their emotional attachment to traditional methods such as barriers and physical tickets – they’ve been around forever so they must work right? Not that well it seems, with frequent break-downs, costly maintenance contracts and headaches for internal teams.
We also help teams who don’t have any car park management at all, take control of their site and can help you generate new margin-rich revenue streams by using ANPR technology to track occupancy levels and promote unused space to motorists looking for available parking nearby. Win, win.
If your hotel is suffering from overnight guests not paying for parking, congestion, reduced availability due to non-authorised users, pressure to generate more revenue and unreliable barrier systems but we can help.
Our diverse portfolio of pay-on-site, pay-as-you-park and permit solutions is perfectly suited to hotels, all powered by hassle-free ANPR technology, installed with minimal fuss and often at no cost.
What’s not to love?
To transform the way you approach parking, get in touch
01772 450 542
