Parking garages have been a dependable source of revenue for years, but they come with their fair share of challenges, from aging infrastructure to a lack of metrics telling building owners how their parking asset is performing.
At the 2024 BOMA International Conference & Expo, parking solution providers shared tips on how to optimize parking operations.
1. Explore New Tech Options
Changes in occupancy—especially in the office sector—are also negatively impacting parking revenue. However, there are vendors out there who can help maximize the revenue you do have and make parking more accessible for your tenants too. The rise of hybrid work presents new opportunities, such as allowing tenants to share passes, suggested Matt Bloom, director of relationship management for Douglas Parking, a 94-year-old parking operator.
Upgrading old systems can also make your parking facilities more user-friendly, which could draw in additional traffic.
“As much as possible, I’d try to automate and utilize the new technology that’s out there,” Bloom said. “There are different apps that can integrate with old equipment, so you don’t necessarily have to pay for a full equipment upgrade. You can get software that essentially lies on top of the old system. That can be a means to an end until you have enough revenue generated for a new system.”
2. Don’t Forget Customer Service
While fully automated self-service solutions help cut down on staffing issues and costs, they also eliminate an opportunity to provide a friendly greeting to people visiting your building. You don’t have to choose between a fully old-school experience and a high-tech, automated one—you can combine the two strategies, said Christopher Archer, vice president and deputy general manager for North America for FAAC Parking Solutions, which offers data-driven parking tech tailored to each customer.
“Remember that at the end of the day, the first experience the customer has with you or your building is your parking,” Archer said. “If you make that easier for customers, the experience can only grow from there. A lot of facilities people think ‘Let’s go completely people-less,’ but there’s still a bit of human interaction that’s needed.”
3. Embrace the Data
“The more data you have, the more intelligent decisions you can make around parking,” explained Greg Turley, vice president of global sales for Parkable, a software solution that delivers actionable insights around parking facilities. You should be able to find out when cars enter or leave, as well as which tenants are using all their spots and which ones don’t have enough.
“If the owner has excess [parking spots] because there’s vacancy in the building, Parkable allows them to monetize their excess inventory back to the other tenants or find external tenants to take those leases until the tenancies are filled,” Turley said. This level of problem-solving would be difficult—if not impossible—without oversight into usage patterns and parking spot availability.
4. Treat Parking Like an Asset—Because It Is
“A lot of owners before COVID looked at parking like it wasn’t that important because they were so focused on their office buildings,” said Jonathon Barkl, co-founder and CEO of AirGarage, which uses its in-house technology to manage and monetize parking lots and garages. “Now they’re turning to parking and saying it’s an area for us to increase our bottom line and cover mortgages during this slow period.”
Parking offers many opportunities to increase revenue, Barkl said, including:
- Dynamic pricing: Does your parking facility adjust the price of parking to match demand? It may only cost a quarter more for the driver, Barkl said, but those quarters add up fast for parking facility owners.
- Advertising: During times when your parking facility has lower occupancy, AirGarage can utilize every possible online channel to advertise the facility and make it easy to book spots online. “In 2024, people want ease of booking, and so many garages don’t have that as an option,” Barkl said.
5. Get Creative
Think about choosing a parking operator and vendor that’s open to other partnerships, advised Eric DeMunda, director of business development for LAZ Parking. Look for companies that are willing to get on the same page as you when it comes to partnering with other companies that can help you increase parking revenue through strategies like installing EV chargers or putting in storage lockers or Amazon dropoff lockers.
“Be flexible in what you want to look at. Don’t say no to anything—it’s always worth having a conversation and making connections,” DeMunda said.
