Parking is a great amenity for hospitality to offer guests—and in urban locations it’s almost a necessity. The challenge facing property owners and managers is how to operate their parking resources to maximize revenue, minimize problems, and control expenses. It can be a difficult undertaking for many properties who otherwise deliver a superb and cost-effective guest experience.
In many cases, the solution may lie in engaging a professional parking operator to assume management of the parking side of the house. These operators bring operational experience from working with hundreds of hotels, experience that they can tap to elevate service levels and maximize revenues for their clients over what could be expected from in-house operations far less experience or resources. That experience can also enable a professional operator to develop a plan that meets the unique needs of a given property, focusing on the results that are most important.
With more comprehensive operational controls and procedures that professionals bring, it is common for properties to achieve NOI growth over 10% from their parking resources.
Hotels with parking operators benefit from enhanced attention to revenue capture, rate adjustment opportunities, and marketing initiatives targeting hotel and neighboring businesses customers. A good professional parking team should be trained to resist complacency and continuously engage traditional and emerging strategies to maximize revenue. Employing automated reconciliation procedures accompanied with reliable integrations with hotel and parking systems can increase revenue capture and support sophisticated operator business intelligence tools. Revenue generation is also maximized through regular rate adjustments and the deployment of continuously evolving online and direct marketing strategies.
Private operators can energize hotel operations with a consistent staff that leverage technology to minimize claims and deliver reliable service levels. The same recruiting, staff management, and claims mitigation strategies that contribute to elevated service levels have also proven to generate cost savings.
When hotel parking operations transition to professional operators, one of the most significant impacts is a more experienced and reliable workforce. This is achieved through robust recruiting teams that work closely with training departments to fill each position with highly qualified team members instilled with an eagerness to exceed guest expectations. Successful recruiting and training also lead to low turnover and hotel operations consistently staffed with team members that are familiar with the unique qualities of each property. In addition to helping reduce overtime and other costs related to high turnover, reliable and well-trained team members reduce valet vehicle damage claims.
The impact from lower claims creates further cost savings due to lower insurance premiums typically offered by professional parking operators with low claim deductibles, which can substantially impact in-house operating costs.
For hotel owners and managers looking to increase the revenue contributions of their parking operations, the cost savings from outsourcing their parking to experienced operators can make the difference.
