Discover how intelligent camera technology can put a permanent stop to nuisance parking.
When you’re part of the front desk team at a busy hotel, the last thing you want is to worry about car parking management.
Your job is to welcome guests an make sure they have everything they need for a comfortable stay. And you may have hundreds of guests to take care of every day. You simply don’t have time to be dealing with car parking issues along with all the other tasks you have.
This is why hotel staff value the use of ANPR (Automated Number Plate Recognition) technology to manage their car parks and enforce their parking terms and conditions.
ANPR technology takes the stress out of hotel car park management and is recommended for a number of key reasons.
1. Authorising access for hotel guests is seamless
With ANPR car parking management, guests simply drive straight onto the car park. They don’t need to worry about checking in first, getting a pass or a card, or paying in advance. Once they’re parked up, a simple process registers their car details and gives them authorisation to park as a hotel guest. This can be done using a self-service touchscreen tablet located inside the hotel lobby, or by front desk staff on the guest’s behalf.
After the car registration’s details are added to the system, that guest is an approved user of the car park for the length of their stay, and they don’t need to worry about access or payments when they leave the car park.
2. Spaces are always available for hotel guests
Thanks to the digital technology associated with ANPR car park management, hotel staff can see exactly how many cars are authorised to park in their car park, and they know when these cars should be leaving. This means they can ensure that spaces are always available for new arrivals.
The ANPR cameras monitor unauthorised access and discourage any cars that are not permitted to use the car park through the automatic issuance of a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) through the post. This deters nuisance parking and helps keep spaces available for your hotel guests.
3. The technology provides flexibility for special events
When hotels use a authorisation-based system for their hotel car parking management, they can quickly and easily change the parameters of the access whenever they need to. This is especially useful when the hotel holds a special event or one-off activity. If there’s a large business conference for example, where some delegates might not be staying overnight, hotel staff can authorise access for all attendees to allow them to park for free for the day.
Weddings are another occasion where flexibility is important. If a hotel is holding a wedding reception, guests don’t expect to pay for parking and they don’t want the hassle of dealing with tokens or tickets. With automated technology, guests can just register their number plate details, and the system will handle everything else to ensure that they have free parking. And if a wedding guest does forget to enter their details and they receive a PCN, this can be waived by staff.
4. Staff admin and management time is reduced
Automated processes are a great asset for hotel staff, because their administration time is dramatically reduced. Staff don’t need to spend time checking guests in and out of their car park, and neither must they patrol their car park to check for unauthorised use, cross-checking cars with registered guests.
You can almost forget about the car park, knowing it’s being managed effectively by the ANPR system.
5. Parking charge notices are handled automatically
Staff don’t need to concern themselves with issuing parking charges to guests that have abused the car park’s terms, overstayed their welcome, or parked without permission. The admin time and cost of issuing and following up charges can be troublesome, but with ANPR technology it’s all handled automatically.
In addition, staff no longer need to be worried about angry or irate car owners who have been issued with a parking ticket, because everything is done remotely, once a car leaves the premises. Instead they can focus on helping their guests, rather than dealing with complaints.
6. There are no barriers to worry about
By using ANPR technology for their car parking management, staff don’t need to worry about barriers on their car parks.
Barriers can often break, or cars can get stuck behind them, or something doesn’t work correctly and access is restricted. They can be a difficult to deal with and a costly to fix. Removing car park barriers makes the process far simpler, for both employees, visitors and guests.
7. Airport parking problems are not an issue
For hotels located near airports, long stay parking can be a significant problem. Guests may pay for one night at the hotel and gain access to the car park, and then leave their car there for two weeks whilst they jet off on holiday.
But with authorised access and ANPR, staff can manage their car parks far more effectively and prevent this from happening. Furthermore, signage is erected throughout the car park that informs guests they can only park here for the permitted duration, and any overstays are monitored thorough ANPR technology. Users quickly become aware that they cannot abuse your parking provisions by leaving their vehicles for extended periods of time, because they’ll be issues with a parking charge if they do.
Need a helping hand?
Creative Car Park is one of the UK’s leading car park management companies and we fully understand the problems faced by hoteliers when dealing with their car parks.
If you’re looking to reduce the pressure on your hotel staff with improved car parking management, contact our friendly team by filling in the form below.
You can also request a free, no-obligation audit of your car park and our parking experts will propose the ideal solution for your hotel car park.
