People expect to be able to park when they visit – and they’ll let you (and potential customers) know if they can’t.
Business owners know all too well the problems caused by unauthorised parking. The most concerning outcome is when genuine users cannot find any available spaces and are forced to drive away, leading to a reduction in footfall and ultimately revenue. Not good.
But there’s another consequence of unauthorised parking that’s often overlooked by businesses, and that’s how it impacts on your online ratings and reputation. This is particularly true for the leisure, hotel and hospitality sectors where reputation management is crucial and positive online reviews can really make a difference.
You’ll want to provide the best possible experience when people visit – and this begins when they enter your car park – so if they encounter problems with parking this may overshadow the service you provide. The last thing you want is for customers to leave negative comments on review websites and social media due to parking frustrations.
And it happens all the time. We’ve just spent five minutes browsing Tripadvisor and found these genuine reviews where parking (or lack of) has prompted visitors to post negative comments.
This review is for a pub located in Derbyshire. “Nice refurb, shame about the parking. We would have loved to dine here if we could have got a parking spot. As it was we had to drive on.”
Here’s one for an outdoor visitor attraction in Northumberland. “Parking problems!!! The car park was full, probably because it was free! After driving round in circles in the town we’d had enough and found our way out, so our visit was abandoned.”
And here’s one for a hotel based in Galway, Ireland. “Felt that the parking was very badly explained on the website and no sign near or at the hotel. We tried to park at the hotel four times until giving up and parking at a multi-storey.”
This negative review is for a cinema in Northamptonshire. “[Cinema] needs allotted parking spaces for their customers because what’s happening is on busy periods with people shopping it’s become very difficult to find a parking space. Got there an hour before and still ended up missing the first 15 minutes of the film.”
Finally, a stinging one-star review for another cinema, based in Birmingham. “AVOID!!! TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE, PARKING PROBLEMS… not enough spaces left – inconsiderable parking by some vehicle owners.”
Enhance the parking experience for your customers
As you can see, some people don’t hold back! But you can avoid reviews like these by ensuring that there’s always ample, convenience parking available for genuine customers.
At Creative Car Park we provide professional car park management services that utilise intelligent ANPR camera systems to deter unauthorised parking and increase space availability. It takes the hassle out of managing your car park so you can concentrate on running your business – and not responding to ‘PARKING NIGHTMARE!!!’ comments online.
For further advice, discover the steps you can take to improve the parking experience at your site, then complete the form below to get in touch with our team.
