Did you know that over ⅓ of American renters are dissatisfied with their apartment amenities? According to a study from Apartment Guide, 15% of renters rated parking as a top amenity they wish their current living space had. (source)
Parking is a must-have amenity for today’s renters who want easy access to their cars from their units. Offsite street parking is often riskier and harder to find, not to mention the safety concerns of walking alone from street parking to an apartment at night.
During the pandemic parking frustrations have only increased. Residents have been at home more often and for those that do go out, returning home and not having an assigned parking space, can be motivation to find a new community.
Why Residents Love Smart Parking
Smart parking is a necessary amenity for residents because it creates peace of mind. For example, if an unauthorized vehicle parks in a resident assigned space, property management is notified and can address the problem quickly. This allows the resident to rest easy, knowing their assigned spot will always be available for them.
Residents can access their own parking management portal through their resident login. Allowing residents to add or remove vehicles, edit vehicle details, see assigned parking decals, upgrade space assignment, keep accurate inventory of vehicles and more through the portal.
Additionally, with designated guest parking spots, it’s simple for friends and family to find parking on property while visiting residents.
The Benefits of Smart Parking
Although residents want parking, site staff often list parking as one of the largest challenges. Perhaps there isn’t enough parking available for every unit, which can make managing parking spot inventory a struggle, especially among all the other tasks property staff are faced with.
So how can communities make parking less of a pain point? By implementing smart parking! Smart parking solutions allow site staff to easily manage parking inventory, monetize underutilized spots and create an easier enforcement process.
Why Property Management Teams Need Smart Parking
In major metropolitan cities, on site parking can be a commodity, but what about suburban or even more rural areas? These communities are able to capitalize on their unused parking spaces, by monetizing allocated guest parking.
Smart parking communities achieve this by installing guest parking signs to signify where guests should park. Guests use their smartphone to scan a QR code on the sign and pay directly in the app. This process reduces guest parking confusion and creates an ancillary revenue stream that directly impacts the property’s bottom line.
Aside from the monetization opportunities, smart parking also reduces complexity for property staff. In order to improve ineffective parking management processes, smart parking solutions, such as Alloy Parking, utilize parking sensors that are placed above or in ground to detect whether a car is parked in the space. From there, site teams are automatically alerted to unauthorized parkers.
Lastly, property staff can access parking inventory reports that act as a single source of truth for available parking spots. Parking reports enable property staff to stay in the know of how many available and vacant spots there are at any given time with the click of a button.
Continued Parking Challenges
In the end, parking challenges aren’t going away, property staff will continue to face the hurdle of parking management. But with smart parking solutions on the rise, providing parking as a resident amenity doesn’t have to be a cumbersome process for site staff. In fact, it can be seamless and even financially beneficial.
To learn more about Alloy Parking, please visit our website or contact us to schedule a demo.