Hello ​@mark.legge,

Although this is really great for properties renting out parking on an hourly basis, it is less suitable for those that do not - yet still need to track parking space availability.

As we operate properties that only offer parking to overnight guests, I am looking for a way to have parking more closely integrated with the main reservation, similar to how products are added under “items.” Instead of switching between services when creating new reservations - and then having to check in and check out two separate bookings (Accommodation + Parking) for the same guest - it would be far more efficient to manage everything within a single reservation.

Having inventory and/or sell limits on products would be a great benefit and would make sense for many different products.

I understand that Mews’ business model is based on charging customers per space, which may be one reason why product inventory has not yet been developed. However, from my perspective as a customer, it makes much more sense to have one reservation to which you can simply add products - such as bike rentals, parking, extra beds, etc. Products with limited availability should not need to be set up as separate bookable services just to avoid overselling them.

I’d be happy to discuss this further in a call if you’d like to explore possible solutions.

+1 on ​@Robin Gustavsson’s point, we’d love to avail but having 2 different reservations in seperate silos isn’t the seamless user experience for our front desk team or a guest with 2 conf numbers. Understand this works for selling parking as a standlone but you also need the two to sync for it to make sense in moving from an existing parking e-commerce supplier.

Hello ​@mark.legge, ​@Robin Gustavsson, and ​@Darren Kearney.

This topic is something I am trying to solve for my property. I have been reading other threads here in the community that speak to using the feature to automatically check-in a reservation for parking spaces, for instance, because like my property, I do not have a Staff member available 24/7 to manage this.

Mark’s article above makes this sound easy, but I am having trouble envisioning this in real life. 

I have a 17-space parking lot behind my 54-room hotel where I have been using Mews to sell parking permit reservations exclusively to hotel Guests whether as a cross-sell when booking their room with us or by calling/texting/emailing our hotel to request a reservation. This is done with a second bookable service and cross promoted through the Service promotion feature on the original bookable service for our hotel rooms.

On Fridays and Saturdays, all parking spaces are sold to hotel Guests which means that on high occupancy weekends during peak season, not every hotel Guest can get a parking permit reservation, especially those who wait to book their room and/or request a parking permit reservation close to their arrival date. Too bad, so sad, and, the early bird gets the worm. Right?

Sundays through Thursdays, almost year-round, the parking lot sits empty when day Guests not staying in our hotel would pay to park in the lot if they could. We have four venues on our ground floor that draw in the general public, some who end up having to park at least a block or more away and walk from the vehicle to our property.

Our Front Desk is not staffed 24/7, so the ability for a day Guest to book a parking reservation seems like there would be a good deal of responsibility placed on the Guest to properly enter his/her vehicle registration information at the time of booking. Initially with our parking permit reservations, I attempted to require Guests to provide us with their vehicle’s color, make, and model (not even a license plate number), but checking the box to require this information (Order requires completed notes) did not work and very few Guests actually read the direction to do this in the rate description. As it is, half of our hotel Guests (or more) do not read anything but the price point before booking a room reservation, so I have little faith day Guests would be more diligent.

The parking lot is monitored by a contracted third-party tow operator with drivers who can remove an unauthorized vehicle (one without a permit displayed in physical form on the vehicle’s dashboard) in the blink of an eye. Monitoring, in this instance, means one of their drivers does a drive-by every once in a while looking for new vehicles in the lot and then checking to see if the vehicle has a permit displayed.

Without an attendant at or in our parking lot, there is no way to issue a physical permit - and without this, we would have to create an automated process by which a Mews-generated report would be emailed to the tow operator in set intervals. Is this practical for the tow operator? My instinct suggests the answer is no.

My greatest concern is creating a new bookable service for hourly parking and then overselling the lot. I know I can use the same space category with multiple bookable services, but I am not 100% certain whether offering one service that sells a permit reservation valid for 24 hours and another service that sells a permit reservation for 1 hour will create this exposure to overbooking.

​@mark.legge, are there confirmed Mews properties that successfully leverage the platform to sell their parking spaces by the hour in a way that also enables those who need to know (e.g., the tow operator) which vehicle in the lot has paid for parking as compared with those that have not? I would like to speak/write with someone from one or more of these properties to help solve this issue for my property and generate revenue we are currently leaving behind.

In advance, thank you for any insights and guidance you can share - even if it is nothing more than the let me know what you tried that did not work.

David Foxx

General Manager
Mari Jean Hotel
St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
MariJeanHotel.com