Property owners are letting a $35 billion revenue opportunity quietly slip away. To enhance tenant and visitor experiences, they continuously upgrade property amenities, yet often overlook the starting and ending point of people's visits—the parking lot. Their garages and lots remain stuck in a bygone era: visitors spend an average of 17 hours per year searching for a spot, while owners miss out on the 140% in additional spending generated by a positive first impression.

Donus
Chris Donus
Image source: Flash

But it doesn't have to be this way. Advanced AI and integrated camera technology have opened the door to a digital parking market, poised to revolutionize parking just as Amazon, Uber, and Airbnb disrupted their respective industries. Imagine a digital parking ecosystem: your parking facilities connect with drivers through apps they already use, allowing them to find, reserve, and pay for a spot ahead of time—more easily than scanning a paper ticket.

This parking ecosystem already exists. To understand how it works, let's follow a group of concertgoers as they make their way to the venue.

Smart Recommendations

Our concertgoers purchase last-minute seats on a ticketing website. At checkout, they see parking options at or near the venue, complete with real-time availability, pricing, accessibility, and EV charging details. These AI-driven recommendations factor in local events, weather, venue distance, occupancy, and walking routes to offer personalized choices. If they defer the parking decision, they'll also find parking options near the venue in the navigation apps they already use, such as Apple Maps, Google Search, Google Maps, and Waze.

Reservation and Payment

Once the concertgoers select their preferred lot or garage, they can complete the reservation and payment using a digital wallet or other payment methods—without leaving the current website or app. Parking is now effortlessly taken care of.

Arrival Recognition

When the concertgoers arrive at the reserved parking facility, AI-powered cameras recognize their license plate and match it to their account. Trained on over 100 million images, these cameras handle the irregularities of U.S. plates as well as disruptions like fog or glare. This means no card swiping, QR scanning, or app downloads are needed to enter the spot. Meanwhile, property managers can monitor inventory and availability in real time and adjust dynamically.

EV Charging Assurance

If the concertgoers drive an electric vehicle, they may have encountered faulty charging stations—something that occurs roughly once in every five charging sessions, according to a Harvard study. This performance gap presents an opportunity for property owners to offer the same convenience, transparency, and reliability for EV charging as they do for the digital parking experience. With guaranteed parking and charging spots, concertgoers can set aside range anxiety, knowing the hardware will work when they need it. For this peace of mind, EV drivers are often willing to pay a premium.

Automated Settlement and Data Loop

After the event, AI cameras identify the concertgoers' vehicle at the exit and mark their visit as complete. Payment is processed automatically based on the method specified at booking, and a detailed receipt is sent to their email. On the property management side, visit data feeds back into the AI algorithms that initiated the process, creating a dataset that helps property managers improve asset visibility, booking volume, and the parking experience for visitors.

A digital parking ecosystem that creates a seamless parking experience for drivers translates into potential profits for property owners. With such technology, owners can tap into previously missed revenue by boosting visitor engagement and goodwill.