Pre-book to Reserve my spot?
Rapidly evolving market and complex marketplace, knowing what a quality system can bring, sustain and evolve!
Reserving a space online save time, money, peace of mind. More so, an effective OBS delivers rich passenger insight & opportunity to do more!
Online Booking Systems (OBS) have become commonplace for most airports, enabling passengers a level of assurance through self-service. Having the opportunity to pre-book/reserve a parking space/spot provides passengers with confidence they will not be disappointed upon arrival at the airport; their spot is guaranteed and a potential frustration point of the airport journey is removed.
But surely there’s far more to be had than simply convenience and peace of mind? - and there is! Effective Airports are leveraging OBS to communicate more effectively with their customers; owning the power to build predicability, plan more effectively, avoid confusion, congestion and conflict from the outset of the airport parking journey. An effective OBS has the ability to do far more - it can advance passenger experience through data driven decisions, treat each passenger uniquely through recognition, retention, loyalty and predicability.
Although most airports provide a variety of parking products/lots throughout its proposition, serving a wide variety of passenger needs and budgets, many airports have an emerging or compelling competition, served by price sensitive market options - Off Airport Parking competitors and alternative mode share options: Transport Network Companies (TNC), Car Share operators, public transport options, plus the valued-dependancy of Friends & Family (F&F) through ‘drop-off’ &/or pick-up (“Kiss & Fly” or “Meet & Greet”) traffic.
Maximising parking revenues through traditional ‘drive-up’ is no longer a sustainable default.
With increasing mode share options and the spectrum of opportunistic operators presenting competitive pricing strategies, passengers have more choices and the opportunities are accelerating faster than ever before. So how can airports successfully leverage pre-book parking and why is this not considered as diluting readily available revenues?
Although the trusted ‘Official’ on-airport parking options provide a variety of products/lots, supporting a breadth of passenger needs and budgets, capacity is limited (particularly at seasonal peaks), loyalty can be swayed and last (adverse) experiences can be lasting! Effective OBS platforms provide an opportunity to be more predicable, enabling data driven decisions through the conversion of pre-book transactions, yet the best in-class will leverage quality insights, agility in offers, excite and engage with passengers for retention and growth - every airport needs its advocates and the local catchment should be a part of this influencial success.
Passenger book their flights and accommodation at the earliest point of travel planning, seeking to secure a seat &/or a bed at the best price - so why should parking be considered a separate ‘last minute’ purchase? Both airline seats and hotel accommodation is price according to premium product hierarchy, capacity against availability and demand, alongside contributing individual components - parking is no different. It has the agile ability to price according to the passengers set of preferences, parameters and price points, sought to leverage the best possible rates, whilst maximising revenues and securing a business critical booking.
It’s becoming imperative to maximise every available data point, building more knowledge about the passenger towards presenting the most effective proposition. Making things simple is essential, leveraging every asset, experiential component aids the tipping point of conversion successes - passenger want speed and convenience through parking. On airport (official) parking should be the passengers preference, particularly when the competition can only leverage on price; airport’s need to improve on pricing agility, be prepared to optimise available (unsold) capacity to achieve daily occupancy levels +90%. Consistently rising the rate for drive-up, further enables the agility of pre-book to become more compelling.
Revisiting the passenger expectations of speed & convenience in airport parking, the OBS partner must be fully integrated with the airports main site, complementing and leveraging the airport’s brand, colour palette, styling and tone of voice to maintain the connection of transacting with the airport and not via a third-party partner. Passengers embrace brand value, bringing trust, confidence, security and agility to the price of its parking option(s). Pre-book parking should be targeting a minimum of 50% of the total occupancy (1+ day stay transactions); this enables data predicability for operators to be more successful though optimization, to meet and exceed passenger experience, providing consistent growth to the airport’s evolving strategies.
More than simply parking - the airport has the opportunity to leverage several Unique Selling Points (USPs) that competitors cannot access: Departures Express Security Lanes, Lounge Access & connected concessions offers; price bundling has become an essential part of Upselling strategies airports can improve its single customer journey and incremental revenue. Previously ‘valet washing’ was considered a natural add-on service; in fact it presents more complexity to the multiple handling of the customer’s car, prompting more financial risk, heavier resource and equipment costs with lower margins. Therefore airports are leaning on value-adds that are directly linked with light touch, end-to-end airport experiences - making a single transaction through multiple touchpoint of the airport journey. By making the service proposition more effective, the greater opportunity to invite compelling offers to passengers, making more data connections to aid & inform future journeys, even better.
Creating a data-lake of insightful touchpoint, reveals habits, preferences and the prospect of retention and growth, creating incremental revenues that last. Leading OBS platforms are able to identify the prospect of conversion, through (personas) preferences & behaviours, continuously learning, building and refining presentations through pricing to maximise conversion. Harvesting this data enables the airport to understand its passengers better, why particualr parking products are more successful, which are valued through seasonality, business to leisure travellers, single or couples, through to families and those needing additional assistance. All data points revealed are refined and reshaped within the proposition, yet keeping it simple, ease to use, easy to find and making sure it works - first time and every time, remains a critical measure of retention.
Pre-book parking is rapidly becoming the must-have of airport parking, ambitious airports are advised to embrace this technology before your competitor temps your passengers away. . . . So much more to add on this subject, so many options and nuances, navigating the successful is essential!
More to come:
Navigating self-build solutions, compared to simple structures to complex & intensive platforms, preparing for AI evolutions!