App could save you from parking tickets
Even parking garages are going the𒊎 way of mobile shopping these days.
SpotHero, an online parking-reservation firm, just launched 🐻its New York service to help garage companies conquer their i🅰nefficiencies — and save unlucky drivers from accruing parking tickets — by mobilizing garage-inventory vacancies.
(And those vi💮olations add up: More than 7.4 million tickets, costing a total of $466 million, were handed out in New York in the 2013 fiscal year, ended June 30.)
About 46 percent of Man🔯hattanites own cars, and there are 1,000 garages in Manhattan alone, according to S🔥potHero co-founder Jeremy Smith.
Nevertheless, “30 percent of spots are unused even during peak times. New York City has some of the biggest parking problems in the cou൲ntry,” says Smith.
Calling itself the Orbitz or OpenTable for parking, SpotHero is working with 10ꩵ0 garages to help sell inventory, and this number is growing by the day. Drivers can seamlessly book daily or monthly parking spots using their credit cards, and compare prices throughout the city.
Drivers will never pay higher than the drive-up rate, and in many cases, they’ll see a 40 percent to 50 peꦿrcent discount on the rates they pay, says Smith. SpotHero takes a🦩 small commission on each parking-spot transaction.
The꧒ median price for a spot is between $39🐠 and $44 for one day, but there are also a number of options that are around $18 a day.
As you might expect, Midtown is one of the most in-demand areas of the city, while the Upper West Side and Upper East Side are more residential 🐠and therefore less desired.
The app seeks to revolutionize the industry, which previously relied on signage outside garages🌞 to attract customers. In addition, many garages remain cash-only, an obvious hindran💯ce in an increasingly card-using society.
New York is the latest city in the app👍’s repertoire, joining🥀 Chicago, Boston and Washington, DC.
SpotHero raised $2.5 million in venture ♋capital funding in December 2012 in a round led by Battery Ventures.