Traveling should be an enjoyable experience from start to finish for your customers, and airports are the start and end points for many people’s travels. However, navigating airport parking lots and facilities can cause your customers headaches.
Despite the rising popularity of rideshare services, many travelers still drive themselves and park at the airport. If your airport doesn’t have adequate parking spaces and amenities, parking could become a hassle for your customers. Keep reading to learn how you can save your customer experience with six ways to improve parking at your airport.
Common Parking Issues That Airports Face
Depending on the size of the organization, some airports experience thousands of customers passing through their terminals each day. Airports must have suitable parking spaces and amenities to accommodate this substantial number of people, which is where many airports run into issues.
Creating parking spaces for so many visitors requires lots of land, and not every airport has the space or budget to expand. Expanding your parking lot across acres of land requires fliers to travel great distances from their parking spaces to the airport entrance. Walking a long distance is inconvenient and inaccessible for many customers. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to improve the customer experience and parking conditions.
Importance of Improving Parking Conditions
Parking problems at your airport could cost you lost revenue and turn away potential customers. Common parking problems such as lack of space or long walking distances could lead potential customers to choose other airports in your area. Some people may even avoid flying altogether and choose alternative transportation services.
Optimizing your airport’s parking situation also promotes safety in your parking lot. Updating your signage, security, and more can help promote safety and reduce vehicle and pedestrian accidents. Keep your customers safe by prioritizing parking upgrades.
Ways To Improve Airport Parking
Now that you’ve identified where your airport parking system has room to improve, it’s time to take steps toward these upgrades. Here are six ways you can improve parking conditions at your airport.
1. Allow Advance Parking Spot Booking
Everyone who has traveled with an airline before knows the stress of showing up early to make it in time for their flight. If your customers know they will have to make extra time to find a parking spot, it can discourage them from leaving their vehicles in your lot.
This is why many airports across the country have adopted advance booking technology that allows customers to reserve parking spaces in advance. Advance booking through apps or browser services makes parking much more convenient and eliminates the need to search for an empty space.
2. Notify Customers When Parking Is Available and Unavailable
Part of what makes finding parking so frustrating for customers is not knowing when spaces are available. If your airport parking lot or facility is at capacity, you need to have a system to alert customers that parking is not available in those areas.
Using advance booking services from the tip above can help with notifying customers. Booking services can alert your business when certain lots or floors of your facility are full. With this notification, your staff can quickly place signage at the entrance to the lot to update incoming customers.
3. Use Automated Parking Technology
If your airport often has too few parking spaces, you may want to consider upgrading your lot or facility with automated parking technology. Automated car lifts provide multiple benefits for parking settings, including additional space for vehicle storage.
Car lifts can provide several times the storage of a standard parking lot because they stack vehicles vertically, making use of space that traditional parking designs often waste. There are several types of storage options you can select for your commercial parking solutions, including triple car lifts to help you take advantage of vertical space to preserve the natural environment around your lot.
4. Offer a Shuttle Service
If your company has expanded its parking lots great distances from the airport itself, your customers might have to walk a long way from their parked vehicles to their gate. This is where having a shuttle service can be a great convenience.
Shuttle services can help improve the customer experience by giving your customers more time before their flights to relax. Having more time allows travelers to peruse your airport’s restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, and more, which can lead to increased sales and revenue.
5. Make Directional Signage Clear and Readable
Directional signage is crucial for efficient traffic flow at your airport. Depending on the size of your airport and parking facilities, they can be difficult to navigate without proper direction signage placement.
Use signage to direct customers to shuttle pickups, terminals, security, and airport amenities. You can also use signage to direct customers to lots or floors of your parking structures that still have available parking to help your customers save more time.
6. Delineate Foot Traffic and Vehicle Traffic Routes
Protecting your patrons and preserving their safety are often important goals of airport parking solutions. When laying out your airport parking lot, remember to keep pedestrian walkways and vehicle traffic zones clear and organized.
Guests should have clear walkways that are safely separated from vehicle traffic to avoid accidents and traffic jams. You must also mark crosswalks and accessible parking spaces clearly to conform with safety laws and regulations for your parking lot.
Where To Find Parking Solutions for Your Business
Now that you know some of the best parking solutions for airports, you may be planning ways to incorporate these tips into your own facility. Start by implementing parking technology such as triple car lifts from Harding Steel.
Our automated parking systems can help you increase your airport parking space to accommodate more customers and make finding parking more efficient. Once you have the vehicle storage space you need, you can start implementing additional amenities such as shuttle services and advance booking.
Use these airport parking solutions to help change your customers’ perceptions about finding parking before their flights. Combine these parking tips with technology from Harding Steel, and your airport parking system will become more efficient and organized than ever. Our automated parking technology, including triple car lifts, makes storing vehicles easier for your customers and staff alike.
