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Planning a paid car park: setting the rate and the revenue model

Planning a paid car park does not start with the rate. First you need to know when your facility fills and when it empties across a week, because that curve is what tells you which model works: hourly, daily, monthly, or all three at once.

Start with the occupancy curve, not the price

For one week, record how many bays are taken at different points in the day, weekdays and weekends separately. Almost every facility has hours where nothing is left and hours where half of it stands idle. Those two states call for different decisions, and a single rate cannot serve both.

The rate is set by the alternative, not by your costs

A driver compares your price not with your expenses but with what parking elsewhere costs them: the nearest car park, the time spent circling for a street space, and the risk of a fine. If your facility is closer or safer than that alternative, the difference belongs in your rate.

Hourly, daily or monthly

A rate that suits a two-hour visit rarely suits a two-week one. Multiplying an hourly rate out across several days produces a number no driver will pay, so multi-day parking needs daily logic of its own. A monthly pass earns less per bay, but it earns predictably.

The highest rate is not the highest revenue

Revenue is the rate multiplied by occupancy. Raising the price lifts the first number and lowers the second, and past some point the second falls faster than the first rises. So a rate is not a decision you make once: it is worth testing against occupancy data regularly.

Mixed use: one bay, two customers

Bays in office and residential buildings often stand empty for part of the day or week, because the tenant does not need them continuously. If you decide during planning which zone can open to outside drivers and at which hours, the same floor area earns twice without cutting into tenant rights.

What to settle before the numbers

Who is allowed in, how payment happens, what happens when a driver stays longer than booked, and who answers a dispute. Those four answers determine what equipment and what process you need. The rate table gets written after that, not before.

Guides for car park owners
The parking business: how it works and where the revenue comes fromHow do I run a paid car park properly?Car park layout: how the design affects what it earns
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