By Teri Morkunas, CAPP

Those who work in bustling city parking facilities have a real challenge. You have major corporations moving in that buy up all of the monthly parking in garages in anticipation of future need and do not use the space because they have not completed their move. The move may be months away, so your garage may be only at 50 or 60 percent capacity.

As an operator, you want to maximize revenue. The monthly parking rates are usually about half the cost of the daily transient rate. What to do–oversell your monthly parking? If one were to do that, what would happen when the company finally moves in and uses all the space? Point to ponder.

Another option would be to open up for transient parkers. This must be closely monitored as not to oversell and not have any monthly parking. Those customers are your commuters, tourists, and day transients, and the nightlife/event crowd. To accommodate all, we have to make sure that we do not oversell in one area so that the others suffer.

It is a good problem to have, but it is a daily juggling act for the manager to maximize revenue while accommodating everyone.

Teri Morkunas, CAPP, is senior facility manager with SP+.