Struggling to find a car park that won’t shatter your weekly budget? Alex Dalland reveals how to cut costs.
Although many people believe that city parking can be outrageously expensive, the key to saving can be as simple as booking online – according to car park operator Secure Parking.
A representative from the company revealed how some parking websites and apps can even offer discounts of up to 40 per cent, and are one of the reasons why parking is cheaper now than ever before.
“Just like hotels and flights, customers will pay a premium fee at the boom gate, so we encourage all customers to plan before they park to avail of discounted rates,” Secure Parking Corporate Marketing Manager Andrew Sapir said.
“Technology has allowed car parking operators country-wide to be more flexible with rates and to fill available parking bays.”
Parking apps such as ‘Cheap Parking’ and ‘Park Me’ work in a similar way to online booking, but can often provide a precise location of available and discounted parking spots.
“The best advice on saving money on car parking is to search for and find the car park that best suits your requirements for the particular journey.
“By searching based on your own parameters (be it proximity to destination, cheapest price or somewhere in-between) you can find the car park best suited to your particular journey based on the current deals, rates and conditions,” co-founder and executive director of parking comparison site CarParking.info Gerard McLennan says.
“Being Sydney-siders we faced similar challenges and this is where the idea for CarParking.info came from.”
Other tips to save on parking include taking advantage of long-term discounts, parking further away from the CBD (where prices are often cheaper), utilising free time limits and checking if your destination validates parking.
