ParkWhiz Introduces Flat-Rate Parking, Including $5/Hour, in Chicago
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ParkWhiz on Tuesday introduced flat-rate parking at more than 100 of its Chicago-area parking facilities. Customers can now reserve an hour of parking for $5, two hours for $10 and 12 hours for $15.
“For us really the main goal with regards to introducing Simple Price Parking is we want to make parking in Chicago more affordable and convenient,” said Aashish Dalal, CEO of the parking reservation app.
Dalal contrasted the Simple Price Parking rates to garages where a single hour can cost more than $20, and street parking, which costs up to $6.50 an hour in some parts of the city. He said ParkWhiz offers the fixed rates all over the city, including the Loop, Lincoln Park and Gold Coast. An April company survey of 500 Chicago drivers declared those as the city’s most difficult places to find parking, Dalal said.
“When you’re coming into the city you’re like, ‘Am I going to get taken?’” he said. “Our goal is to remove that through the flat rate predictable simplistic model.”
About one quarter of ParkWhiz’s affiliated parking facilities in Chicago now offer Simple Price Parking, Dalal said. He said light blue markings indicate flat-rate deals on ParkWhiz’s iOS and Android apps.
Dalal said ParkWhiz pays a fee to its facility partners, which he says he has negotiated down over time as a result of the traffic his company drives to these facilities. Facilities that offer Simple Price Parking receive the same fee they’ve always gotten, while ParkWhiz sets its own rates for customers at a steep discount.
“We’re able to provide a significant value proposition to our drivers,” Dalal said. “We expect to see significant influx in consumer behavior.”
Praveen Chandrasekar, an automotive and transportation research manager at Frost & Sullivan, said most parking apps set prices based on meters or garage rates. He said daily commuters would find the new rates options attractive.
“This is a differentiator compared to others, but this also means ParkWhiz might take a hit on their commissions/brokerage fee to facilitate this level of discount,” Chandrasekar wrote in an email to Blue Sky.
He added that revenue from ParkWhiz’s existing monthly parking feature could help offset that loss. “This also definitely allows them to differentiate themselves in a crowded parking apps marketplace fast converging on similar features,” he said.
Dalal said he expects to expand coverage of the program in Chicago, then he’d like to roll it out in New York, where ParkWhiz has 500 locations. He said an expansion of the Simple Price Program to other cities could happen in the next few months.
Founded in 2006, ParkWhiz now offers parking through its app in 150 U.S. cities. It raised a $10 million Series B round in 2014 that brought the company’s total funding to $12 million. Earlier this year, ParkWhiz announced it signed a deal with StubHub to offer event-specific parking reservations.