Finding affordable vehicle parking is always a challenge, especially if you live in a populated city. In fact, over 30% of traffic in any city is caused by drivers looking for parking options. Fortunately, the technology of today has many innovative solutions to find and compare parking lots, save money every time you park, and even to book a parking lot right from your phone effortlessly.

This new era of parking solutions allows drivers to save time on the road finding parking lots and reduce the carbon footprint significantly. It is also transforming the parking industry and bringing in lucrative opportunities for businesses as well. If you are considering creating a smart parking app, it is the right time to step into the industry.

When it comes to parking, what customers care most about is convenience, price, and safety, Proximity also plays a great role in customer’s perception of convenience. If a user has to park far away from their destination to save money, that can be frustrating. Hence, if you are developing a parking app, ensure that these factors are taken into consideration.

How does a parking app work?

The approach of smart parking management software is similar to Airbnb’s business model, the only difference is that it connects parking space owners who want to rent out their parking lots and drivers looking for available parking spaces instead of hosts and travelers.

Airbnb for car parking works this way-

The Airbnb parking app allows car owners or businesses to list their unused parking spaces in your app while giving them a passive way to make some money and utilize their vacant space efficiently. Drivers who are looking for available parking spaces can find and book free slots ahead of time.

After using the service, car owners can make the payment by the available price formats and enjoy other advantages like advanced booking, offers on parking charges, premium customer service, and more. If you want to get your hands into the peer-peer real market, developing an Airbnb for car parking is the best way.

Different type of parking applications

When entering the market, it is significant to explore the newest technologies, understand customer needs, take advantage of the experience of leaders, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of competitors and offer customers better service. To have a better understanding of how to create a parking app for business success, let’s explore some of the categories of parking apps available in the market.

By location

When choosing an approach to enter the market with your parking solutions, you can either choose to focus on localization or spreading geographically. To start with, you can focus on any one geography and later expand to other areas. Another way is to embrace several cities of a country or offer international services.

By parking time

Parking apps can be of two types based on the parking time. It can either offer parking on the go or in advance. Smart parking apps can combine both options as well.

By payment methods

Most smart parking solutions comes free, but include in-app payments to book a parking lot. These apps offer a variety of online payment methods including debit card, credit card, PayPal, Apple pay and other wallets. Some parking apps also allow users to filter parking lots by payment type. This also includes payment by cash for users who prefer to avoid online payments.

By the method of finding available parking lots

Most parking apps display free to available parking lots on the map showing prices. Whereas some parking apps allow users to find parking lots by entering the location code. Whatever category of parking app you choose to create, parking doesn’t have to be the only main feature of your app.

Must-have Features in your parking management system

By creating a parking app, you are entering a highly competitive industry led by pioneers. In such a competitive market, having some great features to offer is highly significant. Before building a profitable parking app, you must have a clear picture of how it works for end-users.

Here are some of the essential features that your parking app must have to gain a competitive advantage in the industry.

Booking system

A smart parking app will help drivers find parking spaces, reserve it, navigate, and finally pay for the services. Most parking apps work on this model where the driver registers in the app, book a parking space, and after reaching the lot, the app navigates to the booking spot. Finally, parking fees can either be paid in cash or online through the app itself. Parking apps must have easy to use navigation and booking system and additional features that support the whole process.

Communication system

Every smart parking app needs a reliable communication system. It helps to solve the problems of users while listing and finding parking spaces. The app must have both technical support and push notifications via message so that it is convenient for users to enjoy the best services with your parking app. Parking space owners, drivers, and admin must be able to communicate with each other concerning the services they want to avail.

Multiple payment choices

Offering multiple payment choices in your parking app is highly recommended as it instantly helps to establish trust amongst your users. Adding multiple payment methods can increase user engagement and highly reduce the bounce rate. This is very important when businesses expand, especially when you have better geographic coverage. Offering different payment options is a part of providing a great customer experience as well.

Easy navigation

Most parking apps come with an inbuilt GPS tracking system that assists car owners to easily locate a free parking lot. The navigation system must be easy to access and uncomplicated.

Control system

The control system of the parking app offers the drivers with important information like “Where to park”, car parking processes, price, payment methods, and other notifications.

Provide price comparisons

If your parking app offers a comparison list of parking spaces with prices available in a specific area, it will be easy for users to choose a parking space near to them and fits the budget.

Safety features

As your parking app handles sensitive user data like credit cards, integrating security features is a top priority during parking app development. Security must be a top priority of any parking app to protect user data from unauthorized access and data leakage.

Rating and review system

An Airbnb for car parking must have a rating and review system that allows users to rate parking space owners based on the services they offer. Ratings and reviews are very important and help in establishing trust among users and enhance the overall customer experience.

Conclusion

The parking management system that alleviates the parking problems of urban cities are the future. Despite the rising number of parking apps in the play store, there is a lot of potential in the industry. A smart parking solution based on the Airbnb model holds immense potential and allows to take your business to new heights. Parking app development needs a lot of planning and the features to incorporate depends on your business requirements and the needs of your target audience.

Author bio:

Shirley C. Stewart

Business Consultant & Marketing Head at RentCubo

Helping brands to build their web products that people love using.

Interested in growth hacking & startups.