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Ways to obtain cheaper airport parking
Parking on the airport is clearly the costliest way to park when travelling to the airport by car and we will accept for the purposes of this article that using an off airport car parking facility will always be less expensive and focus on the best way to achieve cheaper parking from off airport car parks.
Although it must be stressed that some of the principles listed below will work equally well if you are looking to reserve on airport parking, a Meet and Greet service or an airport hotel parking package.
To pay less for your parking, you need to have a greater appreciation of the way in which an off airport car park arrives at their selling prices All car parks have finite space and so they all seek to produce the most revenue from the capacity they have available throughout the year. To do this, they will greatly reduce their prices at particular times to achieve this purpose which may seem like a strange thing to do when they are looking to maximise their profits. But this is when cheaper airport parking opportunities arise.
Going back 10 to 15 years all off airport prices were set at a substantial discount to the airport with virtually just a summer and winter price list with price spikes for school and bank holidays. The big problem for both the airport and the off airport car parks was their inability to communicate quickly with their potential customer prices changes based on car park capacity
Indeed in those days, the majority of the travelling public had no idea there was an alternative to the airport and would simply drive to the airport and pay the going price. The only form of advertising available was via local, regional and national newspapers and due to cost of these adverts the copy was very limited in content.
Fundamentally, the issue for many airport car parking businesses was first,the problem of making contact with potential customers and having succeeded in doing so, being only in a position to provide minimal price range.
The other major difficulty is that airlines departed in the mornings and picked returning customers up on the way back that temporarily increased the number of cars in the car park. To make matters worse these peaks and troughs mostly happened at the week- end when the majority of holidaymakers start their holidays. The more cars coming into a car park on a Saturday for instance, could eventually reduce the overall cars kept in the car park for the overall week and reduce the revenue for that week.
For instance a car park can hold 5000 cars and before any cars come into the car there are already 4500 cars in the car park but before midday their 500 coming in making the car park full and the operator having to turn away bookings but by midnight 800 cars have left the car park, the car park has 300 cars less and turned away business.
The good news for both the operator and the customer is the internet has allowed far greater flexibility in pricing and the amount of information that is communicated to the customer covering such areas as how far the car park is away from the airport, transfer time and most of all the security arrangements for his car. To advertise all this information by newspaper would have cost an arm and a leg but now at the push of a button the customer can more easily compare products and arrive at a decision that far better meets their particular requirements.
The prices can also be changed quickly reflecting what is happening now rather than relying on data a year old. Computers advise car park capacities for every day changing with every single booking made which will automatically increase prices when the car park is nearing capacity for any particular and the reverse if the car park has not hit trigger points as that date approaches.
Added to this the human hand will template from the outset to attract more cars from Monday to Friday to even out the peaks and troughs for the reasons previously mentioned. The other benefit is on the cost side, by reducing the number of movements at the weekends means having to buy and maintain fewer buses and employing less staff and placing less pressure on the car park.
To increase your chance of obtaining cheaper parking always first consider using an off airport car park and apply the following criteria.
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Try and travel outside of the weekend
Book as early as possible if you are going to travel during a peak period. Off airport car parks will fill up before the airport and the price will rise as capacity nears for that particular car park.
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If travelling in a the quiet months such as November, February and early December and late January by waiting nearer the time there are usually bargains to be found.
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Use the internet to compare on airport prices.
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Prices are changing daily and continual research is the key.
