The Challenge

Perla was up against some strict zoning restrictions in the downtown area that made guest parking near-impossible. They weren’t allowed to designate any guest parking spots. This meant that guests had to either fend for themselves by finding street parking (not an easy task downtown) or a nearby lot. 

The result was frustration from residents and guests, and many guests stealing spots from residents because they felt like they had no other option. This, of course, led to constant towing. 

“Towing cars was the thing I hated the most,” Emanuel Pope, the property manager at Perla told us. “The worst thing was that often the staff who had to deal with the complaints weren’t even the ones who towed the cars in the first place.”

“Towing cars was the thing I hated the most. The worst thing was that often the staff who had to deal with the complaints weren’t even the ones who towed the cars in the first place.”

This led to constant frustration for both residents and staff. The situation always swelled to the worst point on holidays and weekends, but even weekdays could still cause problems here and there. 

They attempted to piece together a makeshift solution by letting residents and guests lease parking spaces that hadn’t yet been filled directly from the developers. And while the idea behind this plan was promising, it fell apart in practice. 

They were keeping track of who was leasing spots from developers on pen and paper, leading to a lot of inconsistencies and outdated information. 

“It just wasn’t a good accounting system so things kept falling through the cracks,” Emanuel remembers. 

Since the residents weren’t paying the staff at Perla directly, and instead were paying the developers, it was impossible to know when residents fell behind on payments. This allowed residents to get by without paying for parking for months while the staff at Perla had no idea. 

So the team set out to find a way to still take advantage of the empty spots they had, but back it up with a better, more flexible, and more reliable system. 

The Solution

Parkade turned out to be the perfect solution that would put their unclaimed spots to use and take things up a notch by providing a much more streamlined accounting system.

With Parkade, not only can Perla lease out spots from units that aren’t filled yet, but residents are also able to lease out their own spots when they’re not in use. For example, let’s say a resident goes on vacation for a week — during that time, they’re able to offer their spot up for residents or guests to rent for the short-term.

All of these activities are tracked in a single, easy to use digital platform, moving them away from the messy and unreliable pen and paper system of the past. Residents are able to tap into the app at any time and search for, reserve, and pay for parking at any moment. This helps staff to be more hands-off while improving data accuracy, all thanks to Parkade’s always up-to-date system of record. 

And perhaps most excitingly for Emanuel, who dreaded towing, the enforcement features in Parkade help to cut down on towing. Residents are now able to report unauthorized parkers directly in the app. If it’s a resident, Parkade notifies them to move their car and/or assigns a fee. This prevents improper parking without needing to get a tow involved. 

These enforcement features also give residents immediate solutions if someone is in their spot, temporarily redirecting them to an empty spot for free. That means no one is stuck waiting for resolution or worse, causing a domino effect by parking in someone else’s spot. 

The Results

“Our biggest headache was suddenly gone as soon as we implemented Parkade,” Emanuel told us. 

From fielding complaints to towing cars to trying to manage an impossible-to-manage subleasing system, the most tedious parts of the Perla staff’s duties were eliminated. After implementing Parkade, instances of improper parking were down 175%. And thanks to Parkade’s support team, any parking enforcement issues like occasional towing are hands-off for the Perla team. 

The residents embraced Parkade immediately, because now having guests over wasn’t such a hassle. 

“It’s safer for residents to have family come visit, and we finally have a solution for guests.” 

Despite having no dedicated guest parking, Perla rarely faces guest parking shortages anymore. They realized they had enough parking all along, and they just needed a better system to manage it.

This has led to a reliable (and growing) revenue stream for the Perla team. In just the second month of implementing Parkade, the team brought in $2024, and as of the most recent month at the time of this case study’s creation, they made $3337 in net parking revenue. That represents a 49% increase, and that's after Parkade fees.

Emanuel and the rest of the team at Perla love the intuitive web dashboard that Parkade provides. But what they love even more is Parkade’s dedication to constant improvement. 

“The constant improvements make me want to work with Parkade even more.” 

If the team ever has an idea to make the product even better, they feel confident that their feedback will be heard and considered by the Parkade team. In even the first year since they’ve been using Parkade, there have been several key improvements to the platform that help to maximize the value they’re getting out of the tool.

“I just can’t say thank you enough to Parkade. They’ve completely transformed things around here.” 

‍

_

Revenue and reservations data is collected from month 2 of implementing Parkade to the most recent month, July 2024.

‍