Software for airport car parks: more direct bookings, less commission

Around major airports such as Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn or Frankfurt, numerous private parking providers compete for travellers. Many of them receive a large share of their bookings via comparison and broker portals. These portals are convenient but keep a commission on every booking and own the customer relationship.

At the same time, the operator's own business is often barely digitalised. Bookings come in by email, phone and from several portals and are merged in spreadsheets. Prices are recalculated every season, and the condition of the car at handover is recorded on paper – if at all.

Software for airport car parks should solve both problems: it should strengthen your own direct sales and at the same time simplify daily processes from check-in to billing. That is exactly what we developed Altora ParkBook for.

With ParkBook, travellers book directly on your website, around the clock. The portal calculates the price in real time, offers extras such as car wash programmes, refuelling or e-charging and sends a booking confirmation with a QR code. Via a link in the email, guests can view their booking and cancel it themselves.

Your customers consistently see your brand, not that of a broker. Every direct booking is a booking without commission, and the customer data stays with you. This is the basis for building regular customers who book directly with you again for their next holiday.

The booking portal can be used in several languages. Especially at airports with many international travellers, this makes booking easier and reduces queries.

ParkBook was not designed on the drawing board. Altora Technologies itself operates booking platforms for airport parking, including Friend-Park and a booking platform for Düsseldorf Airport. The software has also been used, among others, by a valet parking provider at Düsseldorf Airport.

From this operation we know the requirements of the industry: load peaks at the start of the holidays, short-notice bookings the evening before departure, questions about meeting point and return, damage disputes at vehicle return and the need to merge bookings from several channels.

These experiences have flowed directly into ParkBook's features – from check-in with fixed photo positions to the automatic review request after drop-off.

In the dashboard you maintain price plans with seasons, special rates and vouchers. You create extras such as car wash programmes, refuelling or e-charging once and offer them in the booking portal. Changes take effect immediately without you having to update several price lists in parallel.

Opening hours and additional fees, for example for returns outside service hours, can also be stored. For shuttle car parks, shuttle prices per person and late fees are added; for valet providers, the digital vehicle handover.

This creates a uniform pricing logic for all bookings. Your team no longer has to calculate by hand, and your customers see the final price before completing the booking.

At handover, your team scans the QR code from the booking confirmation or taps the licence plate. On a single page on the smartphone, ten vehicle photos are taken at fixed positions, damage is reported with several categories and up to ten photos, and the customer's electronic signature is captured.

At check-out, the check-in photos and known prior damage are available for comparison. The handover report including damage report is available as a PDF, and the photos can be downloaded individually or as a ZIP. Automatic photo deletion periods with a warning in the dashboard help handle the images in compliance with data protection.

This complete documentation protects your company against unjustified claims and builds trust with your guests.

From ParkBook PLUS onwards, you accept online payments via your own Stripe account. The money flows directly to you, not via a broker portal. The dashboard shows the payment status for each booking, and invoices are sent as PDF by email.

For you this means fewer cash payments at the counter, fewer outstanding amounts and simpler accounting. For your guests it means a convenient booking process, just as they are used to from large portals.

Since ParkBook does not charge commission per booking, more revenue stays with you for every direct booking than for a booking via a broker portal.

You do not have to give up broker portals overnight. Existing bookings from portals such as Parkos or ich-parke-billiger can be imported into ParkBook, so your team sees all bookings in one overview – regardless of the channel they came through.

With your own booking portal, you gradually increase the share of direct bookings at the same time. Automatic WhatsApp and email messages as well as review requests after drop-off help turn guests into regular customers who book directly with you next time.

The PRO package also includes benefits at friend-park.de, our own comparison platform for airport parking.

ParkBook is available in three packages: ParkBook for €99.99, ParkBook PLUS for €149.99 and ParkBook PRO for €199.99 per month, each plus VAT. All packages include unlimited bookings, your own company domain, QR code bookings, mobile check-in and check-out, as well as vehicle photos and damage reporting.

PLUS adds online payment via Stripe, WhatsApp bookings and automatic WhatsApp messages. PRO additionally includes free set-up, free import of existing bookings and all future features.

In the live demo you can see beforehand how ParkBook works. The basic set-up is usually completed within a few days, depending on the scope of your parking areas and pricing models.

Many airport car parks have several areas, for example a covered and an open car park or separate areas for shuttle and valet. In ParkBook you manage parking areas and spaces centrally and assign each vehicle the right parking area at check-in.

Your team works with individual logins. Permissions per employee let you decide who may edit bookings, change prices or see reports. This way you stay in control, even when additional temporary staff are deployed in the high season.

Graphical statistics on revenue, occupancy and cancellation rate show how your business is developing. You can see in which weeks demand rises, when additional staff pay off and how price changes affect bookings.