Parking Isn't Always Hell

Photo Credit: JSmith Photo via Compfight cc

On the heels of our “Parking Is Hell” podcast, we received an email from Alicia Hickey — a data analyst at ParkatmyHouse.com, a website that matches drivers with homeowners who have unused parking spaces in their driveways or garages. According to Hickey, ParkatmyHouse gets more than 10,000  visits a day and has 15,000 spots worldwide, the majority in the U.K. She  explained the pricing model to us:

If you look at parking near, say, Harvard University, a ParkatmyHouse space costs as little as $2/hour or $24/day. One-hour parking at a nearby garage costs $9 for the first hour. Three hours parking at that garage will cost you $24 (the 12-hour rate). That’s $18 more than what the ParkatmyHouse space would cost for that same amount of time. It’s difficult to give the average price of a parking space; it depends on the location and the property owner, but parking with ParkatmyHouse will always be cheaper than parking with a meter or in a commercial car park.

Hickey also told us about a few big success stories:

One of our most notable success stories is All Saints Church located near St. Pancras train station in London. The church first registered with our website back in November 2007 and has since made the equivalent of $200,000 all of which is being used to fund local community projects.

And:

Some of our most successful users live near airports – many even offer free transfers to and fro. One particular user has made close to $70,000 providing airport parking. One bank manager living in a very affluent area finds having a car parked outside at all times increases the security of his home. Some elderly users are more interested in meeting people on a regular basis thanks to the service than making the extra money. A group of students living near an airport puts all the money earned through ParkatmyHouse towards household bills and buying kitchen equipment! (so far they’ve bought a George Foreman grill and a deep-fat fryer).