Facilities managers wrestling with insufficient parking or hoping to outsource parking fee collection – or even make money on parking – might look at a digital parking platform, executives at ParkHub told Facilities Dive.

ParkHub is one of a growing number of companies partnering with events centers and other facilities that need to manage complex parking logistics. ParkMobile and SpotHero are two of the others.

The goal is to have a partner step between the facility owner, outside parking lot vendors and the people who drive to the facility so that in-house staff don’t have to sweat the details that go into parking logistics at high-traffic events, like concerts at an arena or big travel days at an airport.

Parking for big events “can be stressful for both eventgoers and the venue’s parking operations,” said Kevan Moniri, chief product officer at ParkHub. “Our products are purpose-built to ease those stresses.”

Dallas-based ParkHub was founded in 2010 and last year merged with U.K.-based parking app company JustPark. Earlier this month, it partnered with Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta to help the 71,000-seat arena manage its parking services.

“Our technology combines several parking reservation products tailored to different eventgoers: EventPass for single-event reservations, SeasonPass for multi-event and season-long packages, and CompPass for those who don’t need to pay to park, like VIPs and employees,” the company says. . “These Passes are created, administered, and tracked by the venue in our platform, Suite, and we provide a customized website to sell EventPass and SeasonPass.”

Parking staff can use the platform to allocate inventory per parking lot per event, along with the ground rules for each participating lot. One garage might be fully or partially assigned to people who have comped passes, while drivers who want to purchase passes are directed to the stadium’s parking website to shop for their preferred lot or garage, subject to availability, and purchase their space. How far the lot is from the stadium, whether it’s a garage or an outdoor lot and whether it’s attended are among the factors that go into pricing.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium offers a mix of parking options through a dedicated website. “One person might be willing to park farther away and pay a lower price, while another might be willing to pay a premium to tailgate right next to the venue.”

For in-house staff, there’s little needed beyond learning how to configure the spaces for each event on the dashboard, Moniri said. What’s required on the ground depends on the type of lot, who owns it and whether it’s overseen by an attendant or is automatically vended.

If the lot is gated, ParkHub configures its software to integrate with the gate system so a driver, after purchasing a ticket online, opens the gate on arrival by scanning a barcode on the parking pass or through license plate recognition. If it’s an attended lot, the attendant uses a ParkHub mobile device to scan the pass. ParkHub leases the mobile scanners to the parking lot owner.

The system helps control congestion by giving drivers directions so they spend less time trying to find where their paid space is located. “That benefits everyone," Moniri said.

The venue can monetize its parking lots as well as nearby lots owned and operated by third parties.

“It’s a found revenue stream for the stadium,” Moniri said, “because now they’re interacting with the paid parker on behalf of a third-party lot vs. the parker going directly to the third party. The third party is more than willing to list its inventory on the venue’s parking website because that is where most eventgoers go to plan their visit. That, along with the significantly improved eventgoer experience, are two of the big value-adds to this from an asset and venue owner standpoint.”

The platform is user-friendly for in-house staff and supported by ParkHub’s team, the company says. 

“Each of our customers gets a dedicated account manager and customer success manager who makes sure both the venue team and parking operator are well trained and supported,” Moniri said. 

Phone and email support are managed by ParkHub staff. “We don’t farm this out,” he said. “Our team can usually resolve any inbound-day issues.”