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Idea

International app to let people park their cars in private properties

Image credit: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/301670875009375079/

Povilas S

Povilas S Jan 24, 2022

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An app/online platform to let you book a parking spot on someone's private land. The landowner gets paid through the app either once or periodically (if it's long-term parking). An app is international, so you can find a spot for both short and long-term parking anywhere in the world.
Why?
A cheaper alternative to park your car than in municipal parking spots or parking lots owned by private companies.
If you have any free land, from a backyard to a field, make money by letting people park their cars there.
Economical option for long term parking when you travel with a car and want to leave it for some time in a certain country.
In tourist towns, people often stand on the streets/place banners offering to park cars in their yards to make money. Simplify this by creating an online system to book and pay for such spots.
How it works:
An app, similar to Booking or Airbnb, just for cars. Search for a free parking spot according to your (or a desired) location. The owners write descriptions and upload pictures showing where the car will be parked, how safe it is (is there a fence, security cameras, etc.), how good is the access to the spot (in case it's some field or a similar place) and similar, relevant information.
Book the chosen spot in advance and drive there, the owner meets you and shows where to park your car. You pay the deposit through the app. After taking back your car, you confirm that all is well and the full agreed price goes to the owner's account. If you leave the car for a longer time (weeks or months) and are not sure when you'll take it back, you can agree to pay the owner once a certain time period, then the money is taken off your account like a subscription.
Existing apps and the novelty of the idea:
There are working apps with the same concept         , but the main con of those is that they are restricted to specific countries. I conceived the idea as a result of my experience of lack of convenient, economical options to leave a car in a foreign country for a longer time. It's either not safe to leave it somewhere for free (on the street) or expensive (airports, guarded parking lots, etc.).
Another restriction of the existing apps is the type of parking spaces used - they are mostly driveways in private yards. I think the app could benefit by allowing the owners to rent any type of owned land, e.g an empty field, an unused old garage or shed, etc. If the owner lives in a house near the field he/she could place an eye on the parked cars each day, it's still safer than parking your car anywhere without anyone watching over it. The owner could also build a fence around such an empty field to make it safer to park cars there.

[1]https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/make-money/side-gigs/rent-your-driveway-parking-apps/

[2]https://www.myparkingsign.com/blog/parking-apps-turn-driveways-hot-property/

parking app travel business ideas

3

Creative contributions

A way to let strangers use your car and parking space while you travel

Contrived _voice

Contrived _voice Jan 25, 2022

leaving your car unused for long periods is not good for it. The moving parts acquire rust which makes it hard for it to start when you get back to it. Nothing beats the comfort of your own car however so only renting when you're around is not an option. Plus knowing who has your car while you travel is a huge relief.
All you have to do is find someone who's coming in at the same time you're going out and there's never a shortage of international travelers. Similarly, letting go of parking spaces in towns makes them hard to recover when you come back it would be more efficient to leave both the car and space in someone else's hands

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jnikola

jnikola3 years ago

Really interesting suggestion. It is targeting a different problem than Povilas S mentioned, but would definitely help you earn money while you are out there somewhere traveling. It's like an app for privately owned car rentals. You shouldn't even look for travelers or rent only while you are away. You could do it every time when you prefer walking instead of using your car :)
Some suggestions to make this happen are:
In the app, when you pay to become a renter, you get a remote unlock device for free (a device that allows you to unlock the door with your phone) --> it's much more convenient than borrowing a key to every user 
ensure the users know the parking conditions in your city via a short guide
legally solve problems of parking tickets, accidents, damages so that the customer takes the responsibility (the same way rent-a-car companies did it?)
And what's with the gas? Included in the price?

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Povilas S

Povilas S3 years ago

Good suggestion. This is perhaps possible by using other apps/online platforms, but it could be incorporated as additional, convenient services of this app.

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Contrived _voice

Contrived _voice3 years ago

Povilas S Yes, It was an addition to the app, you could provide the option of the car in addition to the parking space. It could serve two needs at once.

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Landowner could take additional care of your car if you left it for a longer time

Povilas S

Povilas S Jan 24, 2022

If you left your car for months, the landowner could offer to take additional care of it, like starting the engine from time to time for the battery not to die, cleaning the debris from it, maybe pumping the tires, etc. You could offer to pay additionally for this, leave monetary tips through the app or simply leave a good review. 

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Je pense que c’est une tres bonne idée

MO

Mr Cedric Levi J OUEDRAOGO Jan 29, 2022

This application will reduce bad parking and also reduce conflicts. Which will sell very well!
Cette application permettra reduire les mauvaix stationnement et également reduire les conflits !! Ce qui va se vendre tres bien !

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General comments

jnikola

jnikola3 years ago

I think it's a great idea. Also, I think it's easier to implement than my idea on public parking reservations. On the other hand, it raises some novel issues.
The first thing that concerns me is the novelty part. People rent their private parking spaces for a long time. You said that people would enjoy your app because it would allow them to rent any land as parking. I think everybody started like that. A field got surrounded by the fence, then the asphalt, the lines, and suddenly it's nice-looking parking. The most important thing is the location. As I realized, in places where parking is needed, all these "fields" are now fully developed parking sites. In that sense, I think the idea lacks the novelty part a bit and that it wouldn't help the parking business to grow further. 
In addition, there are already some apps that offer the same, as you mentioned, but in other countries. The biggest issue here is that there is no general list of all private parkings worldwide that are freely available and easily searchable. I think it's because of two reasons: 
if it is in a good location, parking rentals is an easy money job, so people rarely invest in new technologies (automatic occupancy detectors, apps, etc.) and there is no need for internationalization and going online, 
public and private parking in areas where parking is a good business (city centers, airports, etc) are already doing a good job - public parking is cheap, but less secure (although sometimes car is safer on the street than on some fields), while private parking is expensive but much safer.
And one final issue is the legal and financial aspect of it. People should probably open a company and register it as a parking rental company. The company requires monthly payments. How much could people earn with a few parking spots in their backyard a month and would it be enough to cover all the expenses of the company and earn some pocket money? Is it worth the trouble?   
Nevertheless, I still think it could work :) but how would you gather all these private parking sites into a single app? What you need is the world's greatest targeted marketing campaign ever.

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Povilas S

Povilas S3 years ago

J. Nikola I think you mix things a bit. There's a difference between private companies renting parking lots and citizens renting their private property for parking. It's like a company renting a chain of flats/houses vs. someone renting their apartment/room on Airbnb for tourists or locals. The proposed app is a second case, just for cars. Not everyone having free land space wants to do parking business, but if they can easily rent it through the app and make some additional income, why not?
Your argument about parking spaces in good locations already doing a good job and there's being no need for such an app. This could also be applied to Airbnb/Booking type of websites - if your flat is in a good location, you wouldn't need such apps to make money from rent, and still, those apps exist and thrive, many people use them. Apps simplify the renting process, you don't need to do much yourself.  

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jnikola

jnikola3 years ago

Povilas S But doesn't renting a free land space for parking mean entering a parking business on a small scale? Just allowing people to rent their unused spaces for parking brings financial problems, that, as shown in the case of Uber, cannot go under the radar. Therefore, you need to start a company and there is your business. The same is with Airbnb. 
Okay, I agree that a certain piece of the market would benefit from such an app, but my concerns are that it's not yet big and relevant enough to be sustainable. The only reason I would choose to use this app instead of public/private parking sites (as a customer), would be the cheap price of the parking. On the other hand, how is that profitable for the owner (in my city, 3-5 EUR per day is the tariff in the non-center area)? It's not a critic, it's my point of view, but I might be short-sighted :D

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Danny Weir

Danny Weir3 years ago

I'm intrigued to know the circumstances where somebody leaves their car in a foreign country for an extended period of time? Maybe it is just because I have never had the need for it personally, but I can't think of any ideas why that would be required off the top of my head.
Suggestions and questions:
Would the prices be set by the individual land owners, similar to Airbnb?
If I am driving a car abroad, there is a very good chance that it is a rental. Rental companies won't allow their cars to be parked in fields.
I think there will be several issues with insurance and liability with this idea, as Darko Savic mentioned.
Where do you expect the average price of this style of parking to fall in comparison to other more conventional parking places?

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Darko Savic

Darko Savic3 years ago

What happens if the car gets burglarized while parked on private property?
Let's say that the owner has a warehouse that they aren't using. They put it up for people to park in. Someone comes in at night and takes their time to burglarize all cars inside.

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