Greetings users,
I am looking to chat with those of you have the amazing conundrum of multiple parking garages, you don't own, and automated pay boxes. Do you pre-sell a specific garage and send out the required voucher for that garage's reader machine? Do you make your patron exchange a voucher printed from Tessitura for a parking garage ticket at your box office? Do you have an agreement that those garages provide a live person starting a certain time before the show starts to a certain after the show ends? In essence, I'm looking for all the creative ways you all handle parking. Being in downtown Seattle, parking is premium and a big deal to our patrons.
Any and all suggestions/thoughts/comments/answers to the meaning of life are all appreciated.
Chris Cuhel
The 5th Avenue Theatre
Thanks for the response Nicole. Our problem is that one of our parking garages is going from having attendants to being totally self-serve. They seem to want to work with us and we are hoping that the automated machines they pick can read bar codes. Our other garages are currently staffed with attendants but we also want to plan for an eventuality of those garages losing their attendants as well. There in lies "the riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key".
We're starting to explore the possibility of selling prepaid parking at a local parking garage that we do not own, but partner with. It's mainly self-serve, but they have an attendant there on busy nights to respond to customer service issues. Right now our patrons can prepay online through the parking garage, then they're emailed a a bar code to scan in and out of the garage; or, they can get a ticket when they pull in, pay in the lobby at a kiosk, and scan the ticket as they exit.
We'd like for our patrons to pay for parking at the same time they're buying their tickets to provide a seamless experience.
Their software has an API, so it seems feasible that we could pass data back to their system after a patron purchases parking and then they would send an email with a bar code generated from their system. We're waiting to get access to their documentation so we can start exploring further.
Has anyone else done something similar?
That sounds interesting Christina. We are finding out now that two of our garages will be going completely attendant free. We're tossing around the idea of having a link or something in the purchase path that the patron can click on to be directed to the parking garage website. Of course this is all still a work in progress. We want to remove ourselves from the purchase of those parking passes. The downfall...patrons will now have to pick a garage in advance versus when they get here.
More to come...
Hi Christina,
We're almost live with this same process. We worked with Tessitura and our parking provider to get the two systems speaking to each other. The API allows a live sweep of all parking purchases into their software every 5 minutes. We provide our patrons with a parking ticket printed on ticket stock with a barcode generated by Tessitura that is scanned when they come into the garage.
The parking is programmed like a performance with specific times to control the gate, so people cannot abuse the ticket. Because we were looking to sell parking for non-event days as well (we're located on top of a public garage), I created three "parking performances" for every day of the year with specific start and end times. I did this using the multi-event build utility.
Morning
Performances between 10am and 12pm
Gate opens at 8am and closes at 4pm
Matinee
Performances between 2pm and 5pm
Gate opens at 12pm and closes at 9pm
Evening
Performances between 7pm and 1am
Gate opens at 5pm and closes at 1am
Through a good deal of testing we've found all works well. Cancellations, exchanges to new performances requiring the parking to be changed as well, refunds, etc., all showed up in our parking vendors software almost without issue.
We had a custom procedure built in TNEW to offer / up sell parking. Our subscribers are not charged, STBs are. So when subs purchase online, they receive a message parking is included and STBs are offered to purchase.
Because parking is built as a performance, we're able to run a number of helpful reports. The major challenge we've run up against is the parking vouchers / tickets not always scanning on entrance. Our vendor is also looking to go completely automated. At that time we'll need to find a voucher that will scan without fail or purchase vouchers from the garage. Unfortunately, that would negate the benefit of having the barcode generated by Tessitura with those sales being updated automatically when exchanged, etc.
Thanks for your response, Michelle! I'm curious how they're scanning the barcode generated by Tessitura. The parking garage we're working with is automated for the most part, so I think the barcode will have to be generated by their software once we send the purchase over and they would send out a separate email with the barcode for the patron to scan in an out.