News - Magazine Article

City Park and Automated Valet Team Up For Automatic Success

 
San Francisco is known for many things. The Golden Gate Bridge, The Haight-Ashbury district, Fisherman’s Wharf, and infamously difficult parking throughout the city. In a place where parking is a major challenge, City Park operates more than 75 sites serving 10,000 customers every day.

 With 55 years in the business, City Park has contributed to the success of some major Bay Area venues including the Union Square Garage, Candlestick Park and the Transamerica Pyramid. City Park operates 10 of the largest hotels in San Francisco and handles parking for a majority of the city’s high end office buildings.

 Three of City Park’s five-star hotel clients are The Grand Hyatt Hotel, The Stanford Court Hotel, and The Fairmont Hotel. These three offer some of the most luxurious hospitality in the San Francisco and give City Park the daily challenge of providing equally outstanding parking services. All three hotels offer parking in garages that are some distance away. The garages accept cars from both the hotel and immediate garage gates and the rate structures for each hotel are complex and highly changeable.

 All these factors make service a complicated endeavor for City Park, but the company has found a formula for success. Good technology, sound revenue control and careful hiring give City Park the tools to operate its garages at a standard that impresses clients and customers.

 During the past couple years City Park has installed Automated Valet’s AVPM technology with site-specific customizations for its operations at the Grand Hyatt, Stanford Court and Fairmont hotels. The automation provided gives City Park the power to maintain good service and tight revenue control.

 “AVPM automated valet parking equipment has been the right solution at the right time,” says Tim Leonoudakis, the CEO of City Park, and a member of the NPA Executive Committee. “Better reporting, tighter accountability and ease of use allow our onsite managers to monitor all hotel traffic real time in an entire procedural fashion.”

 City Park needed advanced technology with innovative automation and customizable programming and hardware. Vice President of Operations Michael Rescigno says they chose Automated Valet because he saw its potential to produce tangible financial results.

 “I wanted a revenue control program that was innovative enough to handle our complicated hotel transactions without sacrificing integrity of cash handling and auditing,” he says. “It’s a tall order.”

 Automated Valet’s VATS (Validation Tracking System) application is one tool City Park uses to control revenue and simplify operations. Only designated employees’ fingerprints gain access to the application and no manual entry by a cashier or dispatcher is accepted.

 The system is totally automated. All transactions are traced and there is no opportunity for theft, reclaim or re-issuing of the validation stickers. Any changes to rates are made by City Park management and because the rate scale is so complex, this capability saves time and effort. Unlimited master accounts can be opened for the restaurants inside the hotels and any number and configuration of different rates can be created. 

 “Operating hotels always creates the need for a validation system that is not only flexible but ensures that each and every dollar is tracked and allocated properly. This application has allowed us to issue time and value sensitive validation stamps that can be voided out in an instance, and can expire at a specified time,” Rescigno says. “I recommend Automated Valet to any operation with revenue control issues or very dynamic rate structures.”

 For returning guests and repeat customers, City Park can issue reusable validation stickers. This way customers have in and out privileges without having to issue new tickets, if needed.

 City Park’s reporting tools are another strength that guarantees success. AVPM Enterprise offers management remote access to cashier reports, garage reports, payroll and more than 100 other reports created by the system. With AVPM management can create validations, open master accounts, reset rates, train employees, and identify and examine a single ticket at a time, if necessary, in just a few simple steps.

 In addition, with AVPM Enterprise, management can review payroll, do scheduling and most importantly can review the operation in real time, finding the answers to questions like “When did the guest come in? and “How long did it take to deliver the car? These options are provided to City Park and all AVPM clients.

 All transactions on validations are recorded and the reports can be run automatically from the system including validation printing history, validation detail per account, validation transaction details, master accounts, special events, preferred parking and master account invoice reports.

 “Hotel validations are very challenging, but this feature makes it is very easy to pull reports hourly, daily, monthly and yearly. Since we don’t have to delete any information from the system, the reports will be available to us for a lifetime,” says Steven Nguyen, Property Manager, of City Park.

 City Park prides itself in providing an overall parking experience that includes carefully-hired, well-trained and efficient staff and service. Staff policies cover staying calm under pressure, remembering customers’ names and parking preferences, emergency protocol and much more.

“It’s inspiring to work with another company so committed to making the parking experience a good one,” says Automated Valet Founder and CEO Ken Gulec. “The average customer doesn’t think about parking unless they’ve had a bad experience, but we think about parking all the time – trying to make sure it’s a positive for all involved, including the operator.”

 City Park takes customer comments seriously and designates specific managers to evaluate and act upon customer feedback. The company also conducts a “Secret Shoppers” program that sends and anonymous customer to examine booth cleanliness, customer interactions, attendant attitude, uniform presentation and the efficiency of transactions.

  “At City Park we expect only the highest standards of customer service from all members of our staff,” Rescigno says. “We understand that parking is more than a one-time transaction. We consider it an ongoing relationship that encompasses many activities and concerns, including customer service, cash handling, security, auditing, reporting and more.”

 With a long history and high-profile clients, City Park has a reputation for professional and dedicated customer service. Automated Valet’s automation options and excellent technological support, the two are a good match.

 “Success in parking industry is rooted an operator’s ability to deliver ‘value added’ services and accountability to its clients. With AVPM we have found the appropriate tool that continues to deliver on all accounts,” says Leonoudakis.

 City Park has named Automated Valet its preferred provider and has AVPM installations planned in the very near future at six additional sites and more to come before the end of the year.

 “With every collaboration, Automated Valet has provided a smooth transition for our sites with its easy installation and quick training time,” Rescigno says. “Their high-quality customer service has made an impression on us. We look forward to our upcoming projects.”

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