To eBay has long been a verb. I’ll eBay that later tonight I’ll tell my wife when we are uncluttering the house. The company, to all intents, own the online auctioning moniker and they sweep up quite nicely in most categories from automotive to collectables to antiques and more recently residential property. That’s not to say that dominate in all ecommerce verticals as there is one that is bubbling away quite nicely that I have been using for a year or so now.
Parkatmyhouse.com is the eBay of parking spaces if you get my drift. The site allows users to effectively market their car parking space, garage, forecourt to a market of would be buyers/drivers.
Imagine you are going to see Andy Murray at Wimbledon this summer. The weather is set fair and the strawberries are looking good but you want to drive to SW19. On street parking is a no no and the various car parks in the area will be doing a mean trade at very high prices. So instead you visit Parkatmyhouse to see that there are currently 147 spaces currently available for rent, ranging from daily rates (usually between £5 and £10) to weekly and monthly rates for the longer term visitor or commuter. In theory, if you get in early enough its possible to bag yourself a secure, off street space for your car and enjoy the tennis without worrying about traffic wardens, parking meters or timing restrictions.
The model is easy to extend. I had a Sheffield United fan recently rent my space for the day in Watford as he was heading to Wembley for the football play-offs. He drove down, parked his car, went to the game, came back and drove away. I never saw the guy but made £5. Last week I rented a space for the first time from a charming family who had enough room on their driveway for three cars. That meant that my family could park as close as 10 mins walk to Lords cricket ground, for £10 instead of traveling in by tube which would have been collectively more expensive.
The beauty of the idea is it’s simplicity. Connecting buyers/drivers and sellers/renters. And the site makes this process easy and painless to do. Parkatmyhouse has certainly profited from one of eBay’s weaknesses - its inability to flex its product to the needs of a particular marketplace. By focusing on one niche - the lack of spaces or cost of parking spaces in particular areas - Parkatmyhouse has designed a very smart, functional platform that works incredibly well for both buyer and seller.
After creating an account I listed my parking space within a matter of minutes and because of the site’s use of geo-tagging, you can quickly see who else is “selling their space” in the local area via the onsite Google Maps. That helps you check your daily rate, the quality of your description. Payment can be under your terms (including PayPal) and Parkatmyhouse simply take 15% of every successful rental.
I’ve been using the site now for a year and have rented out my space about 5 different times. Its certainly not enough to build a business around but in these times when we are watching the pennies more than ever, £5-10 in the pocket at the end of the week is very welcome.
Is there anything I’d improve? Well they site experience is pretty slick and they try to make it as easy as possible but I do find that on each booking I have to send some detailed instructions on the space and how to find it etc. It would be nice if I could save these as templates. Also, and I would say this, adding video would be fun. That way I could really show the renter the space in detail as I think its pretty easy to over sell the space as being better than it really is. They allow for photos so I expect video to simply be the next iteration on this.
All in all though an impressive service and one that is probably very welcome in today’s climate. Like eBay, it has the power to make entrepreneurs (parking attendants) of us all!
Very insightful, even more compelling then the theory of evolution. gracias
Hi webmaster, commenters and everybody else !!! The blog was absolutely fantastic! Lots of great information and inspiration, both of which we all need!b Keep ‘em coming… you all do such a great job at such Concepts… can’t tell you how much I, for one appreciate all you do!