ParkingCarma

ParkingCarma at December SF Beta

If you happen to be in San Francisco next Monday, December 10th, come visit us at the December “Holiday Edition” of SF Beta.  If you are unfamiliar with the SF Beta events you can find out more directly from the source here.  Needless to say, they are a great opportunity to see new companies demo their stuff and to meet an eclectic mix of people all interested in technology and startups.

 
We will be in the back room from 6:00PM – 7:30PM and would love to have you come by and see what we are up to.  There are a number of other interesting companies that will be there as well.

Think of it as our holiday party without us having to throw the party.

And of course, you can always use ParkingCarma to find 111 Minna Parking.

ParkingCarma Goes to Hollywood

ParkingCarma and the American Film Institute have partnered together to offer a seamless movie going experience for people attending the AFIFEST 2007.  The film festival runs from November 1st – November 11th and is held at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood, CA.

 
Each year parking rapidly fills up on nights and weekends, leaving people scrambling at the last minute for a parking place.  This year patrons can conveniently purchase guaranteed parking online through ParkingCarma.

Film patrons who buy a full festival pass can also purchase an 11 day parking pass through ParkingCarma at a savings of $15 off the individual daily rate, which guarantees worry-free parking for the entire film festival.   For patrons buying individual movie tickets, ParkingCarma is also offering daily parking reservations.

As an added incentive for planning ahead and reducing congestion during the film festival, AFI is providing the following benefits:

For every single day parking ticket you bring to the Box Office from our official parking partners, receive one regular screening voucher to AFI FEST. Purchase the 11-day parking pass and receive four (4) free screening vouchers. Details at www.AFI.com/AFIFEST.

AFI FEST presented by Audi is the longest-running film festival in Los Angeles and one of the most influential film festivals in North America. Each year the Festival presents one of the world's most anticipated showcases of international film, demonstrating AFI's commitment to celebrating the art form.

Please click here for more information and to make advanced parking reservations for AFIFEST 2007.

Why Wait in this Line? Use ParkingCarma!

ParkingCarma offers many benefits to its members, one of which is the many ways that ParkingCarma members can pay for parking.  You can pay for parking in advance through a draw-down account like FasTrak, you can pay in advance on a per-use basis, and you can pay in real-time at select locations through your mobile phone. 

I took this picture at a parking garage in Fisherman's Wharf while out with my family in San Francisco this weekend.  These people were very unhappy and were getting very upset.  The line did not get any shorter the entire time that I was watching.  The person on the end waited almost 20 minutes to pay for parking!

ParkingCarma is about providing convenience to its users.  Helping people to not wait in line with tired and hungry kids is just one of the many benefits we provide.

Avoid waiting in lines to pay for parking and sign-up with ParkingCarma today.

What is ParkingCarma?

We all know that euphoric feeling you get when pulling up to a restaurant in a crowded city on a weekend night and suddenly someone leaves a parking space right in front of you.  That is the true definition of “Parking Karma.”

Great, but what is ParkingCarma?

 
ParkingCarma is a Smart Parking Information and Transaction Network to help guide users to be best available and appropriate parking space for their needs.  We allow users to store preferences, track usage, and make reservations at selected parking facilities for hourly and monthly parking.

ParkingCarma is aggregating and normalizing the largest and most complete database of private and commercial parking facilities, hours, rates, attributes, and editorial comments in the United States.  We are also installing parking sensors for real-time parking availability in selected parking facilities in a city-by-city rollout of our service.  The first markets for our real-time parking service are in San Diego and in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Stay tuned as our service grows in these markets and expands nationwide.

 
If you search for parking and can’t make reservations or check parking availability in your city, please be patient as we roll-out our service.  In the meantime, you can currently check hours and rates for parking facilities in over 1,000 cities and growing!

 
Email us at support@parkingcarma.com with suggestions on parking facilities to include in our system.

ParkingCarma is also committed to the environment and is working with municipalities and transit agencies towards the goal of congestion relief and mitigation.  Our service integrates with transit systems to insure that people can easily find and be guaranteed a place to park if they want to take public transportation.

 
This post was geared more toward the consumer offerings by ParkingCarma.  Stay tuned for a post specific to the benefits to cities and parking managers.

Here are some of the current and future features of ParkingCarma:

Parking Search

• Find parking by address, city, state or zipcode
• Find parking by closest destination (Point of Interest)
• Compare parking rates for specific days and times (apples to apples comparison)
• Search by preferences (time, walking distance from destination, amenities)

Parking Availability

• Real -time parking availability at select sites from the web

• Real-time parking availability from VMS signs

• Real-time parking availability from voice IVR

Reservations

• Daily and hourly reservations at select sites
• Web based reservations

User Accounts

• Credit card payment for parking
• Transactional history of parking events
• Classify parking transactions as business or personal
• Saved personal preferences for convenient searching and reserving

Payment Options

• Visa, Amex, Mastercard, Discover

• PayPal, Amazon.com Payments, Google Checkout, e-check