The Westin Cleveland Downtown featured a valet-only parking operation. The hotel was receiving negative feedback from guests, who wanted to be able to park their cars themselves. In addition to guest feedback, the valet-only model meant the hotel’s parking revenue came with significant labor expenses, as they required three or four valets during weekday shifts and five or six on weekends to accommodate demand. When Propark Mobility approached the hotel with a comprehensive redesign plan that introduced self-parking as an amenity, we unveiled an opportunity to significantly reduce labor expenses.

When redesigning the parking operation at the Westin Cleveland Downtown, Propark created a fully automated self-park model that featured a payment kiosk located in the hotel’s garage. Equipped with technology that interfaced with the hotel’s property management system, the kiosk enabled guests to enter and exit the garage at any point by identifying them when they scanned their receipt, inputted their phone number, or swiped their credit card. Because no personnel were needed to keep the self-parking operation running, there were no added labor expenses for the hotel. Additionally, the introduction of self-parking reduced valet traffic, requiring fewer valets to work during each shift and reducing labor costs even further.

During Propark’s first weekend operating parking at the Westin Cleveland Downtown, roughly 65% of guests chose to utilize the valet services while 35% chose to park their cars themselves. By the following weekend, there was a significant shift, with 65% of guests opting to self-park and 35% choosing valet service. As a result of this change, the hotel could reduce the number of valets on staff for each shift, operating successfully with only two valets during weekday shifts and three on the weekends. This resulted in a 30% decrease in labor expenses.