Guest Post: How technology can shed light on the ‘shady’ perception of airport parking

Peter Brooks, chief executive of Trusted Travel, says brands, comparison sites and booking agents can end the ‘shady’ perception of airport parking Continue reading →

Peter Brooks, chief executive of Trusted Travel, says  brands, comparison sites and booking agents can end the ‘shady’ perception of airport parking 

Trust is absolutely essential, particularly with so many transactions happening online.

The biggest hurdle digital sales companies face is lack of trust from consumers due to an absence of real visibility.

The content pretty much has to be taken at face value. This is why the content and information passed to the consumer should be as transparent as possible and begin to foster trust.

This is hardly a revelation yet it’s still nowhere near prevalent enough in the B2C world today and perhaps none more so than in airport parking.

Although most businesses claim to want a good relationship with their customers, many are still not placing enough importance on the image of transparency of their brand.

This is particularly true of airport parking which in many ways seems to have flown under the radar of social scrutiny so far.

While this does mean that some companies get away with being less than desirable to consumers, many trustworthy companies are overlooked simply because the consumer does not have the relevant information to know which companies are the best to use.

Hotels, holidays, even other ancillaries like car hire and transfers etc have gained far more transparency through social media, independent booking sites, dedicated review sites and even peer-to-peer operations like Airbnb.

Airport parking however, has been left in the dark somewhat and as a result is a bit of an unknown entity to most of the public and for the industry to grow there needs to be a great deal more clarity on how it all works; who’s parking the car, who’s responsible, who you are really booking with and why it’s essential (not just for your own booking but for the improvement of the industry) to foster trust and reward those doing the best by the customer.

Offering this clarity will help in bringing the world of airport parking up to speed with the rest of the travel industry and ensuring the customer is finally in the driving seat, so to speak.

In addition to providing true clarity on how the industry operates, commercially unbiased reviews and advice are essential in building a stable and fair market for businesses and consumers alike.

There is a lot of data available for the consumer and even more information within the closed doors of the industry.

The application of the right technology can combine these elements to give the consumer the most unbiased and honest score of each airport parking service.

There are a great many quality businesses in the airport parking world and shining a light on the industry will allow them to come to the forefront while beginning to weed out the less trustworthy companies.

Perhaps this timely and wholly necessary evolution of the industry will bring an end to the idea of airport parking being the “shady guy” in the world of travel.

The responsibility to initiate and carry this change must lie with the brands, comparison sites and booking agents who are the first stop in a customer’s booking and parking journey.

Trusted Travel, recently launched its ‘Trusted Score’ as part of its ongoing mission to improve airport parking for the customer.