City Park and Automated Valet Team Up For Automatic Success

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 citys high end office buildings.

Three of City Parks 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 Valets 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. Its a tall
order.

Automated Valets 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 Parks 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 dont 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

Its 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 doesnt think about parking unless
theyve had a bad experience, but we think about parking all the time trying
to make sure its 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 Valets automation options and excellent technological support, the
two are a good match.

Success in parking industry is rooted an operators 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.

AVPM, the only valet parking application of its kind. For more information visit www.automatedvalet.com
and www.valetsolutions.com