Playbook - making the best use of your parking space

Hybrid work is real, but tidy spreadsheets about who’s in on which day rarely survive contact with Monday morning. People swap days. Someone wakes up sick. A client lunch appears. Meanwhile a few parking spots sit empty right beside someone who really needed one—and the morning mood drops a few degrees.

This article is for workplace and property leaders who don’t have a giant surplus of parking, yet still see gaps appear and crunches arrive.

It’s a simple idea: treat parking as flexible capacity that follows the rhythm of the day, not a fixed promise that ignores it. The companies doing this well—Revlon, REA Group, Xero in Milton Keynes, NY Creates—aren’t chasing novelty. They’re protecting certainty. And certainty is both practical and emotional: it tells people their morning won’t be a gamble.

Here are ways to make a shift

1) Map what’s real

Start with a live map of spaces and allocations so people can see where slack actually is. Multi-tenant teams like NY Creates began by mapping all lots and allocations before opening sharing, which helped them manage hundreds of spaces across nine buildings without daily firefighting. (Parkable)

Utilisation play: Publish a simple heat view (by weekday/hour) and label visitor/EV parking. The map is your shared truth.

2) Make releasing and fair allocation the norm

When someone isn’t on site, their stalls can be released and fairly allocated to colleagues. Both Revlon and Xero (Milton Keynes) call out Parkable’s allocation/fairness algorithm as the engine that shares limited spaces equitably—Revlon had just seven spots to spread; Xero has 75 and uses requests + fair allocation rather than fixed entitlements. (Parkable) (Parkable)

Utilisation play: Encourage night-before releases; use the fairness algorithm so everyone has an equal chance on busy days.

3) Keep peak days predictable (without guesswork)

Hybrid peaks happen. You don’t need rigid “hours” to make them fair—you need transparent rules. Use your allocation rules and release habits so unused allocations surface to those who need them, instead of sitting idle beside someone searching.

Utilisation play: If you add any priority rules, keep them simple and visible; otherwise let the fairness algorithm handle distribution (as above). (No claim that REA or others set specific hours.)

4) Let the gate enforce the rule

Tie entry to a live booking so only valid sessions open the gate. REA Group integrates Parkable with ANPR (number-plate recognition) for secure, automated access; Xero notes plans for the same. This removes manual lists and lobby arbitration. (Parkable) (Parkable)

Utilisation play: “Booking = gate opens” is the single rule that makes everything feel fair.

5) Make guest arrivals painless

Pre-book visitors so they get clear instructions and smooth entry. Xero’s admin team highlights real-time occupancy and easy visitor invitations as part of the day-one experience at Milton Keynes. (Parkable)

Utilisation play: Include a short parking blurb (and entry link if applicable) in the calendar invite; map and signpost visitor spaces.

6) Tune lightly, weekly

Look at the pattern once a week and adjust small things—how far ahead people can request, gentle per-person limits, EV time caps. NY Creates improved from ~40% to 96% usage in some lots by opening a sharing pool and letting tenants self-reserve, not by constant micro-changes. (Parkable)

Utilisation play: Change one setting at a time, then leave it for a week.

7) Close the loop with simple receipts

Share the human outcome (“mornings calmer”) plus one or two receipts. REA reports 86% utilisation after rollout and thousands of shared parking spaces across two sites, with ANPR keeping access secure (and casual fees going to charity). Revlon credits fair allocation and future booking for removing hassle during an office move. (Parkable) (Parkable)

Utilisation play: Post a monthly tile with two numbers (e.g., “utilisation, stalls shared”) and one line on how it felt.

A month in, the test isn't whether your dashboard looks good.

It's whether anyone's still talking about parking. If Monday morning has gone quiet, if the lift conversation has moved on to something else, if the FM inbox is lighter, that's the result. Parking should be the thing nobody notices, because it just works.

That's what flexible capacity buys you. Not more spaces. Calmer mornings.