Huge Discounts on Parking Through Parking Panda
This weekend while visiting friends staying at the Park Hyatt DC, I found an amazing discount parking site. As is well known, the Park Hyatt DC is one my favorite DC hotel, but one of the downsides is the expensive, limited parking options. Street parking is very limited and very expensive except for Sundays when it’s free (although it’s still limited).
So while doing a search for where to park on Friday night and all day Saturday, I discovered ParkingPanda.com. If you live in DC, Baltimore, San Francisco, or New Orleans, you’re in luck! The site sells excess parking inventory for parking garages at a huge discount and allows private owners to list their spots as well.
So for Friday night, my option was $20 at the Park Hyatt DC, or through ParkingPanda I could pay $5 for the evening at a nearby garage. They showed a map of options, and the closest one was also the cheapest. Imagine my excitement when it turned out the $5 option was the Westin Georgetown garage right across the street. To park through the Westin was $38-$45, to just use the garage as walk in was $18 for more than 2 hours. But through ParkingPanda it was only $5. The same applied the next day when I stayed from 2-11PM for only $7!
So how does it work? I created an online profile, chose my location, entered my vehicle description and paid for my parking before I left the house. They apparently have an iPhone app so you can instantaneously reserve your spot right before you pull in, but no Droid app as of yet. Their site isn’t mobile optimized, so trying to find and pay for a spot on my phone while in the car would be a pretty big pain unless I pulled over and squinted.
As soon as you pay, they email you a PDF with a confirmation number, and pictures and directions to the garage (which I found particularly helpful). You take the ticket as usual when you in and then just show your printed confirmation or pull it up on your phone when you go to pay. I was a little nervous and skeptical that first time but had absolutely no problem, even when I was leaving the parking garage about 2 minutes before they closed.
This site has definitely opened up a world of affordable, convenient possibilities for me, and made it even easier for me to spend more time at the Park Hyatt DC 🙂
Sign up with my referral link to get $5 in credits!
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I reserved a spot thru Parking Panda in SF. When I went to the lot, it was full, the attendant ignored the reservation. Seems that they don’t have a reliable source of parking spots.
Be forewarned. Using Parking Panda will not save you money. Additionally, we parked at the mission Street location and it took over 2 hours to get our car.
Do not use parking panda. Go around the corner and pay $15 for parking.