Any owner or operator knows that resident happiness can make or break a business. Parking ranks as the sixth biggest detractor of resident experience, according to a 2024 Widewail study analyzing 400,000 resident Google reviews. It's not just a minor bump in the road—it's a pothole that could cost thousands in turnover and advertising expenses.

With more than 30% of residential communities suffering from parking pains, it's a no-brainer to proactively navigate these parking pitfalls and steer them toward smoother satisfaction rates. During planning and budget season, when the weight of cost-intensive solutions feel heavy, consider three steps to solve parking without additional investment.

Step 1: Determine the Problem

Before solving any issue, companies need to understand it fully. When it comes to parking problems, one size doesn't fit all. A community's challenges might include insufficient spaces, inefficient use of available space and illegal parking.

To get to the heart of the issue, consider strategies that will give teams a better understanding of what each property is facing. The people with the most insight into parking issues are going to be onsite teams — leasing, maintenance and courtesy patrols. These groups are at the front line of complaints and observations of what's occurring.

Online reviews, complaint forms and resident surveys are powerful tools to gain insight into how residents feel about the parking situation. Negative sentiment not only impacts your current residents, but new customer acquisition as well. Owners and operators can also conduct parking audits to highlight existing problems. By thoroughly investigating the root causes, companies will be better equipped to discover solutions that address each community's unique parking challenges without a major parking investment and overhaul.

Step 2: Assess the Magnitude

Once the specific parking issues have been identified, it's time to quantify their impact on resident satisfaction. Combine an on-the-frontlines assessment with onsite teams for qualitative insights, coupled with quantitative data from online reviews and resident surveys. It is important to note that sometimes chronic parking issues do not get mentioned as it is simply accepted that parking is terrible.

Dive deep into the community's online reviews and see what they say about parking. Assess how these detractors impact the time and resources onsite teams spend managing parking-related complaints and conflicts. And consider how these public, negative reviews impact a prospect's decision to live in this community. Whether it's a lack of parking spaces, signage, or violations, determining the specific parking pain points will enable owners and operators to seek out a more cost-effective, targeted solution.

Step 3: Find a Solution

Now that parking challenges have been identified and quantified, it's time to shift into high gear with solutions. This is the part that can be a challenge, but in most cases it doesn't have to fall into expensive construction projects or making property managers be parking lot managers too.

In very rare cases, there's the option to build additional parking spaces, but this only works if there's a place to build them. This path is also expensive and given the time it takes, it could be a while before companies begin to see an ROI.

Onsite teams can try to take charge of the issue but this approach simply trades one time-consuming task (parking complaints) and replaces it with a different one (parking management}. Owners might see a slight benefit to NOI on the turnover and reputation side but this solution comes with the high risk of falling by the wayside and sacrificing other, more critical opportunities. Multifamily companies don't hire leasing teams to oversee the lot, those employees are hired to convert leases and should always prioritize that.

The best solution is a combination of setting expectations for parking the moment the resident moves in, such as guidelines and availability, and then putting it in their hands via an automated parking solution. This allows residents to reserve available parking on a daily basis and works in the background of a community's current property management system.

Current spaces are managed in a more efficient system, the cost to implement is low if not free, there's an opportunity for ancillary revenue with charging for reservations (yes, residents are more than happy to pay for the time-savings) and onsite teams are free to build the community and revenue. In addition, negative reviews quickly fade and are reborn as the occasional positive review.

Parking may seem like a mundane aspect of property management, but its impact on resident satisfaction and the bottom line is anything but trivial. By taking a proactive approach, owners and operators can turn this potential roadblock into an opportunity for community improvement and resident retention.