Free travel in ski resorts thanks to smart parking system

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The central question is: How can parking in ski resorts be optimized so that operational processes run smoothly and visitors can start their day of skiing in a relaxed manner? As with so many things today, the answer lies in digitalization. In the high season, it's not primarily about new sources of income, but about efficiently managing the high volume of visitors. In this blog article, we show you how a smart, barrier-free parking system can make your ski resort winter-proof, relieve your team and improve the visitor experience.

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Why is parking in ski resorts often stressful?

Let's start with the initial situation: why is parking in ski resorts so often associated with stress and chaos? The reason lies in a combination of high capacity utilization, time pressure and outdated systems. In the high season, hundreds of vehicles arrive at the same time within a very short space of time - especially early in the morning when everyone wants to be on the slopes on time.

For many ski resorts, this is a logistical challenge that can hardly be met efficiently with traditional parking systems. Traditional barrier systems are not only expensive, high-maintenance and prone to damage, but also quickly reach their limits when traffic volumes are high. In the morning in particular, there are long tailbacks at the entrance - especially when tickets have to be taken. This costs visitors valuable time and nerves on the slopes. Exiting in the afternoon also often leads to waiting times and annoyance - both when paying at the parking machine and when exiting at the barrier. The final impression of the day is therefore negative.

Another common alternative to avoid waiting times at barriers is to take a parking ticket from a parking machine and place it in the windshield. But here, too, the rush is concentrated in terms of time and there are often queues at the parking machines. The more decisive factor here, however, is the high personnel costs: staff have to be deployed specifically to check the parking tickets, which cannot be ensured at all times. This in turn leads to a loss of revenue.

The result of both solutions: A high logistical effort for the operator, stressed guests and an overall impression that does not match the actually positive experience of a ski day.

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Smart parking in ski resorts

Yet there are tried-and-tested digital solutions that address precisely these weak points. More and more cable car operators are relying on a smart, barrier-free parking system, as in the Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis ski resort in Austria.

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How does a smart parking system work?

The heart of a smart parking system is intelligent license plate recognition (ANPR/ALPR). This barrier-free and ticketless solution replaces the fragile physical infrastructure or patchy manual controls with data protection-compliant scanners and software.

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Barrier-free entry and exit without physical interaction

When entering the parking lot, modern scanners record the license plate number of passing vehicles - without the driver having to stop - and save the start time of the parking process. Visitors thus experience free-flow traffic where physical interaction is no longer necessary. They can get out immediately and walk to the slope without having to take a ticket or wait at a ticket machine. When leaving the area, the license plate number is recorded again. The software automatically determines the exact parking time and the amount to be paid.
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Flexible payment options 

A smart parking system enables mountain lift operators to offer their visitors flexible payment options so that nobody has to wait in uncomfortable ski boots and look for small change. Of course, the classic on-site parking machine can be retained as an option for parkers who prefer this familiar payment method. 

However, other, more flexible solutions are also available to reduce the number of people using the parking machines. For example, visitors can conveniently pay digitally via an online payment platform. The fee does not necessarily have to be paid before returning to the vehicle or leaving. Visitors can pay conveniently from the passenger seat during the trip, later in the warm ski hut or even in the evening after their journey home. This offers visitors maximum convenience.

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Digital parking permits and ski pass linking

Parking should be easy - not only for your visitors, but also for your team. With license plate recognition, you can easily manage internal parking authorizations and special tariffs. The best thing is that you have full control, but hardly any administrative effort.

Are your employees allowed to park free of charge or at a reduced rate? This is quickly arranged with the smart parking system:

• Create long-term parkers: Your employees' license plates can simply be created in the system as long-term parkers. It then automatically knows that these vehicles do not have to pay.
• Online activation: Alternatively, you can offer your employees the option of activating themselves for free parking or purchasing digital parking tickets at special rates via an online store.

Your advantage: You no longer have to distribute or check parking permits. The administrative burden is almost zero.

In the high season, do you want to make sure that the parking spaces are available for your paying skiers or offer them parking at discounted prices? A smart parking system makes this easy too:

• Incorporate discounts: You can automatically offer visitors with a valid ski pass a discount or even free parking. 
• Keep third-party parkers away: Anyone who does not have a ski pass, pays the full parking price or is not authorized to park is automatically recorded and tracked by the system.

This clever coupling makes parking more attractive for your skiers and ensures that your most important parking spaces are not blocked by third-party users.

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The decisive winter resilience

In ski resorts in particular, license plate recognition shows its strength over traditional systems. Compared to barrier systems, scanners are not only the cheaper option to purchase. They also require less maintenance and are less susceptible to damage. With high-quality systems, even weather conditions such as snow or frost do not affect the detection rate. Compared to manual solutions, a camera-based parking system monitors the area 24/7, 365 days a year. As with the Söllereckbahn in the Allgäu, the parking lot can be used as an additional source of income in the off-season - without any additional effort.

As the vehicles pass without stopping, there are no tailbacks at the access roads. Traffic flow in the morning and departures in the afternoon are massively accelerated. Queues at parking machines can also be significantly reduced with a camera-based parking system by offering additional mobile payment options, thereby increasing user convenience at the same time. 

With digital parking space management for mountain railroads, parking spaces in ski resorts become a free-flow area without chaos and stress, effortlessly handling the rush of visitors and drastically reducing operating costs at the same time.

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