"On one occasion, as a student, I had trouble parking at a U2 concert. Together with my partner, Iván, I thought that a formula for reserving parking could become a good academic project", he tells abc louis paris, CEO and one of the owners and founders of the Spanish start-up parclick.
Then, in times of crisis, came that of making a virtue of necessity. «In 2011 we decided to put theory into practice and set up a website. It was a failure, but we knew convert it into a reservation center». Paris treasures more than fourteen years in the operations and logistics of firms such as HP and British American Tobacco. In parclick, this industrial engineer plans strategy and finances. His partner ivan rodriguez, graduated in Computer Science and with fifteen years of experience in the field, plans the market strategy.
Actually, Parclick is a internet facilitator comparable to the usual ones for renting a car or booking a hotel. In your case, sells fertilizers from parking multiday in public parking lots —not individuals— located at strategic points: urban centers, airports, train and bus stations...
Its originality lies in having brought to the digital age such a traditional world such as parking lots, through a technological development applicable throughout the world.
To a large degree, has created a new market in the area of mobility. And it is that, through its online platform, the user has, through any mobile device, information about the car parks offered for medium and long-term stays: services, available subscriptions, prices... And, of course, you can reserve a place at a very reasonable cost, even 70 percent below rate. The advantages also reach the parking lot, to the ensure occupation and long staysFor example two days. An ideal solution for monetize spaces that are often empty and thus improve fixed costs, which are all regardless of the number of vehicles parked.
It should be noted that the parking business generates 75,000 million euros annually worldwide, 45,000 million in Europe alone. But, precisely in the Old Continent, where Parclick focus and expand your business, parking lots are full, on average, 60 percent. With formulas like this, global turnover could rise to 60,000 million euros.
Since its inception, the company has expanded the workforce to 24 people, from an initial contribution of 15,000 euros and a credit of 50,000. Last year his revenue exceeded three million euros, an increase of 150 percent. "Our activity, which is similar to the reservation and purchase of tickets for shows on the Internet, until not so long ago unthinkable, consists of optimizing the occupation of parking spaces, charging a commission for sale."
«It has been difficult for us, because parking is a very traditional business. Its online facet is in embryonic development, but soon reserving parking over the Internet will be as common as doing it, for example, for dinner in a restaurant. We have digital maturity necessary, and the client also has it. His proposal allows the user to have parking wherever it suits him.
parclick already operating beyond our borders: in such a narrow window of time they have acquired a top tier competitor, a French benchmark in the matter, such as the reservation center ParkingsdeParis.com.
With her the number of car parks offered has increased to 82, or what is the same, a growth close to 20 percent with a consolidated offer of 630 car parks distributed between Spain, France, Italy andPortugal —currently they offer garages in more than 110 large cities such as Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, Rome, Valencia, Venice, Bilbao, Lisbon and Porto—. “This is a sector in rapid progression. In the near future, all car parks will have direct online channels and aggregates such as Parcklic. Our goal is to become one of the greats in the next four or five years”, remarks Paris.
In addition to helping them consolidate as European leaders in the online reservations for medium and long-term parking, enriching an offer with more than 43,000 parking spaces —they already manage 250,000—, their recent acquisition opens up endless possibilities. «We reach the public through affiliations, preceptors and partners in which we rely on to share value. And we sell flat rate season tickets in cities like Barcelona, which allow the use of one or more than one parking lot”, explains Paris.
He adds: «Reserving parking in advance is a very advanced business in countries like Germany. There it is common to schedule vacations to the millimeter, for example traveling by car to Italy to park there in a concerted parking lot and take a cruise.
"Our immediate challenge is to educate the market about the possibility of reserving parking with associated economic advantages”, he qualifies. Spanish talent? Paris is clear about it: "In Spain it is brutal, with a great capacity to materialize agreements with companies from other countries."
EN 
ES 
FR