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November 28, 2005

Why I pay more to park at the airport

For years I parked at the Jet Motel when flying out of Sea-Tac Airport. It looked a bit dumpy, but it was cheap and the staff was friendly. The only annoyance was the form I had to fill out every time I parked: name, address, phone number, date of return, make, model, color and license plate of car.

Many times I suggested that they create a Frequent Parker’s card, or a customer account number, so that I wouldn’t have to spend so much time filling out paperwork when trying to catch a flight. They never did.

When MasterPark opened nearby, they looked good: they had multiple lots and slick graphics, uniforms, and buses. They were also more expensive than the surrounding lots. I was happy to stick with the dumpy little motel and save a couple of bucks a day.

Then a colleague drove and took us to MasterPark. We stepped out of the car, our bags were whisked to the bus, and a uniformed attendant asked what day we planned to return. He then handed us a ticket and pointed us to the bus with a “have a nice flight!”

I haven’t filled out the Jet Motel’s form since. MasterPark looks great, but it was the customer experience that sold me. And the tragedy is that Jet Motel could have done the same thing at almost no cost. They don’t need handheld wireless terminals and remote printers. A paper file with my account information would have been enough to avoid the annoying form and keep my business.

Posted by Bob Pritchett at November 28, 2005 7:00 AM

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