Indicators On For Great Parking

Ever been tempted to knock on a stranger's door and ask if you can park in their vacant driveway for a couple of hours whilst you do your shopping? Or wondered who owns the reserved but always-empty space in the busy office park? For many of us, particularly those whose car journeys regularly take us into congested parts of the business and retail centres of our cities and towns, the vacant space seems to cry out for an occupant. But who to ask?

Space, The Final Frontier

Whilst home for Christmas in 2011, English language teacher Liam Farrell found the shopping centre car parks full up, and noticed lots of empty driveways where he could easily have parked for a few hours if he only knew who to ask. Having used AirBnB on his travels, he decided to set up a similar service for parking, that would enable owners to easily lease their space and drivers to just as easily rent it, whether for a few hours, a few days or on a more permanent basis.

Liam, our featured guest this week on Kickstart Your Business, launched ParkingMotel.com in Ireland in 2015, and plans to roll out his online booking engine in cities across the world later this year.

On Air Space

Our host this week, Bobby Kerr immediately warmed to the notion of a readymade parking solution for travelling fans heading to Dublin's Croke Park this Sunday to cheer on his beloved Kilkenny, and thinks that Liam is on to a winner.

Meanwhile, I suggested that Liam has very smartly parked his idea on a proven model, and is likely to motor past many of the mistakes that pioneers of the peer-to-peer commercial model, such as AirBnB, have made. At the same time, I stressed the importance of carving out that space for ParkingMotel on an international level as soon as possible, before one of the giants in peer-to-peer solutions reverses into Liam's great idea.

Park Your Views Here

How do you suggest Liam get car drivers everywhere parking quickly and without fuss using Parking Motel?

Listen back to Kickstart Your Business and tell us what you think? We'd love to hear from you.

Kickstart Your Business is broadcast at 6.25pm every Thursday on The Right Hook on Newstalk, and is available immediately afterwards on playback on Newstalk.com.