The parking service is squeezing out spaces, so the airport authority makes it even more expensive.
By JEAN HELLER
Published August 6, 2004
TAMPA - Call it an embarrassment of riches.
A service at Tampa International Airport that got off to such a rocky start officials feared they couldn't keep it going is now so popular the airport is raising prices to discourage customers.
Valet parking, which allows the rushed to drop their cars and sprint for their planes - and have the cars waiting for them when they return - took 10 months to become profitable after introduction in December 1998. Since then, it has grown threefold and now is crowding out of its designated spaces on the fifth level of the short-term parking garage.
"We're going to try to sway the impulse buyer, the person who drives up and says, "Hey, (valet parking) only costs $2 more than regular short-term parking, so I think I'll just use it,"' said Joe Hills, airport parking manager. "We want to shift people who have enough time to go park somewhere else."
The Hillsborough County Aviation Authority board agreed Thursday to raise the valet parking price Sept. 1 from a maximum of $16 a day to $20. The short-term parking rate is $14. Partial-day rates for valet, $2 per 30 minutes with a $5 minimum, won't change.
Problems for valet parking have their roots in October 2001, when the authority raised rates for all parking except valet, bringing short-term rates nearly as high.
Those who wish to use valet parking can drop their cars on the departure level of the blue side of the Landside terminal or on the fifth level of the short-term garage.
After taking 10 months to reach an overnight inventory of 100 cars, the financial break-even point for valet parking, peak hours are now topping 300 vehicles. An average of 260 is optimum, Hills said, unless more staff and more of the fifth level of the garage is reserved for valet customers.
