For those that offer reserved parking at your communities…. How is it set up?

For those that offer reserved parking at your communities…. How is it set up? Just took over a new community and they have countless empty reserved spot signs since residents don’t want to pay to reserve them. I thought it may be better to put the reserved signs in once a resident wants a reserved spot. The current team relishes in the fact they could tow a vehicle at any point and obviously make residents very upset.

I thought it would be better to place sign in the spot once a resident wants it rather than have valuable reserved spots sit empty for long periods.

Great observations. If there is truly a parking shortage, reserved spaces tend to be frequently used. In these situations, we generally see between 60% - 90% of the reserved spaces used daily (and many properties run at 100% all the time). That said, there are a few items to consider:
1) What is the daily cost of the reservation? We see properties at $6 and properties at $25 or more – it just depends on the property and market.
2) How many reserved spaces do you have? Generally, we target about 5% of the total unit count for reserved spaces. Where this ratio doesn’t work is controlled access buildings where the reserved spaces are in front of the access gate. In those situations, it just spends on how many spots were allowed regardless of what you would like to do!
3) Are you sure the reservation process is clear? I visited a property a couple months ago that was having issues. While their current service was easy to use, there were signs posted for the two previous services they as well! No one removed the old signage, which was not only confusing, but cars were also getting towed.
Where I have seen this fail before (in addition to what is listed above) is when the parking problem just isn’t that bad; therefore, there is just not a reason to pay for parking. As a rule of thumb, under 1.6 parking spots/unit you are going to have at least some parking issue. Under 1.2 it’s usually really bad. The mix of 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom units along with the average residents/unit impacts this as well.
Feel free to PM me if you find this valuable and want to dive a little deeper.

Your predecessor thought they were going to bump NOI. Get to work and reforest that crap off your budget as fast as you can. Or Me, Mr. Mean Asshat Asset Manager will be yelling at variance reports.
Unless you’re overcrowded, reserved parking doesn’t really work. Carports / Covered Parking, is an entirely different beast. Those tend to rent, you need to be careful to not over supply.
As for management of parking, there’s now apps for that. Simple to overly complicated.

First and foremost, do you have a parking shortage or do you have ample parking ?
If signs are removed and there are ample open, not reserved, will people need to pay for reserved ?
If there are ample open reserved, why would you tow..... out of spite ? Sure , you need consequences etc but creating misery for residents when there is no real operating problem seems contrary to resident satisfaction.
It really starts with what problem are you trying to solve. Not enough parking spaces in total or not enough people pay for reserved.
And are reserved assigned, resident owns the specific # space.

Is the charge for reserved parking high? Maybe instead (if you’re able to) offer a discounted rate. I mean if no one wants to pay and they are sitting empty, something is better than nothing. Just a thought to try before just removing the signs.

There is a parking shortage. They have signs for reserved spots that are often empty since residents prefer not to pay. The problem is residents often struggle to locate parking and risk being towed if they park in a spot they shouldn’t. Having the signs there when not in use almost seems like a bit of a tease. This is not a big city environment if that matters. The community just lacks adequate parking.

Pull every reserve sign that isn’t currently reserved.
Only place a sign when somebody pays.
Then, one of the cool things that I do is I set it up in ResMan to wear absolutely everything is paid before the reserve spot… That way if they leave a balance at the end of the month, they have not paid for the reserve parking. This will encourage those to maintain a zero balance.