Booking Agents or Book Direct.
We have all seen the advertisements for Comparison Sites
which cover a wide range of products from insurance to airport parking. With
the power of internet marketing becoming ever more powerful it is no surprise
that the numbers of comparison sites are increasing year on year. Some web
sites call themselves comparison sites and others as agents for the various
company products they are selling but they are both ultimately the same.
Comparison sites are what it says on the tin, they offer the
opportunity for you to compare prices on your chosen product and in some cases
but not all, explain the advantages over one product to another. This is great
for products like insurance or banking but does it apply to other businesses like
airport parking?
What are the real advantages of buying through comparison
sites compared to buying local or going direct to the product company? As with
the example above we shall look at airport parking and explain the differences
between booking through an agent and booking direct.
Depending on the agent or comparison site the Customer will
have a choice of a number of parking operators to choose from. If we take
Gatwick Airport Parking as an example these prices range from £35 upwards to over £100
for a weeks depending on the quality of the service. We will assume that the
lower price range would offer a park and ride service ( transfer by bus )
and the higher price would be a valet parking
service or meet and greet at the airport terminal. However this does not always
apply as some agents offer a meet and greet parking service as low as £40 -
£50. Prices as low as this for a valet service can only be offered by
un-approved operators where they are compromising on safety and security. It is
most unlikely the agent will sell the product for less than the operator
itself.
Most parking operators are tied to their agents inasmuch as
their prices cannot be more or less than the agent selling the product. This
means that the parking operator will have to take a hefty chunk of its fee to
pay the agent and this can be as much as 35%. Add this to the 20% VAT element
of the booking it means that the operator is only getting approximately 50% of
the total cost of the booking. This substantial cut in the operator’s profit
margins can only reflect itself in the ultimate quality of the service the
Customer receives. At a price range of £35 to £50 this means that the profit is
small or non-existent or where the parking is not subject to adequate
insurance, has no planning permission or even VAT.
The recently introduced Approved Operator Scheme at Gatwick
will inevitably create a bigger divide in price between park and ride and valet
parking. Airport Access Charges have been introduced for every vehicle that
enters the forecourts. This again will create a greater burden on the Operator
as it is them that will have to absorb the costs and not the commission agent.
Most of the
Gatwick Parking operators have their own web
sites in spite of the fact that most of their traffic is derived from the
Agents. The Agents are superior marketers and this is readily demonstrated by
typing in a keyword such as ‘
Gatwick
Park’ in a search engine
such as ‘Google’. The first page is entirely made up of agents or comparison
sites and sole operator sites are found further on.
If you look at price comparison web sites for airport
parking and then compare them to sole operator web sites you will find an
enormous difference particularly if the sole operator is an approved operator.
The sole operator’s web site goes a long way to explaining
its service and the industry surrounding it. The agent’s web site is a long way
short of descriptions and will simply show icons to indicate what is offered
with no actual detail.
If you are a new Customer and you are booking direct with an
approved parking operator at Gatwick then you will find the operator working
hard to please you and to tempt you back again and again. Very often the
operator will offer discounts for your next trip.