City Hotel Reservations

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by City Hotel Reservations's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from City Hotel Reservations is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

www.chreservations.com

1CITY HOTEL RESERVATIONS |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE

A software-driven airport

parking agent

We work with the ten

busiest airports in the UK

CEO of City Hotel Reservations, Robert Flouty, founded the

business in 2003. Back then, it took a slightly different

shape; it was largely a family business that offered

airport hotel bookings and parking reservations as packages

to travellers flying out of Gatwick. Now turning over £14.5

million, Robert and his team have turned their focus exclusively

to aggregating parking for ten UK airports. He expands on their

business model and tells

The Parliamentary Review

about his

team’s focus on what comes next.

The ten airports we work with are the ten busiest in the UK. That’s:

FACTS ABOUT

CITY HOTEL RESERVATIONS

»Director: Robert Flouty and

Daniel Millar

»Established in 2003

»Based in Ongar, Essex

»Services: Airport parking and

hotel booking agent

»No. of employees: 10

»Earmarked by Google for

10-times growth over the next

2 to 3 years

»www.chreservations.com

City Hotel

Reservations

»Heathrow

»Birmingham

»Gatwick

»Manchester

»Luton

»Bristol

»Stansted

»Edinburgh

»Glasgow

»London City

We are, really, an online business; while we do take phone bookings, more than 98

per cent of our clients come in from the internet. The principle is very simple; after

spending a lot of money developing our own bespoke booking platform, we can

now sell parking through it.

We own the domains for heathrowparking.com, stanstedparking.com,

birminghamparking.com – and so on and so forth. After redesigning the software

and rolling it out across these ten websites – especially considering the valuable

SEO potential of each URL – we started to experience serious success.

Although this process has been underway for six or so years now, we are not

complacent – we have been constantly updating and modernising the software for

each of these sites since first introducing it.

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

2| CITY HOTEL RESERVATIONS

Our system is very straightforward,

working primarily on API systems.

The API basically “searches” parking

providers’ systems to determine

availability and pricing, and then feeds

back to our own website to process

bookings. It’s all automated, and it’s all

incredibly quick.

Working through a variety of

household names

We have partnered with a number of

suppliers including NCP and MAG at

Manchester and Stansted, and are either

the top or second-biggest independent

third-party provider of bookings for

their airport car parks. We are also the

only airport parking intermediary with

Trading Standards approval.

Acting as an intermediary, our function

is basically as an agent. Given our SEO

positioning – when someone Googles

“Heathrow airport parking”, for

instance, heathrowparking.com ranks

very highly – we have experienced

considerable success in this capacity and

are expanding rapidly to that end. As

an example of our growth, we have just

completed a deal with Liverpool airport

and the site will be coming online soon.

Demonstrable growth and

partnership with Google

account managers

Airports are always growing, too –

that’s something that really works

in our favour and contributes to our

success at existing sites.

Over the next two years, we’re also

planning on rolling out sites for

another 11 regional airports across the

UK with insufficient parking coverage.

This rapid growth has only been

made possible by our partnership with

representatives at Google; we’ve had

the pleasure of working with some

excellent account managers, who have

only helped us to grow and increase

conversion rates.

Our sites are highly authoritative and

their relevance only continues to

increase, ensuring higher click-through

rates than ever.

Park – the household name

Where we have experienced some

challenge, however, is in remarketing.

We currently have 300,000 opt-in

GDPR-compliant customers that we

email twice a week, constantly offering

discounts and money off. Although

that does return some limited success,

we do presently have to send emails

from ten different brands.

To resolve this, we want to unite all

current and future domains under one,

simple umbrella brand: Park.co.uk.

We’ve purchased the domain name

and are currently working on branding;

having noticed there’s no household

name 21st century equivalent to the

giants of Uber and Deliveroo for parking,

we want to focus on creating an ultra-

simple and user-friendly app that will

appeal to customers new and old.

Consider someone who has used our

services at Heathrow that also flies

occasionally from London City or

Stansted. They may not realise that

Technology drives our

business

The ten

airports we

work with are

the ten busiest

in the UK

“

3CITY HOTEL RESERVATIONS |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE

we also offer parking there. Under the

Park brand, however, it would become

instantly and immediately obvious that

we cover the different airports.

The first phase will be rolling out the

Park brand over current and future

airports, but we do have ambitious

plans to expand beyond that in the

next two to three years. We want Park

to become the only parking app people

will ever need on their mobile and are

looking at forming partnerships with

such providers as RingGo, MiPermit

and PayByMobile while also developing

our existing relationships with brands

such as NCP.

The endgame is simple: we want to be

the go-to brand for any parking in any

location for any duration.

Challenging loans,

monopolistic airports and

partnership with Google

The first major obstacle we

encountered was funding. We have

had some astronomically expensive

loans in the past – and when you’re

looking at growth capital, the last

thing you need is a significant interest

rate. Growth and increased cashflow

have helped in recent years, but if we

had means of funding ourselves more

efficiently – beyond loans or private

equity – this would have really helped

in the early stages.

The second obstacle is one we still face

today – the parking supply. Many of

the airports themselves are actually

quite monopolistic; I appreciate their

approach, and I appreciate they don’t

have an unlimited supply of parking

stock, but often their attitude towards

intermediaries can be aggressive.

We, of course, relish and appreciate

the opportunity to work with airports

and will continue to do so, but

slightly tighter or clearer regulation

could make the process somewhat

morestreamlined.

Finally, while our work with Google

has been so beneficial, and I can’t

thank our account managers enough;

we are so unbelievably integrated

with their operations. They’re such an

important channel for new businesses,

and it is a cause for potential concern

that they are completely unchallenged

in that online space. It’s certainly

something that start-ups need to

be aware of when entering the

ecommerce marketplace.

Becoming the standard

We would like to see airports open

up and be more willing to trade with

intermediaries rather than being

so protective, and we would like

to continue our work with Google

to further mutual benefit, but our

sights for now are firmly set on one

thing: establishing Park as a brand

and becoming the household name

forparking.

To achieve this, we are dedicated to

continually improving our technology

and driving further efficiencies. Further

airport regulation would of course

be welcome, but our success in this

market so far only serves to inspire

us to continue to grow, develop and

serve the parking needs of Britain –

andbeyond.

We are

dedicated to

continually

improving our

technology

and driving

further

efficiencies

“

We want to be the

go-to brand for parking

in any location for any

duration

www.chreservations.com

This article was sponsored by City Hotel Reservations. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from Rt Hon Michael Gove.

Rt Hon Michael Gove's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By Rt Hon Michael Gove

This year's Parliamentary Review comes at a momentous time for parliament, as we collectively determine the destiny of the United Kingdom.

On October 31, the UK will leave the European Union. The successful implementation of this process is this government's number-one priority.

Three years after a historic referendum vote, we will deliver on the decisive mandate from the British people. Trust in our democracy depends on it. Until that final hour, we will work determinedly and diligently to negotiate a deal, one that abolishes the backstop and upholds the warm and close relationship we share with our friends, allies and neighbours in the EU. But in the event that the EU refuses to meet us at the table, we must be prepared to leave without a deal.

As the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, it is my job to lead on this government's approach, should that scenario happen. Preparing for Brexit is my department's driving mission. But while I am leading this turbocharged effort, the whole of government is committed to this endeavour.

Ministers across Whitehall are working together to ensure that every possibility is considered, every plan is scrutinised and every provision is made. A daily drumbeat of meetings means that we are holding departments accountable, so that preparations are completed on time.

The chancellor has confirmed that all necessary funding will be made available. And we have mobilised thecivil service, assigning 15,000 of our most talented civil servants to manage our exit from the EU.

We will make sure that on November 1, there is as little disruption to national life as possible. Our trade relationships will continue to thrive, thanks to agreements with countries around the world worth £70 billion. Our country will remain secure, thanks to nearly 1,000 new officers posted at our borders. And the 3.2 million EU nationals now living and working among us can remain confident, with absolute certainty, of their right to remain in the UK.

Above all, our goal is to be transparent. Soon, we will launch a public information campaign so that citizens, communities and businesses are ready and reassured about what will happen in the event of “no deal”.

In my first few weeks in this role, I have travelled to ports and tarmacs, borders and bridges, all across the UK –from the seaside of Dover to the rolling green hills of County Armagh. I have heard from business owners and border officials, farmers and hauliers. They are ready to put an end to uncertainty. And they are ready to embrace the opportunities ahead.

Our departure from the EU will be a once in a lifetime chance to chart a new course for the United Kingdom. Preparing for that new course will be a herculean effort. But this country has made astounding efforts before. We can do it again.

Rt Hon Michael Gove
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster