1. Parking

Parking is a problem for many buildings, especially older ones that may have been built before everyone had at least one car if not two. While most complexes list parking as an amenity, the truth is that residents and tenants often have to deal with insufficient parking and a lack of guest parking, especially overnight. Residents who rent a car as needed often cannot park on the property. One solution is to offer multi-family smart parking, which allows you to better manage the parking you have, letting residents book guest spots in advance, open the gate with their phone, etc. Being able to avoid saying “Well, you can park on the street” can be a perk not many think about until it is brought up. Add a few electric car charging stations (with a smart system to reserve them when needed) and you can turn parking from a side note to something central to your business.

2. Hotel-style common areas.

Residents expect to be able to make use of common areas in new ways, especially if the apartments tend to be small. Offering comfortable seating is a plus. Offering computers for resident use has become standard, but you can get “bonus points” for enclosed workstations. Large screen televisions can attract residents and promote a sense of community. Offering events for residents and their guests can help ensure that these areas are used. The best location: The lobby. Top floor party rooms are great, but residents tend to forget they are there. If your climate allows it, outdoor “rooms” are important, such as roof decks or courtyards. Such multi-family amenities should be targeted to the demographic you aim to support.

3. Wi-fi.

These days tenants, especially younger residents, expect to be able to access fast, reliable wi-fi in common areas. This even includes outdoor areas. Wi-fi is at the point of not being an “amenity” so much as an “expectation” that landlords need to meet. If your building is a cave, then good wi-fi becomes even more important and you might also want to consider installing cell relays in problem areas.

4. Pet amenities.

Although some buildings are still anti-pet, in many areas being pet-friendly is something of a selling point. However, it has to go past “we allow pets.” If you have space, a dog park is useful. So is partnering with a dog walking service. Even small things like a jar of dog treats in the lobby will make your four-footed residents, and their owners, feel more welcome. A less common, but growing amenity, is the pet spa, a place designed for grooming and bathing pets. Furthermore, pet amenities often allow you to increase your rent more with a lower outlay.

5. Fitness centers.

Even if there is a gym down the street, some of your residents will use the on-site fitness center. More importantly, most of your new residents will think they are going to use it. Apartment fitness centers now have to go past putting a couple of treadmills and a multi-gym in the basement. Attract a fitness-minded demographic with a multi-purpose room that offers yoga and pilates classes, video classes for yoga, dance fitness and spinning, and modern equipment. Also, a lot of renters are interested in things like racquetball or tennis courts, walking trails (if your property borders a good trail, make sure to provide access) and other non-standard fitness amenities.

6. Excellent package managing.

More and more people shop online and receive packages. Having proper package storage and smart software will help reduce the number of annoyed residents. Although package handling may not be on the list of multi-family amenities you put front and center, with 47 percent of renters receiving at least three packages per month, including perishables, not having good package handling is likely to result in poor reviews and a higher turnover. Negotiating for an Amazon locker is one good move.

7. Sustainability.

Younger tenants want to know that their apartment building is sustainable. Green roofs and energy-efficient appliances are both particularly popular. For new construction, try to meet or exceed LEED standards. When renovating, consider how you can make the building more energy efficient (which also gives the selling point of lower heating and air conditioning bills).

When developing or running an apartment building, you need to provide the best multi-family amenities to your residents. If you are looking for smart parking solutions for your apartment building, Schedule a Demo/Call today.

The post 7 Multifamily Amenities Your Complex Needs appeared first on ParqEx.

Then there was the Mapquest era, in which directions to anywhere could be looked up, printed out, and carried with you on the road. Compared to the atlas, this seemed like amazing precision and freedom right up until the GPS navigator gadgets started coming out. Having a Betty (female computer voice) prompt your turns and freeway exits was an incredible innovation in hands-free navigation, even when she was wrong or late giving a direction.

Now the world has changed again. Your smartphone mount and nav apps have taken the place where your Garmin used to sit and they have gotten much smarter. You can plan and change your route, dodge construction, and choose intermediate destinations along the way. Want to know how? Here are five great tips for the ultimate smartphone road trip:

1) Google Maps: Your New Best Friend

While there are many navigation app alternatives, Google has once again come out a head and shoulders above its competitors in terms of features, data integration, and intuitive helpfulness. To start your road trip, or even just a trip to the great downtown ice cream place, start by selecting a destination, then navigating from “your location”. Select your favorite route and routing settings and go! Oh, and a word to the wise: don’t use a tablet, they lack the GPS function for accurate location tracking.

2) Watch the Mini-Map

The Google Maps mini-map feature (for phones) is one of the coolest ways to travel I’ve ever seen. It zooms in and out to show you your next turn and stretch of road, moves with you in a semi 3D fashion and helps you find turns in the dark with exact location reporting. If you hit the compass button on the right side, it will follow your car so right vs left turns are obvious or, if you miss the old maps, you can set it to always look north.

Google is usually pretty good about telling where there’s traffic, but Waze has real time crowdsource updates and Google’s alternative course suggestions are not particularly intuitive. For the local’s point of view on shortcuts and detours, check out Roadtrippers instead to avoid heavy traffic, troublesome intersections, and eternal construction zones.

3) Quick Destination Research

Not sure where to go next? Google’s got you covered. Just like on your computer at home, type in a few keywords and Maps will give you a list and location pins of places in the area that match your criteria along with pictures, descriptions, ratings, and reviews. This gives you the chance to pick quickly based on proximity, stars, and what’s currently open or pour over your options from a stopping place.

4) Setting Along-the-Way Stops

On a road trip, you may be driving for 16 hours from one state to another but you’ll need to stop for gas, food, and lodgings along the way. Rather than completely reconfiguring your nav route for one of these intermediate stops, Maps will help you choose a destination near your current path and will add it as a stop without breaking your long-term route. There are even a few quick-selection options like gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores, and coffee shops. To find this feature, tap the bottom destination bar, then tap ‘search along route’.

Of course, if you want to explore local venues like a pro no matter where you go, there are a variety of other great mobile apps made just for this, rather than the all-purpose Google interface. Both Foursquare and Findery include not just ratings and reviews but special tips left for you buy locals and other travelers who have come before.

4) Planning for Parking

As awesome as Google Maps app is, there are a few things it still can’t help you with. Speed limits, for instance, for some reason escape their otherwise very helpful API. Another notable gap in their complete road trip service is parking. Google is perfectly happy to drive you directly to a popular venue and declare you as ‘arrived’ with zero consideration for where you could possibly park. Fortunately, we have another app for that. Any time you’re headed into a popular or densely populated area, you can make 100% sure you’ll have a place to park by renting a space with the ParqEx sharing economy app. If you’re just passing through, rent a spot for only an hour and leave it for someone else or, if you’re staying a while, rent one for a couple days.

Road trips are an amazing way to see the country, go wherever you want, and eat at a lot of delicious restaurants you’ve never heard of. Whether you’re visiting relatives, going to a historical sports event, or just vacationing on the open road, modern travel apps make any road trip completely worry-free. Between Maps, local advice apps, and ParqEx you can be sure to always get where you’re going, have a great time along the way, and have a safe place to park when you get there.

Going on a road trip soon? For more helpful tips and tricks, contact us today!

The post 5 Tips for Using a Smartphone as Your Roadtrip Navigator appeared first on ParqEx.

According to figures from the National Center For Education Statistics, in recent years, enrollment at secondary educational institutes has risen by 24%, from 16.6 million to 20.6 million. The number of full-time students rose to 28%, while the number of part-time students rose by 19%. While this is great for the education of our society as a whole, students and faculty are frustrated by a lack of adequate parking.

UIC Gets a C Minus in Parking

For those attending UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago), they’re logging in at the popular College Niche website and have given the parking situation on campus a C minus as an average grade. While this denotes a less than fair level when it comes to grading standards, it would not be a grade that I would want to see on my college kid’s report card. Some of the complaints listed by students were:

• The price for parking in a semester is way too high

• Free parking around UIC does not really exist

• Get(s) annoying real quick because it’s always packed

• Parking on campus is impossible

• You need to plan ahead to make it to class on time

A student author contributor notes, “According to research, at any given time there are about seventeen thousand people on campus, but there are only about eleven thousand available parking spaces.”

Worst City For Parking

Since Chicago is such a big city, it should probably come as no big surprise to students that parking is a problem there. As a matter of fact, Nerd Wallet named the windy city the worst town for parking in all of the United States. They cited variables such as cost, problems with theft and pointing to a controversial privatization of parking.

Prices skyrocketed in 2009 after the City of Chicago made a deal with a group of investors, organized by Morgan Stanley, to operate its meters for 75 years. A group called Chicago Parking Meters LLC runs the gamut and the city also has an enormous laundry list of parking violations that they use to deliver expensive citations.

No Room and No Money For Additional Parking

One might imagine the simple solution would be to simply add more parking structures or build additional lots, but in most cases, there isn’t sufficient space or funds available. According to Parking Today, the cost to build just one parking spot is around $2,000. For a parking garage or other type of structure, the expense shoots up to somewhere between $13,000 and $15,000 per space.

The addition of more parking also means an increase in traffic, which means that the University would also be forced to perform a traffic analysis. Campus and neighboring streets may not be able to handle the additional wear and tear on their aging roadways and other surfaces.

Students Using Peer to Peer Parking

In today’s modern technological world, many are turning to apps like ParqEx – A Peer to Peer Parking. The concept is actually quite simple, after downloading the app to your smartphone or android device, parking spot owners can list their unused parking spots and renters can rent convenient and affordable parking.

The post College Campuses Could Benefit from Using Peer to Peer Parking Platforms appeared first on ParqEx.

And ParqEx has always been fascinated with sharing economies — whether the sharing is human-to-human or nature-to-human — as you can see in our own innovations in solving the parking problem in Chicago.

These three bright ideas of transportation technology are just a few examples of how the modern world is participating in a sharing economy with Nature:

1. The Mercedes-Benz Bionic Inspired By a Fish:

Mercedes-Benz turned to the ocean for its new biomimicry designed car called the Mercedes-Benz Bionic. Its design imitates the yellow boxfish in an attempt to harness the fish’s efficient use of energy.

It definitely worked, to say the least.

It reduced nitrogen oxide emissions by 80% thanks to its Selective Catalytic Reduction design, also known as the-car-looks-like-a-yellow-boxfish technology. (Nitrogen oxide, by the way, is lethal to humans, and it a common pollutant from cars. A recent report from King’s College showed that 5,900 deaths in London in 2010 were caused by this pollutant.) The exterior design of the car was modeled after the yellow boxfish because of the fish’s low coefficient of drag.

2. Cars with Bird Skulls for Protection:

Biomimetic architects (people who study nature to get ideas about their buildings) have stumbled onto something that could be a huge game changer not just for architecture but for the transportation industry.

Bird skulls.

That’s right, architects have been studying the unique formation and malleable design of bird skulls. From this research, they are developing a new building material that could withstand far more damage than current materials.

According to Foxlin, architect Andres Harris said this about the new material: “Skulls , in general,are extraordinary impact-resistant structures and extremely light at the same time as they protect the most important organs of an animal body and this performance and physical property can be applied in structure or architecture design.”

Harris also mentions in his research that this material could be used in cars, and thus provide even safer external structures that can more easily withstand violent collisions compared to current car materials.

3. The Bullet Train Inspired by a Kingfisher Bird:

A bullet train in Japan — the 500 series Shinkansen bullet train that links Shin-Osaka to Hakata — is famous for its nose, or beak, rather. Its design is inspired by the beak of the Kingfisher. The efficient drag-reducing design of the Kingfisher’s beak was emulated in a way that allowed the train to reach speeds of 185 mph.

And it also looks incredibly cool.

While reading about these nature-inspired technologies adds a sense of excitement about the future of transportation, ParqEx is also excited about what new technology is bringing to the every day driver in Chicago.

Our favorite example of that, of course, is our ParqEx app that allows drivers to easily find privately owned parking spaces that others have placed on the app as available. Drivers can rent these private spots much the same way you rent a room with AirBNB. Owners of the parking spaces get a ridiculously easy-to-earn, passive income from every parking space they rent to drivers using the app.

Nature might be sharing its phenomenal designs with engineers, but residents in Chicago are using the sharing economy — and the great app technology being birthed from it — to share their phenomenal parking spaces.

And that’s what innovation is all about.

Contact us for more insights about technology innovation in the world of parking, cars, transportation, and logistics space, and how you can benefit from these innovations.

The post 3 Intriguing Technology Innovations in Transportation appeared first on ParqEx.

Hack #1: Keep Your Car Clean

No matter how careful you try to be while you’re on the road, garbage just accumulates. That’s why it’s a good idea to keep a plastic cereal container, the kind with the wide mouth, in your footwell. You can pop the top with one hand, toss in your trash, then close it again. The design means no smell gets out, which can make your journey that much more pleasant. If you want to be extra smart, use a plastic shopping bag as a can liner.

Hack #2: A Binder Clip For Your Smartphone

More and more people have replaced a stand-alone GPS unit with their smartphones. The problem is that a smartphone stand can cost $15 or more, and the plastic has a tendency to crack after very little use. If you have a binder clip and some rubber bands, though, you can make a simple, strong base that will hold your GPS right on your dashboard so you never have to dig around in order to see where you are on your digital map.

Hack #3: Plan Ahead For Fuel Costs

There’s no reason to pay more for gas than you have to, and if you’re driving into a major city like Chicago or New York then you’re going to face significantly higher prices once you’re over the city limits. Apps like Fuel My Route will check gas prices along the route you’re taking for your trip, ensuring you never overpay for a full tank again.

Hack #4: Pin Your Car on Google

If you’re in a new city, and you want to remember where you parked your car, just go to Google Maps (or whatever other map program you’re using), and drop a pin on the location. That way no matter how turned around you get, you will always be able to retrace your steps to where you left your vehicle.

Hack #5: Keep Copies of Your Directions

Never count on your phone to get reception, especially if you’re going to be driving through open expanse, or the concrete jungle. Always keep an Atlas on hand, take a screen shot of your directions so you have an offline copy, and if you want to really be prepared, make sure you print them out as well. It pays to be a little extra ready when it comes to not getting lost.

Hack #6: Use a Parking App

There are few things more frustrating than driving around endlessly, looking for a parking spot. Except, perhaps, finding that ideal parking spot but not having the small bills on hand to pay for it. That’s why apps like ParqEx are ideal for serious travelers. They let you search an area for the best spots, and you can pay for parking with a tap on your phone. There’s no muss, no fuss, and you’re in and out without a lot of wasted time.

Hack #7: A Dryer Sheet Can Keep Your Whole Car Fresh

If you spend a lot of time in the car then your vehicle will lose its freshness pretty fast. To avoid that road trip smell, all you need to do is put an open box of dryer sheets in the back. After a few days you’ll take several years off the interior atmosphere.

For more helpful travel tips, simply contact us today!

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