Parking, Parking, and More Parking.

One such experience I can recall that reflects the standard principal agent model, is a time that I ran parking for one of the home Illini Football games.  I understand that I have related this setting to class concepts in the past, and the scene may be getting a little stale, but nonetheless, many of my experiences at the IHotel relate very well to topics of the course.  Thus, I shall reflect upon another aspect of my occupation that addresses the prompt for this week.

I have discussed previously about operations regarding parking for home football games that we conduct.  Because of this, I will not bore you with another detailed description behind our process.  Whilst I am on the clock, I answer to two principals, the conference center management and the customers.  This also applies to any parking scenario.  Our main objective is to park as many cars as possible, because the more cars we accommodate the more money the hotel receives.  The amount of money the managers turn in also reflects on how efficient they made the process.  Because of this, my superiors have a tendency to micromanage us in order to make sure we are doing our job to the best of our abilities.  We certainly don't want to fail in their eyes.

Besides making as much money as possible, it is our duty to maintain a friendly and fun atmosphere for those parking in the lot.  On game day, we want to assure everyone that their car will be safe, and provide them with whatever they need to make their tail gaiting a fun experience at the IHotel.  Often times, guests wish to take up more space than the managers appreciate, in order to set up their pre-game festivities.  This is where conflicts arise between myself, the agent, and the two principals.  Guests want more room, yet managers want more money.

The difficulty in this situation is when guests are asked to condense their tail-gait they often get angry.  They are there to appreciate the moments before kick off, surrounded by friends and family whose company they appreciate.  Whenever they take up more than one spot, my manager angrily commands us to enforce the one-spot per payment rule.  We have two options in this situation.  We can painstakingly ask them to move their stuff to a smaller area in front of their car, or explain to them that if they wish to take up an extra spot then they must pay an extra twenty dollars.  You can imagine their reaction when we ask them to pay more money on top of the steep twenty dollar fee required to park in the lot.

When I run into this dilemma, I almost always give in to the customer.  The only time I do not, is if the guest parks in such an absurd manner that it disrupts the entire flow of the parking operation.  I feel it is just easier this way.  Most of the people get extremely moody when asked to move their belongings or pay extra.  Some even get hostile, as which I witnessed one morning when I asked a patron to move his tent.  I do not wish to spoil anyone's good time.  Furthermore, I do not wish to constantly run into conflict with the guests, which happens about fifty percent of the time that I request tail-gaiting condensing.  In the end the hotel loses out on potential profit, but I feel since parking provides "free" money, then we can afford to lose some profit in order to satisfy the customers' needs.  That being adequate space for tail-gating.

Now by satisfying the customer, I do fail from my manager's perspective.  The guests are better off, yet we lost out on an increase in profit.  My boss also gets angry since it reflects somewhat poorly on him.  It is extremely hard to solve this issue.  Both parties will never be fully satisfied, and in order to make one better off, we have to make the other worse.  An increase in parking efficiency may assist in higher profits.  Yet, the guests will be unhappy with the small space they are provided to enjoy themselves.  The only way I see to solve this tension is to allow guests to park where they desire when the lot is empty, as long as they park in an orderly manner.  From here we can try to manage the space they inhabit during tail-gating.  Further instructions on the amount of room that guests receive for their entertainment should be provided upon entrance into the lot.  This way when visitors are confronted, they will be more understanding and reasonable.  Lastly, implementing more organization once the lot fills provides increases in customer satisfaction and parking efficiency.  In the end the situation is tricky.  My manager wants to squeeze as much cash out of this as he can.  However, by aiding the guests, I will  inevitably fail in the eyes of my superiors.