Brivo Systems, LLC, the leader in Web applications for access control and security systems, today announced that The Village of Breckenridge Homeowners' Association (HOA) is employing the new Brivo-developed OnPark™ online parking reservation system to improve parking management, increase revenues to the HOA, and enhance security. The new OnPark system uses Brivo's XML Application Programming Interface (API) to connect with the community's existing ACS WebService™ online access control system.
The Village at Breckenridge, Colorado (The Village) is a resort development comprising 235 residential and 28 commercial units. Few residents live at The Village year-round and the development sees brisk rental demand for the units, particularly during ski season. Nineteen different entities that include both professional property management firms and individual owners rent out the various units throughout the year. Like all of Breckenridge, parking spaces are at a premium and The Village has only 130 spaces in its garage to accommodate residential demand. What's more, when agents rent out units they cannot always guarantee that those guests will have a parking space upon arrival, or if after leaving the parking garage a space will be available when they return.
"Parking spaces are a scarce, valuable resource," said Tony Wait, General Manager, The Village of Breckenridge HOA. "We had to find a way to better utilize this limited resource and to capture parking revenue, if possible." Recently, the HOA had invested $1.4 million in repairs and maintenance to the parking garage, but parking fees guests were paying flowed mostly to rental agents and not the HOA.
As Wait and the HOA sought solutions to better manage parking and improve security, Neal Marcus of Securus introduced them to Brivo's XML API technology, which allows different systems to exchange data in the XML standard so they can 'understand' one another. The XML integration opened a world of possibility for The Village and the HOA by enabling the parking garage's access control system to be integrated with OnPark, a new online Web service created by Brivo's professional services group that can also be integrated to manage reservations and credentials for such common areas as spas and fitness centers.
Now, all rental agents use a common interface to assign parking; agents are allocated an inventory of parking spaces and unused spaces are pooled and made available at designated times. Guests receive a parking permit to display on their vehicles. Each permit has a microchip, which can be programmed remotely by the rental management agent. The chip can be programmed to contain a variety of data including the check in and check out dates corresponding exactly to their length of stay. And now the HOA has the capability to collect revenue for each parking space rented.
Wait again, "I often jokingly say there are 26 different ways to access our garage-handing off an unexpired pass, as people used to do under the old system, is just one." In addition to improving the guest experience and bringing significant revenue to the HOA, the new Brivo system will save the HOA a substantial amount of money. "One alternative we looked at was installing a booth manned by an attendant 24/7. That would have been expensive and with the Brivo system there is no need." The Village HOA began collecting for parking this ski season that commenced November 9, and still has the option to extend parking collections to year-round.
Now that the XML interface has been deployed to facilitate parking reservations and management, the HOA and Brivo are ready to move on to the next stage. "The other exciting part for us is the ability to extend the system," said Wait. "Now that the first phase is working, we're looking forward to extending the access control system throughout the property." Up to now, most guests needed to use two keys to access the property and there was only minimal control of doors left open or forced open. "The new Brivo ACS will give us a huge number of benefits-improved security; we can control access online; much greater, more specific control; and improved guest satisfaction. This will give us tremendous flexibility. We're just looking at the tip of the iceberg now."
"We knew when we released the XML API that there really was no limit to the applications for integrating different systems and databases with the Brivo ACS," said Steve Van Till, Brivo President and COO. "The world of access control has fundamentally changed when the system that used to just open doors now can improve productivity, more effectively manage a scarce resource, enhance the guest experience, and produce revenue for the end user where previously there were only costs."
