I made an airport parking comparison website! Introducing compareparking.com.au

AssociatedLgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 19/06/2016 - 15:38
Last edited 19/06/2016 - 16:07

Hey ozbargainers,

After finding it hard to figure out the cheapest rate for off-site airport parking I've made a comparison site for Australian off-site parks. http://compareparking.com.au

It's called compareparking.com.au - it's in its infancy and I'm enjoying figuring out how to improve its function and trying to increase traffic. I hope the ozbargain community will find it useful - please bookmark it if you find it useful and email me if you have any feedback. Feedback is always appreciated, especially for someone new at this.

If you are feeling very generous please like my page on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/compareparking.com.au/?ref=aymt_hom…

Any suggestions or opinions in the comments would be useful too!

Thanks guys,

Nick (goblinbattle)

Travel

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Comments

  • dylanando on 19/06/2016 - 16:12
    +2

    I get a security error when trying to visit then a server error!

    • Associatedgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 19/06/2016 - 16:15

      Thanks! I typed in the https instead of http. Please have another look, cheers.

      • dylanando on 19/06/2016 - 17:07
        +2

        Haha all good. As mentioned below, Can see this being very useful. I personally don't travel often but neat idea. Good luck!

  • bluesky on 19/06/2016 - 16:29
    +1

    I can see your site being very useful, if you continue to cover some peripheral topics (which looks like you already have, when checking on Tullamarine) and not strictly on the parking only. Very nice, thank you.

    • Associatedgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 19/06/2016 - 16:37
      +1

      Thank you bluesky, I think you're right, to keep interest up I have to keep covering broader travel topics.

  • coyney on 19/06/2016 - 17:48

    What is it built with?

    • Associatedgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 19/06/2016 - 17:56

      Hi, I had a developer create a wordpress plugin for it - don't really know how he did it, sorry.

  • holoz0r on 19/06/2016 - 18:21

    Compairparking might be a more specific domain you could use? Punny!

    • Associatedgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 19/06/2016 - 18:34
      +1

      Haha, I like your thinking! When I was starting the site I had a look at more punny names, most were taken actually - including compairparking. Must have become available recently, but I've settled on the name and branding etc, so I think I'll leave it as is.

  • 2jzzzz on 19/06/2016 - 18:22
    +1

    That's a great website and I just used it to decide on my booking.

    • Associatedgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 19/06/2016 - 18:35

      Thanks, glad you like it. Pretty simple at the moment but want to develop it further throughout the year.

  • Hunry on 19/06/2016 - 19:36

    Hey, awesome website!
    I do have a suggestion:

    -Have a calendar which opens up when picking the dates so people can click on the calendar instead of typing it in.

    • Elppa8 on 19/06/2016 - 20:15

      Clicking on the drop down calendar date entered the date for me.

      • Hunry on 19/06/2016 - 20:47

        Must be something with my browser then.

        I'm now able to click a drop-down for the time, but the calendar still doesn't work for me.

        • Associatedgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 19/06/2016 - 21:21

          Interesting, what browser do you use Hunry? I'm using chrome and the calendar pops up for me.

        • Hunry on 20/06/2016 - 00:29

          I'm using Chrome too, I guess the error is on my side as it works on other devices. Sorry for the false alarm!

  • Drifta on 19/06/2016 - 22:37
    +1

    Would it be better for you to display the map later / make it optional as you have with hiding the map? (takes up less bandwidth and helps load the page faster).
    It took about 20 seconds or so for it to load up for me with a crappy adsl2+ connection approx 4kms from exchange (about 3.5 mbps)

    Perhaps move the spinning thing higher so its easily visible - sometimes get lost in the background if you take your eyes off it.

    Generally, good job with it :)

    • Associatedgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 19/06/2016 - 22:53

      Thanks for feedback, I'll see what the speeds are like with making the map hidden as default. The slow load time is definitely noticeable, it's not just your connection I don't think.

      • peterpeterpumpkin on 20/06/2016 - 01:09
        +1

        You've actually got a few other major issues.

        Your images haven't been resized as required and you're wasting a tonne of bandwidth (e.g. the zebra crossing image alone [http://compareparking.com.au/wp-content/uploads/st_uploadfont/Chromatic_5_Melbourne_shutterstock_274620965.png] takes 1.5 MB).

        I don't know the PHP code you used in the backend to calculate prices but I assume you used simple custom calculations for each company and no live data fetching is made on any request. It took over 7 seconds to fetch the results from my machine (but maybe OzBargainers are night owls and your host is being challenged :)).

        Anyway, nice idea to integrate this data into one place to avoid that frustrating research time. Good luck with your SEO!

  • [Deactivated] on 19/06/2016 - 23:02

    How do you plan to make money with this?

    • Associatedgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 19/06/2016 - 23:43

      Not sure yet, needs traffic first then maybe make money from referrals. Any ideas welcome.

  • theHMASfriendship on 20/06/2016 - 12:06
    +1

    Great idea for a site.

    Can I suggest if it's possible incorporating google reviews or something similar with the results it throws up for you?

    • Associatedgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 20/06/2016 - 18:29

      Yes I think this would be ideal, to give users an element of quality assurance through reviews on the site. I don't think google reviews are comprehensive enough to get a review for each parking site, but I haven't looked that hard to be honest. Another option is to start our own rating process once traffic increases.

      One thing I'm sure of - the quality of service and ease of booking is extremely variable with these off site parking places. Some websites are broken, others are polished and I think that the service provided are as variable. A rating system would be very useful if implemented well.

  • FadeToBlack on 20/06/2016 - 12:13
    +1

    Great idea, i'm always doing this manually.

    • Associatedgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 20/06/2016 - 18:27

      Thanks, so would I until I made the website!

  • jimbobaus on 20/06/2016 - 16:06
    +1

    looks good.
    Friend of mine is about to launch an app on iOS and Android
    thst shows parking rates at most private car parks in Syd, Melb and Brisbane
    it also shows airport rates and allows you to book and prepay from within the app.

    Might be a bit of competition for you when it launches.
    He has Secure, Wilson and the like all signed up to allow people to book and pay from the app etc.
    Melb and Syd airports have also signed up
    he also has all the 90% of the private airport parking operators signed up to his service.

    • Associatedgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 20/06/2016 - 18:27

      Sounds like serious competition actually! Any chance you could private message me when it launches for me to have a look?

      This is more what I would be aiming to achieve for compareparking one day but sounds like he has achieved step a b and c already, I'm still on step a….

      I still feel most people book airport parking on their computers rather than app at the moment, but this is all to do with marketing and what people know is available. If they know they can easily do it through an app….they will!

      Guess I'm in a SEO battle with this person, let the games begin!

    • peterpeterpumpkin on 21/06/2016 - 11:56

      Does your friend provide a booking management back-end to avoid double booking amongst the less sophisticated private operators? I can't imagine any of them having an API.

      • Associatedgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 21/06/2016 - 17:36

        Yeah that was one of my issues - such a range of sophistication in the private operators. Providing your own backend would be the only way to unify things and provide reliable bookings.

  • boomramada on 21/06/2016 - 12:09

    Canberra? :(

    • Associatedgoblinbattle @ compareparking.com.au on 21/06/2016 - 17:47

      I have held off on Canberra as I can't seem to find many off site parking options to compare. If you know of some please let me know and I'll be sure to put them in.

      Thanks

  • BigLeviathan on 18/05/2017 - 21:23

    Great site! just purchased car park from your site

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