With a rise in staycations, would your business benefit from an ANPR?

If there was one good thing to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was the rise in the UK staycation. People have discovered some of the most exciting and beautiful parts of the country and realised what incredible things have been lying on their doorsteps all this time.

Hotels, holiday parks and attractions have seen floods of people coming to enjoy what is on offer, which means these entities need to consider how they can keep everything safe and secure.

To explain further, specialists in secure access solutions, Newgate, share their insight into the benefits of ANPR for your hospitality business.

What is ANPR?

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras have now become common place in many areas to prevent motorist misusing parking facilities by not paying parking fees, outstaying their welcome, and leaving genuine customers with nowhere to park.

This works using technology which is able to read car number plates and identify who has and hasn’t paid, making it much easier for business owners to enforce their rules and ensure a fair deal for their paying customers. None of this requires human involvement, so there are far fewer issues with complaints and disputes.

ANPR cameras have also been used in a variety of security issues, including theft prevention and lost ticket fraud. It enables your business to monitor how long people are able to park as well, preventing any overnight stays if you do not permit them.

Benefits of ANPR

Whether you offer a place to stay or an attraction to visit, you want your visitors to be able to park quickly and easily, particularly when they are likely to have travelled some distance to reach you. ANPR allows you to offer cashless payment solutions such as the use of cards, phone or online payments to cut out queuing at machines as everyone leaves an attraction at the same time, searching for loose change, and metres that swallow coins and refuse to give out change.

Many motorists then have to calculate how many hours they intend to park for, leaving them either over-paying or running out of time. An ANPR system is able to register when a car arrives at your site and when it leaves, ensuring that the charge the owner receives is an accurate one, therefore providing a stress-free experience both for the driver and for you as a business owner.

ANPR systems can work 24 hours a day and offer an efficient and reliable service that also reduces the temptation for confrontation. They work in real time, and number plates can be checked against the registration database immediately, making it quicker to issue penalty notices. It makes it much easier for people to get in their car and leave when they have finished visiting an attraction, cutting out the gridlock that can often be experienced at the end of the day at attractions such as theme parks.

Staff in hotels are also freed up from dealing with car park validation, issuing parking passes and management, and can instead focus on helping guests to enjoy their stay. Your hotel can ensure that there are always spaces for guests, and if you are playing host to a big event such as a wedding or conference, you have the ability to offer free parking for guests if you choose to.

As the owner of a place that will benefit from more people holidaying at home, you need to ensure that you can keep your car parks safe, fair and available for those who need them. ANPR systems are a great way to do this, no matter what kind of business you run, as they offer flexibility and accuracy that takes much of the hassle out of car park security and management.