Hotels have long viewed parking as a guest amenity rather than a revenue center.
As such, it’s been traditionally managed separately from other core revenue functions – configured once, and infrequently revisited.
For hotels, this approach is becoming harder to justify.
With occupancy and RevPAR under pressure in many markets, hotels are reassessing assets that they have previously overlooked – and parking is emerging as one of them.
Not because it is new, but because its economics have become more compelling.
Ways of driving incremental revenue that have historically required large CapEx and OpEx investments, such as parking, now cost less due to technology.
And technologies like Ocra – the first AI-powered RMS & GDS purpose-built for parking assets – are accelerating parking’s transformation from a static, operational necessity into a dynamic, essential lever for NOI growth.
The Business Case: 70–80% Margins Under Optimized Conditions
Hotel parking consistently yields some of the highest profit margins of any department.
With optimized pricing and distribution, margins can exceed 70–80% – far outperforming F&B (10–30%), spa services (30–50%), and other ancillary revenue streams (source).
Parking also requires very little incremental CAPEX or OPEX to scale once basic infrastructure is implemented.
And, distinctly, parking continues to show growth, even when room revenues soften.
From 2019 to 2023, parking revenue at U.S. hotels grew by roughly 23% – more than four times the growth rate of total hotel revenue during the same period – while parking profits climbed ~32% (source: CBRE).
Parking stands out from other ancillary revenue streams due to its simplicity, speed-to-revenue, and substantial margins.
The Status Quo: Static, Siloed, & Overlooked
Despite empirical data that demonstrates its resilience and untapped potential as a durable growth lever, in the hotel sector, parking is often treated as a static line item.
- Rates are configured and rarely revisited
- Operations are manual and labor-intensive
- Decisions are made in isolation from overarching revenue strategies
A hotel may enlist a third-party parking operator to manage on-the-ground operations and maintain the physical lot.
In this case, the parking operator’s priority – aligned with the hotel’s – is to provide an exceptional guest parking experience and ensure the lot is functioning optimally.
The result is that pricing and availability are disconnected from non-guest demand, which prevents this high-margin asset from reaching its full potential.
Even when parking operators and hotel teams recognize the opportunity to list unused inventory on online channels for non-guest customers, that incremental revenue is underoptimized.
This is due simply to lack of data or bandwidth required to execute sophisticated parking yield management without distracting from the hotel’s core business: guests.
The Opportunity: Ocra AI-Powered Hotel Parking Revenue Management
Ocra introduces a new model for hotel parking revenue management – one that combines AI-powered RMS & GDS software with centralized, data-driven oversight.
In the hotel parking ecosystem, Ocra bridges internal teams, parking operators, and “parking OTAs”, adding a layer of dynamic pricing and yield optimization without creating more work for the hotel.
“Parking OTAs” are demand channels that function identically to an OTA like Booking.com or Expedia, but for parking spaces, not rooms.
They’re low-cost solutions that implement high margin collection, can be configured with relative ease, and start yielding quickly.
The Ocra software globally distributes an easily configurable amount of the hotel’s underutilized parking inventory on the parking OTAs at optimal rates.
This makes these spaces available to non-guest customers looking for parking near demand drivers like airports and events.
Parking revenue managers configure an ideal channel mix and generate upside using the Ocra software and AI tools, market data, and proven expertise.
In 2025, Ocra generated $28M in incremental revenue for 118 assets in its revenue managed cohort of locations.
Eyes In The Sky + Boots On The Ground = Optimized Parking Yield
Ocra is intentionally agnostic, supporting hotels with or without third-party parking operators, across surface lots and garages, and in the absence or presence of gates and other parking equipment.
Critically, this approach does not require significant upfront investment.
After a short time monetizing existing inventory, the hotel can use early revenue to fund more substantial enhancements (e.g., gates, enforcement, shuttles, staff) that further extend capacity and increase NOI over time.
Parking operators who partner with Ocra deliver stronger revenue results without adding operational complexity.
Incentives are aligned across all stakeholders:
The parking operator delivers a premium parking experience while Ocra focuses on one specific area (online parking revenue management) for optimum results.
To date, Ocra has worked with five large national parking operators to grow revenue by 300%+ by maximizing online channel performance.
Ocra’s scale and partnership network are essential to this model.
With its software live at 600+ locations in North America and established integrations and partnerships with leading parking OTAs including SpotHero, Airport Parking Reservations, Cheap Airport Parking, and Rightway, Ocra helps hotels:
- Go live on all parking OTAs within 2 weeks
- Benefit from more favorable OTA commission structures
- Attain higher net revenue per transaction
- Increase customer acquisition without spending marketing dollars
Pairing Ocra’s “eyes in the sky” data and intelligence with “boots on the ground” operational insights from hotel teams, parking operators, and parking OTAs generates meaningful incremental revenue for the asset.
A Shift in Mindset: Parking As A Profit Center
Forward-thinking hotel ownership and management groups are embracing technology and beginning to think of parking as a viable way to increase NOI with minimal overhead.
The hotel parking revenue control technology market reached $1.27B in 2024 and is forecast to grow at ~8.1% CAGR through 2033, which indicates growing investment in parking revenue management tools (source).
“On average, only 6% of non-room revenue flows to a hotel’s bottom line,” says Ethan Glass, CEO & Co-Founder of Ocra. “Our partners are seeing 70% margins that only grow over time. The impact that parking can have on hotel NOI cannot be understated. We built the software, and the team, to unlock that potential – to massive results.”
Learn more: visit getocra.com or email info@getocra.com.
This article was published in Hotel Business on January 22, 2026. To read the original, click here.
