BRITONS WASTE £300m A YEAR ON AIRPORT PARKING simplyparking.co.uk offers to cut costs

BRITONS WASTE £300m A YEAR ON AIRPORT PARKING - simplyparking.co.uk offers to cut costs

British holidaymakers are wasting £300m* a year on airport parking when they travel abroad, the equivalent of 160,000 round trips to Florida for a family of four. Most holidaymakers don't even attempt to find the cheapest parking on offer, preferring instead to take their chance on finding a space when they get to the airport. Yet this can leave them with a bill of almost £300 when they get back from their break. And now that MPs have had their free parking perk removed by BAA, they will also need to work a bit harder to save the taxpayer money.

But checking out parking does not exactly compare with the excitement of heading off to foreign climes, which is why Simply Extras has been set up to do the hard work for travellers.

Simply Extras Ltd launched www.simplyparking.co.uk, on 1 August 2004. Tim Hagger, managing director of Simply Extras, says: "Britain has the most expensive airport parking in the world. A week-long stay at Heathrow airport can cost as much as £147. Pre-booking reduces this cost to £84, but by taking the cheapest deal, a traveller can get parking for as little as £58.

"Finding the best airport parking deals would normally involve the tedious task of trawling through website after website, manually comparing car park prices and availability. But simplyparking takes the hassle out of the process."

This free service allows customers just to enter the date, time and airport they are flying from and leave the rest to the custom-built comparison engine, which covers 22 UK airports and over 100 car parks. Special care has been taken to ensure that only professional airport parking providers are recommended.

After just a few seconds, simplyparking highlights the cheapest option. An informed decision is made easy with its ‘at a glance’ comparison of the benefits and price of each car park and, most importantly, which is the cheapest wholesaler to book with. Click on the chosen price and simplyparking seamlessly transfers the customer to the wholesaler’s site to complete the booking.

MD Tim Hagger said: "We put into one place the "live" availability and prices of the top 5 UK airport parking sellers that comply with the customer’s individual requirements, and provide an unbiased view of the best deals."

James Burrows, technical director of Simply Extras, added: "Most similar websites only "resell" for one parking firm, sometimes only one car park. simplyparking not only provides access to all the car parks, but we compare the lot!"

The design of the simplyparking site, together with the technology and intelligence behind it, was produced by Hagger and Burrows, who share over 25 years experience designing and developing online businesses, together with a background of working in online holiday "extras" sales.

Tim Hagger said: "Whilst the Simply brand is about delivering freedom of choice and very best prices, quality is of equal importance."

Notes for editors

About the statistics:

* Figures based upon CAA, Department of Transport and main UK airport parking providers. More information on request.
Florida trip based upon on 2 Adults & 2 Children flying Economy Class from Heathrow to Orlando, 7th October – 14th October with British Airways. Total cost £1,827.60
122 weeks' parking in October at Heathrow Park & Fly (Terminal 4) £294.00. 1 week parking in October at Heathrow Airport. Park and Fly Gate price £147.00, pre-book cheapest deal Park4less £57.60

About the directors:

Tim Hagger, 27, has been working within the design industry for over 10 years, specialising in web usability and online travel sales.
James Burrows, 31, has been developing sites for niche online businesses for 15 years.

gosimply also offer a wide range of pre-travel necessities including travel insurance, car hire and airport hotel accommodation.