WEBVTT
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Hello everyone and welcome back to the SourceForge podcast.
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I'm your host, Bo Hamilton.
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So I have a quick question for you to lead off today's episode.
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When was the last time you handed your car keys to a total stranger and all you got in return was a flimsy paper ticket?
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Because if you used a valet at a hotel, a hospital, or a restaurant, uh that's probably still exactly how it went.
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Um and what's what's a little bit wild about that, besides sort of the obvious, is valet parking is a multi-billion dollar global market, around$4.5 billion and growing.
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And yet uh labor-intensive manual operations still make up nearly 59%, almost 60% of how the service actually gets delivered.
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Um and the majority of this industry is still running on pen and paper and maybe a prayer, uh maybe a superstitious idiom.
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You know, you knock on wood, uh, cross your fingers, just hope you get your car back, everything goes smoothly.
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Um, Valley parking is a bit of an outlier in a world where almost everything has gone digital.
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So these contactless payment adoption um uh services in Valet has already blown past 58%, and fewer than 40% of Americans even carry cash anymore, which um is also a real problem when your valet attendance income depends on tips, which of course we'll get into today.
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Um, and this isn't some niche corner of parking either.
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Hotels, retail centers, hospitals, and the venues together they drive nearly 68% of valet demand.
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So we're talking about uh the literal first and last impression at some of the busiest properties of the world.
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Now, um, I know that was a lot of information, but my guest today is trying to drag all of that into the modern era.
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Adam Sabo is the founder and CEO of Pier Valet, a ticketless valet parking platform that replaces the paper ticket with digital check-ins, real-time vehicle tracking.
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You have text to retrieve, built-in payments, and tipping, of course, which is very important.
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Um it's really the whole sort of curb to keys experience.
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Uh they're in hotels, they're in hospitals, office buildings, residential garages, basically anywhere somebody's handing over their keys, right?
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Um now in our conversation, we'll get into what's actually broken in valley operations, why you can't just text the guest and have that really be a real solution anymore, what going cashless has meant for the valet themselves, and then how fast a property can actually like flip the switch, right?
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Um, and get up and running.
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So um lots to discuss, Adam.
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I know that was a mouthful, but welcome to the podcast.
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Glad you could join us.
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Thank you very much.
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And honestly, that was amazing.
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So I think we can end the podcast here.
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You you just nailed every point.
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So that's a wrap.
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All right.
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That's a wrap.
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We're done.
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No, but thank you.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Yeah.
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I'm glad to have you here.
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I know um I want to start at the the the top, you know, the big I guess the beginning.
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Um, so I think most of us have experienced valet parking where you you you hand your keys to a stranger and you get this paper ticket in return.
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Um, you kind of just accept it and you feel like relatively comfortable with the process because maybe everyone else is doing it.
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Um, but it it does seem ripe for innovation and and modernization.
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So maybe you can just give us a rundown of Pure Valet, like who is it built for, and then how would you describe it for folks hearing about it for the first time?
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100%.
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So I'll give you a quick background.
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So, my background, I spent 10 years in the valet industry.
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I built a company called O Valet, which basically grew from Toronto in Canada to a global leader.
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So the joke is we were on every continent except for Antarctica.
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Um, so we were trusted by global leaders like four seasons, Ritz Carlton, and then we sold it in 2021.
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So what we did after that is now Pure Valet is everything we learned from there and just improved upon.
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So, as you touched on, you know, the experience side of things, like the digitized version of Valet, all that is what we've done.
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So essentially it's valet parking software for anyone, parking cars for guests.
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So anywhere there's a guest touch point.
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So, like you said, this could be a hotel, casino, airport, resort, restaurant, hospital.
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Uh, so we provide the ticket and the ticketless software.
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So there's kind of two options there.
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Okay.
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So that's that's easy to remember.
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Basically, anywhere there's a there's a valet stand, you're you're a fit.
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So, how did you get involved with the industry?
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Like I assume you were like maybe a valet attendant yourself back in the day, or so the funny thing is actually I had a software company before that, and uh one of our clients came to us and said, was a ballet company, and they came to us and said, we need a solution to enhance the guest experience.
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And so I had this team of guys, and I said, you know what?
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What could we do?
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Instead of doing a one-shot solution for this one valet company, why don't we make this a bigger thing?
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Because I did some research, obviously, and I said, well, look, there's a lot of valet in the world.
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You know, everybody is parking their cars.
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And there's problems with logistics too.
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So places like, for example, Miami, you don't have enough spots.
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You can't even park your own car if you wanted to.
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So I said, I think there's a bigger, bigger thing here.
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And that's kind of what laid the seat of the foundation.
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So the long story short is we never ended up providing this company their own one-off piece of software.
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We came to them and said, you can license our software.
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And so suddenly we got into valet, you know, a little over 10 years ago.
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Gotcha.
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Okay, that's good to know.
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Yeah.
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So you're yeah, you're a problem solver.
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That's like really the entry point.
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You saw this problem, you're like, there's gotta be a better way.
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You used your your software experience.
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Okay, I love that.
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That's awesome.
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Um, now there's a there's a stat I mentioned in the intro, um, but it surprised me, right?
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It's it's even uh even now labor-intensive manual operations, they still represent nearly 59% of how valet service gets delivered.
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Um, so in other words, like the majority of this industry is still running the old way, um like pen and paper, you know, which is kind of a classic thing that comes up in this in the SourceForge podcast.
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A lot of these businesses still run on pen and paper in a lot of areas.
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Um, but that's especially true in the the valet uh industry.
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When when you talk to operators, like what are the sort of headaches that come up over and over again?
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Like what's what's actually broken in the in the process?
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So that's a really good question.
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Now, usually in the valet space, like you said, labor is a huge problem.
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Um, so really there's four key pillars of problems, let's call it.
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Um, damage claims.
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This would be obviously a huge one because now suddenly a car pulls up, you've got a scratch on it.
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What do you do?
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And so a lot of our hotel clients have uh traditionally been used as the fix your car for free kind of place.
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You bring your car, you say they've damaged my car, and then they go and pay for your car to get fixed.
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So this is like a small scratch, a dent.
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It's it's wild to see how this happens all the time.
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Um, because all they're left with is you go to this hotel and they have CCTV cameras high in the sky, and those are not going to be accurate, right?
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They're not gonna see a small scratch or a small dent.
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So what ends up happening is well, unfortunately, they're gonna take the side of the guest to not have a bad experience and to not get a bad review, and they're paying out these massive claims.
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And so when you bring a digital system off the bat, you can do a circle check with a bunch of photos, right?
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So you can take unlimited photos, you have different lighting, you can turn the flash on.
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And these are now smartphone cameras, right?
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They're designed for amazing shots and like super high resolution, super sharp images.
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So basically, damage claims go away.
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And so, unless your guys actually go and smash a car, that's a whole different problem.
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That's the labor problem.
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But if I effectively your damage claims go away, and the system has already paid for itself like 10x right there.
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So that's for your damage claims.
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The second would be like your front desk bottleneck.
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So, what happens is usually in a pen and paper system, like you said, the front desk is kind of like the radio station.
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So people who are upstairs in their room, they want to get their car.
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These are the guests, they'll just they'll just call down and say, Hey, can I get my car?
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And so then the front desk has to go on the radio, radio to the valet with walkie-talkies, old school walkie-talkies.
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And then you have a bunch of guys running around.
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And sometimes with a walkie-talkie, if you if you transmit twice on the same frequency, you miss a message.
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So there are many times where a guest vehicle doesn't get pulled because two people said something at the same time.
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And so, and you can imagine again, this is just ripe for problems, right?
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Uh, so we remove the front desk middleman entirely, let the front desk do what they're good at, not pulling valet cars.
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The third pillar is the turnover.
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So, because you're now talking about a labor component, labor will never go away for valet, right?
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So, because you have a labor component involved, what happens next is the turnover is very high.
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You're not hiring PhD doctors who are parking cars.
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These are gonna be college students.
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They're gonna be a little more less, more or less, less careful with cars, let's put it that way, right?
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So, and the turnover is high.
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So, number one, the way that they treat the cars for the guests are not as good as, again, somebody who's a doctor is gonna treat a car necessarily, right?
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Um, so they're gonna be a little more careless.
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So you might get some some damage from the driver itself.
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So we can mitigate that with software.
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We know, for example, who's driving this car today?
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Um, how many cars did Johnny, the valet driver, get into today?
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Um, why is Johnny taking 20 minutes to park a car versus everybody else takes five minutes?
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So that way you know you can weed out the bad apples.
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But also because of turnover, you have this lovely problem called training.
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So new people come to valet and they want a job.
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You, as the valet operator or the hotel or the airport or the casino, you have to train these people now.
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So you can't just say, hey, go park cars.
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Great.
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Like, welcome day one, go park a car.
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They need to know certain things.
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For example, when when you park a car in the garage, you want to back the car up.
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So when the guest retrieval comes down, you can immediately drive away.
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There's no reversing out of a spot.
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So there's a lot of SOPs and techniques that are involved in how do we do valet.
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Also, the white glove experience.
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How do we greet a guest?
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You know, the white glove experience that you can imagine when you go to a hotel, you open the door.
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Hey, Mr.
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So-and-so, welcome to the Ritz-Carlton, you know.
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And so there's a whole level of training there on how to talk, how to, how to handle a guest.
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So, how we mitigate that is we have a massive training dashboard.
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So, you, as the owner of this valet, saw what's called a company or a hotel, you know you're gonna have a lot of turnover and maybe 20, 30, 40 guys all the time.
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We help you with just training.
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So we will we'll add in your SOPs, we'll add in all the little things that make your business nuanced.
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So, hey, wear some white gloves, open the door.
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You have to say this certain thing when you greet a guest.
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Um, how to take care of a guest.
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So, all that is part of our training dashboard.
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So, when you become a customer, we load all that in there for the first time.
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And so when you have turnover, which inevitably will happen, now you can get these guys at least trained to some level before you are actually wasting your own labor time to train them for, let's say, more hands-on and kind of level two.
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And then lastly, um, is you said the labor cost.
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So now that you've guys you've got these guys trained and they're good, they're parking cars, everything is good.
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With a paper system, you have no idea if you have too many guys or too little guys on shift, right?
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So, as a hotel, how do you know you know, is three guys enough for a really busy afternoon?
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Or do I need 10 guys?
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And that makes a massive difference.
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So, just as an anecdotal quick, quick story.
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Let's say, for example, you've got five guys overstaffed on a shift, right?
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So you're supposed to need only five guys, but you have 10.
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In a year, that's about$200,000 in labor.
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And that's that's with like kind of minimum wage.
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So it just adds up like crazy.
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So, yeah, it just really sounds like there's a lot, uh, just a lot more data that you're able to keep track of.
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And and data is really key for making a better, smoother, more seamless experience for for all parties involved.
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Um, it you know, everything from just making sure the car doesn't get damaged to making sure you have the right attendant.
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Um, I imagine you have like some forms of like background checks and just kind of like data on the drivers, you know, early on with your hiring through the hiring process to make sure, you know, they're they're a good fit, uh, that sort of thing.
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Well, that would be the valley company, actually.
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That's a good point.
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So, but that goes part of the training dashboard.
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So we have a checklist that you as a valley operator would say, Did this guy get a background check?
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Did this guy so on?
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So we don't do the labor side, but we help you with the labor side.
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So we provide time in attendance software.
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So we know that, hey, Bo today showed up late for a shift, right?
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And did he get a background check yet?
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Did we complete the background check?
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And so these are great points that you know, that's where the technology really just adds so much value.
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Yeah, for sure.
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Yeah, and then like the walkie-talkie example was funny too.
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Because I just bought, I believe it or not, I just bought a walkie-talkie kit like last week for a outdoor climbing trip.
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And uh, it's great for if you're like don't have cell service, you just need to like talk to some some buddies um who are you know relatively nearby and just like let them know where you're at and whatnot.
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But like for running if running a business of operation, I could see how that would be uh inefficient and problematic, right?
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Well, just imagine now 200 cars on a on a day.
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Let's say for an average hotel, they they they move 200 cars a day on a walkie-talkie system, and you have, let's say, 10 drivers, it a zoo would be an understatement, right?
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Because it's it's just like a chicken running without their head off.
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You have no idea, no visibility.
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If you miss a request, it's in the air, it's gone.
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Well, yeah, then you yeah, you just have all these expectations and standards to live up to or and and deliver, it just creates a frustrating experience.
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Well, and and I want to bring up a point you just mentioned too on the you have this expectation to live up to, right?
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So these are you're not having a valet at a two-star hotel, right?
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You you're having valet either at a very fine dining restaurant or an airport where it's busy and you have standards of quality to maintain, or like a resort, right?
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So, or even at very high-end hotels.
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So, what happens is these hotels live and die by reviews, trip advisor, Google reviews, and so on.
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So, guess what?
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You had an amazing experience.
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You went there with your family, you relaxed.
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There's really two types of visitors to these properties, right?
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It's either a business traveler who just wants to get on with it and have a great service because he doesn't have time, or it's going to be a family visiting for maybe an activity or visiting a new place.
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So you had all this all this money was spent on this property and resort to give this guest a great experience.
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And at the last second, a radio drops the ball because now they can't get their car.
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Kids are going, you know, you're you're ready to go to Disneyland in the morning, kids are ready, and they forgot about your car.
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What do you do?
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No, that's that's bad.
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And even if it just drops, the review drops like one star, that's like that's a makes a big difference.
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And if it's something over something like valet, like that's you know, that could be easily fixed with this platform you offer, right?
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Um, so okay, without getting maybe too redundant with some of the information um and what you detailed already, um, maybe you can help walk us through like, let's say a car pulls up to the curb.
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What does the experience actually look like from that moment on?
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So basically, car pulls up, attendant takes one photo, okay?
00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:39.360
The AI reads the license plate, the make model color.
00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:41.279
So five seconds, the whole thing's done.
00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:46.879
Guest gets a text, they're inside already, and now the valet ticket lives in their phone.
00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:49.120
So that's the entire experience.
00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:53.679
And from then on, once the guest is inside, you can do all the other stuff you want to do.
00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:56.000
You can take more photos of the damage, right?
00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:59.840
You can you can add more details as you want, but that's really it.
00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:01.919
Five seconds, cars inside the system.
00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:02.720
Wow.
00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:03.039
Okay.
00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:12.480
So by the time I've like finished uh dinner and and and texted for my car or what what whatever the communication of is, it's the car's already out front.
00:16:12.639 --> 00:16:14.240
That's sort of like the dream scenario, right?
00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:18.399
Like you don't have to stand at the valet podium for fun and let alone like the check-in process.
00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:22.000
It's just kind of like hand over your keys and you're you're good to go.
00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:22.720
That's it.
00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:23.120
That's it.
00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:30.320
And like you said, on the on the return, when you want to get your car, the last thing you're thinking about is standing there and watching cars go by, right?
00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:32.399
You want to have the car ready to go when you get there.
00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:40.240
So that's what differentiates us from a lot of our competitors is that with with them, valet was sort of an afterthought.
00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:50.080
They they a lot of a lot of our competitors are parking conglomerate companies where they're focused on parking, they want to make money from gates and and parking traffic.
00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:52.080
The kind of valet is like this afterthought.
00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:54.480
They're like, ah, we'll deal with valet later, it's not a big deal.
00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:56.159
So the experience goes down.
00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:05.680
So for you as a guest, if you're in a hotel room and again, like I said, the kids want to go to Disneyland, everyone's excited, and they're getting ready, they need a half an hour.
00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:06.559
What do you do?
00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:08.720
You can request your car in half an hour.
00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:15.200
With with with traditional systems, you call down and you can say, hey, maybe I can get my car in 15 minutes.
00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:21.359
But usually, because of the walkie-talkie situation, it's the moment you request the car is the moment that that car gets pulled.
00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:25.200
So now you're rushing rather than being convenienced on your own time.
00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:30.640
Yeah, so so I know some listeners they might be thinking, like, oh, you know, my my valet already already texts me.
00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:32.319
There are SMS systems out there.
00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:36.640
Um, I'm curious, like, what made you think there was room to do things a little bit differently?
00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:43.440
And then and then does going digital mean that the the traditional paper system is off the table?
00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:45.119
Like, is there room for both?
00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:47.279
We get this all the time, okay?
00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:48.480
So there's room for both.
00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:50.640
And that's what everyone gets wrong about a modern system.
00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:53.039
So it doesn't have to mean SMS only.
00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:56.480
Um, our paper ticket, which I'm showing you right here, is digital.
00:17:56.559 --> 00:18:00.799
There's a QR code here, there's a QR code here, um, QR code for the guest.
00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:04.000
So what that means is this is a digitized paper ticket.
00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:07.519
So every one of these pieces of paper are unique.
00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:13.599
Um, so if you have a hundred thousand valley tickets sitting in the office, every single one of those is unique.
00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:18.480
And so they all have their own little access pass to request your own car.
00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:19.920
And the branding.
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:23.440
So this is branded to one of our properties or clients.
00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:28.319
So this could be blue, this could be your colors, it could show whatever you want on it.
00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:32.799
It could have different shapes and sizes, but that's a paper ticket.
00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:37.759
And so, in terms of paper ticket versus SMS, this is what the SMS ticket looks like.
00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:42.000
This is a plastic ticket that goes on and it becomes a hang tag on your rear view mirror.
00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:44.480
So, what what's the difference between both?
00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:47.039
One, you get a text message in your phone.
00:18:47.279 --> 00:18:49.920
Okay, the second one, you got a piece of paper in your hand.
00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:52.079
Both of these go to the same place.
00:18:52.240 --> 00:19:05.680
You request a car on a digitized website, and you should you see your car details, you see that, hey, my Tesla is safely parked in the garage, and I can leave a tip, I can pay for my valet, everything you can do.
00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:10.319
It doesn't matter if you want the paper or the uh texting version, you can do both.
00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:14.559
Now, there's advantages to both and there's disadvantages to both.
00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:22.400
Long story short is if you want to get a text only, then you get the guest's phone number and they get a text in their phone, and that's their ticket.
00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:34.720
This with the paper one, because it's a digital ticket, you just hand this to the guest, they walk inside, and now that experience took less than a second because it's just a ticket.
00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:36.960
Welcome to the hotel, off you go.
00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:41.200
So both get the same result, it just depends on what flavor you're looking for.
00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:42.079
That's great.
00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:48.000
Well, I love the I love that you brought props, and this is a good reminder for uh those listening on our audio only channels.
00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:50.720
Check out our YouTube channel, you get the visual experience.
00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:56.079
And Adam, this is the you the first guest to have uh to bring you know visual props here.
00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:57.680
So kudos to that.
00:19:57.839 --> 00:20:05.839
Um and that the branding really does make a big difference, um, you know, and then just we all we all live through the COVID era, we all know how to use a QR code.
00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:08.880
It's just kind of the the future, it's it makes things easier.
00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:18.960
Uh, we all have smartphones, we can scan, and and um being able to unlock this uh a better channel of communication with more data and whatnot, like it just seems like a win-win, you know.
00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:30.960
And then another thing too, um I imagine if you just rely on like an SMS system, you might have international visitors who just don't have like a US phone number, and so you have kind of issues there, right?
00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:34.079
So you you kind of have to deal with that as well.
00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:35.279
Absolutely.
00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:38.079
People come to us all the time looking for the SMS option.
00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:40.319
We give it to them, and they're like, oh, wait, hold on.
00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:42.160
We actually have international guests.
00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:44.559
Okay, so now what we do is we can give you both.
00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:46.000
You can run a hybrid approach.
00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:54.160
You can have SMS only, and you can have paper for the people who are overseas, or their phone died because that's off, you know, that that happens as well.
00:20:54.480 --> 00:21:02.400
Um okay, so let's talk about the money side of things, uh, because there's a whole payments layer uh here and it affects the the people actually running the cars.
00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:09.920
Um so the I the thing that got me on this one was fewer than 40% of Americans carry cash regularly these days.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:12.880
I'm definitely uh one of those um Americans.
00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:15.599
I don't I everything is like tap to pay these days.
00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:21.200
Um and for valet attendants who count on tips as like a real chunk of their income, that that hits hard.
00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:24.799
People who'd happily just tip just don't have the the bills on them.
00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:28.880
So, how do payments and tipping work inside of pure valet?
00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:30.000
Absolutely.
00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:33.279
So, like you said, basically cashless killed the valet tip.
00:21:33.440 --> 00:21:35.839
That was traditionally like whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on.
00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:43.359
Because before you would have, let's say, a$17 valet charge, and it's but it's by design, right?
00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:49.039
These are like a little bit knock perfect numbers because you expect the guy to give you a 20, right?
00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:52.000
So the valet would be 17, and now you're getting a 20.
00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:53.359
Great, I made$3 in tip.
00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:56.880
So, but now the cashless thing you mentioned suddenly just killed that.
00:21:57.039 --> 00:21:59.359
And luckily for us, digital brought it back.
00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:04.799
So It's actually now with digital higher tips than before with cash.
00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:06.160
Because think about it this way.
00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:15.119
So when tipping is an option on the same screen that you pay for your valet on, the valet is earn more because now you have pre-selected boxes, right?
00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:17.599
So now with before you made maybe$3 in tip.
00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:20.079
Now you can say, hey, did you have a great experience?
00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:23.759
Here's a suggested tip range:$5,$10,$15.
00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:27.039
And people generally go for the kind of middle range anyway.
00:22:27.200 --> 00:22:30.880
So your$3 tip becomes a$5 or$10 tip.
00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:38.240
And we support Apple Pay, Google Pay, Credit Card, any type of payment option is open and welcome.
00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:42.960
And so this way, you know, operators can choose how they want to distribute the tips.
00:22:43.119 --> 00:22:50.319
There's many different ways, but some people like to do a pool, and here's a collective pool that we then share across to everybody.
00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:54.799
Some people like to say, okay, it's the guy who retrieves the car.
00:22:55.039 --> 00:22:59.440
And now because we have a digital system, I know that Johnny brought the car back.
00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:02.559
So maybe Johnny gets the tip, or he gets a majority of the tip.
00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:04.559
So there's many ways to skin the cat.
00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:08.319
So long story short is that's what solves that.
00:23:08.559 --> 00:23:12.559
And as a bonus, here's a here's a little uh top tip.
00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:24.160
Operators, so if you're if you're the let's say restaurant owner, or you know, you you suddenly run valet with restaurants in general, I feel bad for them because they're always on a very thin margins.
00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:26.240
And restaurants want to provide a great experience.
00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:31.440
They're providing great food, you have a great ambiance, and you have you have to provide valet as well, right?
00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:40.240
Because sometimes parking logistics, you're dressed up with your wife, you're wearing you know, beautiful suit, dress, you don't want to walk across two blocks.
00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:41.920
It's not a premium experience.
00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:43.440
So you have to have valet.
00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:53.039
And unfortunately, that eats into your margins because if you're running your own valet, then either you're paying an operator for the valet, the labor side, or you do it yourself.
00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:58.640
And of course, if you damage a car accidentally with one of your staff, you curb the guy's wheel.
00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:00.640
Now there's a lot of money.
00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:08.720
So if you want a funny little story there, one of our valet clients, they lost the keys to a guy's uh car.
00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:11.759
And so here's the breakdown, okay?
00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:14.559
You happen to have lost the keys to the guy's Rolls-Royce.
00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:17.519
And so suddenly now you have to re-key the whole car.
00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:22.799
And then the guy came back and said, Okay, great, you lost my keys, but I also had the keys to my yacht.
00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:24.480
I gotta go re-key my yacht.
00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:28.720
Oh, and also my keys to my mansion were there, so you gotta re-key the guy's entire life.
00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:45.119
And unfortunately, with the way valet company insurance works, um, valet companies usually don't claim the insurance, they they eat it out of their own profit because when you make a claim, you can't really make another claim the next year before because otherwise your rates are gonna go sky high.
00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:46.559
So you have this huge problem.
00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:50.079
You have a you have a somebody who's lost something as simple as a key.
00:24:50.319 --> 00:24:52.240
Now it's cost you$8,000.
00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:57.359
So here's where I'm going with this to kind of bring it back full circle.
00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:02.640
As an operator, if you run valet, you can add a small convenience fee.
00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:03.200
Okay.
00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:04.559
This goes back to you.
00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:06.960
So if your valet, let's say, is$17.
00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:12.960
Now you can charge, just like if you were a ticket master or somebody, you can charge a little convenience fee of a dollar or two.
00:25:13.119 --> 00:25:24.400
So if you have 1,000 or 2,000 cars parked a month, you've just made an additional one,$2,000 or$4,000, which heavily offsets a lot of these problems and labor.
00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:33.519
So now suddenly you can run a profitable valley business for your restaurant, and you get the benefit of not being, you know, razor-thin margins anymore.
00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:34.079
Right.
00:25:34.160 --> 00:25:36.240
Yeah, it's like a little insurance policy.
00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:36.880
Yeah.
00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:39.039
That's uh a great story.
00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:48.880
That's that is uh frightening and hits kind of close to home because as somebody who has, I mean, speaking of props in this episode, my keys just full of a million keys on my keychain.
00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:59.119
Um, losing losing my car keys means losing, you know, all of my my locks to like my trailer and like um my house key and all this, all these things are just gonna be massive headaches.
00:25:59.279 --> 00:26:11.680
So um what's interesting to me too is um we we mentioned this, is you're not just doing hotels, your your footprint's obviously a lot like wider uh and weirder in some ways than I'd ex I'd expect otherwise.
00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:20.880
Like you work with hotels, you work with retail centers, hospitals, event venues, um, all of which make up nearly 68% of valet demand, which is pretty staggering.
00:26:21.039 --> 00:26:23.599
Um and they're obviously different environments, right?
00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:27.440
Like um, I know like hospitals, patients are are stressed.
00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:31.920
Um, you know, elderly, like they need to like they just need to drop off their car quick and get in.
00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:37.440
They're emotional, um, versus like you're going to a fancy dinner, you're all dressed up and kind of in a good mood.
00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:42.400
Um, what changes when you're running valet at that, say, like this hospital environment versus a hotel?
00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:46.480
Like, what did you have to build differently to accommodate the different environments?
00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:47.920
Everything, everything.
00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:51.200
So hospital valley parking is basically the busiest parking in the world.
00:26:51.279 --> 00:26:53.759
Um, you've got hundreds of cars a day.
00:26:53.920 --> 00:26:58.559
Now, you also have multiple lanes sometimes uh and multiple drop-off points.
00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:02.640
So you can drop off in one section of the hospital and pick up in another section.
00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:07.359
So logistically, it's it's just way bigger than a hotel operation.
00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:12.000
And then on top of that, like you said, you have to combine compassion with it as well.
00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:14.000
Because you're not going for a great experience.
00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:16.480
You know, I'm not going to a spa at a hotel anymore.
00:27:16.640 --> 00:27:20.079
I'm going because unfortunately, somebody I love is in the hospital.
00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:21.359
It's for maybe myself.
00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:24.240
I'm going for maybe a uh a scan or something.
00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:26.240
So it's a totally different animal.
00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:30.799
And then you also have to deal with things like gates at these parking garages.
00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:36.559
So maybe there's the hospital might have reserved parking just for the valet team, and the gates have to go up and down.
00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:43.599
So now you're integrating with gates that need to be um available to the valet team and not the regular general public.
00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:51.920
Um and then to flip from a hospital, let's go to commercial uh office office towers, let's say, for example, residential.
00:27:52.079 --> 00:27:56.480
So suddenly you're dealing with monthly parkers, people who have who buy a pass.
00:27:56.720 --> 00:28:01.039
And so, what's different in commercial real estate versus a hospital or a hotel?
00:28:01.359 --> 00:28:04.319
Well, these guys all have to arrive at the same time.
00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:07.599
So everyone's coming to work, generally around 9 a.m.
00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:16.559
So you have suddenly, you know, 500 cars arriving to go to park at this uh this massive office tower, and then nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.
00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:18.400
And then suddenly 5 p.m.
00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:21.279
comes around, and all these 500 cars need to go out again.
00:28:21.519 --> 00:28:23.039
So, how do you mitigate that, right?
00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:26.000
You you're not you're not issuing a valet ticket for those guys anymore.
00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:39.599
In that case, what we've done is we can put a sticker in your door jam or in your rear view mirror or in your mirror somewhere or your windshield, and that sticker becomes your permanent, like call it valet tag, right?
00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:44.000
So now you don't have to worry about giving your phone number or getting a ticket.
00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:50.640
You just show up, they scan that little tag on your car, and they know, oh, hey, Bo, welcome back, go park your car.
00:28:50.799 --> 00:28:59.440
And we have a dedicated app for that, for just these monthly parkers, these residents and condos, these office tower um employees.
00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:04.559
So all you do is you go on your app, you say, Hey, by the way, I want my car today at five o'clock.
00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:07.839
And then out comes your car at five o'clock, you know?
00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:15.279
And the one little nice cherry on top is that you can schedule this in advance because you know every day you're gonna leave work at, let's say, 5.15.
00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:17.119
I'm gonna set it up for Monday to Friday.
00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:19.200
At 5.15, I can have my car.
00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:24.799
And so you don't have to even think about it because you're busy finishing up some some last-minute emails and you forget to request your car.
00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:28.720
Maybe now you're waiting to 30 minutes because it's 500 cars coming out.
00:29:28.960 --> 00:29:33.119
So, how nice is it that you can schedule in advance every day, Monday to Friday?
00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:34.880
I want my car at 515.
00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:38.880
Yeah, the scheduling is a nice little cherry on top of everything else you mentioned.
00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:42.640
So, yeah, there's so much to love about this, what you guys offer.
00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:45.279
Um, I I want to like sort of flip the script.
00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:50.640
Like, let's say, like, prospective customer, like somebody's listening right now who runs one of these properties.
00:29:50.799 --> 00:29:54.160
They're sold based off everything you've you've mentioned up into this point.
00:29:54.319 --> 00:29:58.000
Like, what does getting set up and actually running look like?
00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:00.640
Like, how fast can they realistically get going?
00:30:01.200 --> 00:30:02.799
You can be live in 48 hours.
00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:04.640
So the software is ready to go.
00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:07.680
Your team, everything that it runs on is already on their phones.
00:30:07.839 --> 00:30:09.920
So they can install the software on their own phones.
00:30:10.160 --> 00:30:11.680
Training takes half an hour.
00:30:11.839 --> 00:30:15.200
And I mentioned we have this whole training suite, so we can cover you on the training.
00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:17.519
And then we also keep everything in stock.
00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:22.000
So tickets are ready to go, hardware is out the door, anything you need.
00:30:22.240 --> 00:30:29.519
The joke is I always say hardware can be overnight anywhere in North America and pretty much next day in most major world cities.
00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:37.920
So, what about um like playing well with what somebody already has going on, like the the dynamics they already have in play?
00:30:38.079 --> 00:30:40.720
Um, like the integrations, I guess, is what I'm getting at.
00:30:40.799 --> 00:30:44.720
Like hotels, especially, they they live and die by their property management system.
00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:48.640
Um, how does Pure Valet fit into what a property is already running?
00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:53.200
Like PMS platforms, um, like opera payment systems, that sort of thing.
00:30:53.519 --> 00:30:56.000
Well, luckily for you, we already integrate with all that.
00:30:56.079 --> 00:31:00.799
So as the stuff is on its way in FedEx on a plane to you, integration is already complete.
00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:06.000
So all you have to do as a hotel is find pure valet in your PMS, like Opera, install it.
00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:07.839
And again, again, we're gonna walk you through all this.
00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:12.240
You just install it with one click and you're you're integrated before the stuff even arrives.
00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:15.200
And so payment side of things too is very easy.
00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:16.160
It's all online.
00:31:16.319 --> 00:31:19.599
We support all the payment processors like Stripe, Square, and so on.
00:31:19.839 --> 00:31:22.559
So we just link it with your finance team.
00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:27.359
They have some uh some you know, a couple of clicks they have to make, and then payments now flow through you.
00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:30.319
So essentially the payments go right into your own bank account as well.
00:31:30.400 --> 00:31:32.319
They they bypass us, they go right to you.
00:31:32.480 --> 00:31:36.799
And so integration-wise, it's it couldn't be easier.
00:31:37.200 --> 00:31:37.440
Wow.
00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:47.279
Yeah, and I imagine like you're I mean, you sounds like you already have most of the integrations in place, but you're probably adding more as well, like the some of the more niche integrations.
00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:49.039
Yes, all the time.
00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:49.519
All the time.
00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:51.519
Because there's thousands out there.
00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:58.319
So when you go to a trade show for hotel technology, there's probably 2,000 different companies that provide hotel PMS systems.
00:31:58.400 --> 00:32:04.480
So the lucky thing, the good thing is about this, is that all these hotel PMS systems have an integration available, right?
00:32:04.640 --> 00:32:07.599
So if we don't have it, we will have it for you.
00:32:07.680 --> 00:32:08.559
There's that's a promise.
00:32:08.720 --> 00:32:10.880
It's not even a question of can we do it?
00:32:11.039 --> 00:32:12.559
If you need it, it's done.
00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:13.359
Awesome.
00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:14.720
It's only a matter of time.
00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:19.839
Um, well, once a property's like gone fully digital, they've integrated pure valet.
00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:22.799
What do they suddenly see that they couldn't maybe do before?
00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:24.160
Like, is it wait times?
00:32:24.400 --> 00:32:26.079
Is it like counting cars?
00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:29.359
Like how how many valets do they actually need on like a Saturday night?
00:32:29.519 --> 00:32:31.200
Like, what's the biggest thing they noticed?
00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:32.960
Yeah, just like we mentioned, basically.
00:32:33.039 --> 00:32:38.960
So before you're operating blind, imagine you just are one walkie-talkies, you have no idea what's going on.
00:32:39.119 --> 00:32:42.720
Now suddenly you know car counts, you know, the peak in possession.
00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:45.839
So, what is the peak of my Fridays?
00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:49.039
Every Friday I have this many as the peak of cars.
00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:51.119
Tip tracking, like we talked about, right?
00:32:51.200 --> 00:32:52.319
So, how many tips came in?
00:32:52.400 --> 00:32:53.839
How do we distribute those tips?
00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:59.759
Incident logs, how many times did a customer claim a damage photo uh was you know incorrect?
00:32:59.839 --> 00:33:03.519
Let's say, for example, so things that a clipboard can ever tell you, basically.
00:33:03.680 --> 00:33:09.680
And then to the points earlier, instead of guessing for the labor demand, which is the biggest component of this, right?
00:33:09.839 --> 00:33:18.720
So you run the run the system for a couple weeks, let the data roll in, don't touch anything, and then we start to see the ebbs and flows.
00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:20.640
Okay, hold on a second here.
00:33:20.799 --> 00:33:23.680
We're wasting labor on Wednesday nights.
00:33:23.839 --> 00:33:28.480
We have way too many drivers, not enough, not enough uh usage of the valet at all.
00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:34.799
So then kind of your your second, third week is more trimming the fat, right?
00:33:35.039 --> 00:33:36.559
So you're just making efficiency.
00:33:36.640 --> 00:33:38.559
So, number one, you're becoming more efficient.
00:33:38.799 --> 00:33:41.200
Your guest experience from day one goes up.
00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:44.160
You know, you can request from your room, you can request from anywhere.
00:33:44.319 --> 00:33:46.319
It's branded to the property.
00:33:46.400 --> 00:33:50.079
So you're not just requesting on some random black and white screen.
00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:52.319
Um, it's branded to your property.
00:33:52.559 --> 00:33:54.400
But now all this data is trickling in.
00:33:54.480 --> 00:34:00.880
So as the weeks go by, the labor side is improving, and basically you're gonna see a return on your investment in the first month.
00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:14.159
Yeah, I I picture it's almost like kind of I picture being overwhelming with how much data you get, but overwhelming not in like a log jam sort of manner, but just sort of like a uh enlightenment sort of way where you're just like, oh, I can do all these things now.
00:34:14.239 --> 00:34:19.679
I can, I can um, you know, my return on investment becomes all the more rosy.
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:27.840
Um, you know, the the drivers start like seeing more tips, like it's just sort of a chain reaction of beneficial outcomes, I would say.
00:34:28.239 --> 00:34:30.719
Yeah, and and you're not overwhelmed with the data either.
00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:34.880
So that's where we pioneer, you know, it's really hard to do something simple.
00:34:35.119 --> 00:34:39.440
And so anybody can give you a thousand reports, you're never gonna click on them, right?
00:34:39.519 --> 00:34:41.519
Because you're not gonna even know what these reports are.
00:34:41.679 --> 00:34:47.039
So anytime you've ever used a new system or a new technology, it's it's a lot to learn.
00:34:47.199 --> 00:34:51.360
So what our system does is it distills it down for you as you need it, right?
00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:52.639
That's where the AI comes in.
00:34:52.719 --> 00:34:56.639
And obviously, AI is the most famous, best word in 2026 now.
00:34:56.719 --> 00:35:01.360
Everyone's using AI for everything, but we use it strategically to get the right data to you.
00:35:01.519 --> 00:35:02.400
So you're not overwhelmed.
00:35:02.480 --> 00:35:08.320
So the system says to you, hey, I noticed on Wednesday you have a little bit too many drivers there.
00:35:08.480 --> 00:35:10.719
Like they're running around, they're not doing much, right?
00:35:10.880 --> 00:35:18.239
Or, hey, by the way, um, the guest feedback score came in, and you're not doing too good on the retrievals, right?
00:35:18.480 --> 00:35:20.079
Maybe the the time is slipping.
00:35:20.159 --> 00:35:22.559
So that's where our analytics come in.
00:35:22.639 --> 00:35:27.599
It monitors your site all the time, and then it just feeds you the data as you need it.
00:35:27.679 --> 00:35:30.320
Hey, by the way, this can be improved, right?
00:35:30.400 --> 00:35:36.239
So that's where it's overwhelming with a new system, but now this distills it down, makes it a lot easier.
00:35:36.559 --> 00:35:44.400
Well, I've got a few more questions for you, and I want to sort of uh treat them like these elevator pitch questions, hard, you know, quick hit questions.
00:35:44.559 --> 00:35:47.519
Um, maybe, you know, feel free to elaborate on your answer and whatnot.
00:35:47.679 --> 00:35:55.119
But um, in a sentence or two, what what would you say makes Pure Valet like the pick, the solution over everything else that's out there?
00:35:55.440 --> 00:35:56.960
It's speed and choice, right?
00:35:57.039 --> 00:36:03.679
So you get a five-second check-in and you get the freedom to run SMS or paper, which is a digitized paper, or both.
00:36:03.920 --> 00:36:09.440
And so the other nice little bonus on top is we're the only software that has offline mode.
00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:13.280
So with a parking garage, you always have spotty connection.
00:36:13.519 --> 00:36:20.159
Doesn't matter with with even if you have no internet at all, Pure Valley is the only system that still works and just syncs everything up as soon as you get back.
00:36:20.239 --> 00:36:26.320
So you get the guest experience, offline mode, five-second check-in, and you can run whatever choice you want for tickets.
00:36:26.639 --> 00:36:26.960
Awesome.
00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:27.920
Okay, clean answer.
00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:29.199
Yeah, speed and choice.
00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:33.760
Those are the two things to really to remember and and kind of hammer home.
00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:38.960
Okay, and then every founder like yourself, they they have this one thing they wish customers just got, right?
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:41.519
Like the one thing you you could shout from the rooftops.
00:36:41.599 --> 00:36:44.320
Uh I'm curious, what would that one thing be for pure valet?
00:36:44.880 --> 00:36:47.360
It's that again, modern doesn't mean SMS only.
00:36:47.440 --> 00:36:50.480
People keep coming to us and say, I want a modern system, that's SMS.
00:36:50.639 --> 00:36:52.800
And we're like, great, that's not it.
00:36:52.960 --> 00:36:58.559
So basically, modern means you have choice, and you can have it in 48 hours or less.
00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:02.400
But essentially, modern is your choice, right?
00:37:02.480 --> 00:37:05.360
And modern doesn't equal SMS.
00:37:05.599 --> 00:37:06.400
Got it.
00:37:07.519 --> 00:37:14.960
Um, and then what do you what do you think others in Valet Tech uh are getting wrong that you're determined to do differently?
00:37:15.360 --> 00:37:22.559
Okay, so all the category leaders were built like 15, 20 years ago, and these guys all got absorbed into these massive parking conglomerates.
00:37:22.719 --> 00:37:26.239
So, you know, valet, as I mentioned earlier, just became this afterthought.
00:37:26.400 --> 00:37:30.159
They're focused on gates and and and just parking technology.
00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:34.159
When you go to a parking garage, you pay with a and you get a little stub.
00:37:34.320 --> 00:37:35.280
That's what they're focusing on.
00:37:35.440 --> 00:37:39.039
Nobody's focusing on valet, which is the guest experience side.
00:37:39.199 --> 00:37:41.519
So that's why our name is Pure Valley.
00:37:41.599 --> 00:37:44.079
That's all we do is valet software.
00:37:44.400 --> 00:37:44.960
I love it.
00:37:45.119 --> 00:37:45.360
Okay.
00:37:45.519 --> 00:37:54.639
And then maybe you can leave us with a story that really like has resonated with you, maybe a time that Pure Valet just kind of went like above and beyond for a customer.
00:37:55.039 --> 00:37:56.239
We always go above and beyond.
00:37:56.320 --> 00:37:58.480
We try at least our best to uh to go above and beyond.
00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:03.199
But there was one time we had to launch a five-star ski resort in Colorado Intellide.
00:38:03.360 --> 00:38:10.239
And so the person who's supposed to install the system happened to call in sick the day before, and poor guy got sick, and he was supposed to fly out.
00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:12.719
So, well, you got to do what you got to do.
00:38:12.800 --> 00:38:22.880
So I booked a flight for myself for the next day, hopped on a flight, and it's not just one of those things where you can just land into this ski resort five minutes away.
00:38:22.960 --> 00:38:26.079
You gotta land in from me, at least, for coming from Canada.
00:38:26.239 --> 00:38:28.719
I got to go to color, um, where am I?
00:38:28.960 --> 00:38:29.840
To uh Colorado.
00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:31.280
I got to land in Denver.
00:38:31.519 --> 00:38:34.400
Then I got to hop another flight to Montrose.
00:38:34.559 --> 00:38:39.199
And then once you get to this tiny airport in Montrose, you got to take a 45-minute shuttle.
00:38:39.440 --> 00:38:44.400
So, you know, by the time I got to the ski resort, um, it was a bit of a journey.
00:38:44.559 --> 00:38:49.679
But we got there, I had to set up the whole system myself because the guy who's supposed to install again couldn't be there.
00:38:49.920 --> 00:38:52.960
Train the whole team, but you have to do what you got to do.
00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:56.719
So sometimes even the CEO has to go and make a visit in person.
00:38:56.880 --> 00:38:59.440
And but that's part of our our mantra.
00:38:59.599 --> 00:39:03.199
So with us, there's no such thing as leaving our guests behind, right?
00:39:03.280 --> 00:39:05.840
Our guests are our actual customers, right?
00:39:05.920 --> 00:39:07.679
So this is a five-star ski resort.
00:39:07.920 --> 00:39:09.119
We can't let them down.
00:39:09.280 --> 00:39:11.679
And so you gotta do what you gotta do.
00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:16.320
Well, I love all the stories um and and the props and everything you've mentioned.
00:39:16.480 --> 00:39:24.320
I think um, you know, the the platform really, you know, sells itself once you you you kind of see all the offerings it contains and the integrations and whatnot.
00:39:24.480 --> 00:39:27.519
Um, and uh that story was just a great note to end on.
00:39:27.599 --> 00:39:30.400
So, Adam, uh thank you for everything you've shared with us.
00:39:30.559 --> 00:39:36.880
Um, for listeners who you know are curious about Pure Valet, they want to learn more, where's the best place to go?
00:39:37.440 --> 00:39:41.840
Purevalet.com, and that's spelt with P-U-R valet.com.
00:39:41.920 --> 00:39:43.440
So it's pure without the E.
00:39:44.079 --> 00:39:46.480
Pure without the E, Purevalet.com.
00:39:46.639 --> 00:39:50.320
All right, and then uh if you want to get into contact with Adam, go over to LinkedIn.
00:39:50.559 --> 00:39:51.199
All right, Adam.
00:39:51.280 --> 00:39:52.559
Well, uh, this has been fantastic.
00:39:52.719 --> 00:39:54.079
Thanks again for everything you share with us.
00:39:54.159 --> 00:39:55.519
And um, I hope to have you back.
00:39:55.599 --> 00:40:00.559
Maybe we can lead a narrowed, focused, topic approach uh, you know, episode with you.
00:40:00.800 --> 00:40:01.360
Would love to.
00:40:01.519 --> 00:40:02.000
Would love to.
00:40:02.159 --> 00:40:02.880
It's been great, Bo.
00:40:03.119 --> 00:40:03.760
Really appreciate it.
00:40:04.320 --> 00:40:05.039
Thanks for having me on.
00:40:05.519 --> 00:40:05.840
Of course.
00:40:06.400 --> 00:40:08.239
Thank you all for listening to the SourceForge podcast.
00:40:08.320 --> 00:40:09.599
I'm your host, Bo Hamilton.
00:40:09.679 --> 00:40:14.000
Make sure to subscribe to stay up to date with all of our upcoming B2B software related podcasts.
00:40:14.320 --> 00:40:15.840
I will talk to you in the next one.
00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:08.000
Hello everyone and welcome back to the SourceForge podcast.
00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:09.519
I'm your host, Bo Hamilton.
00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:12.480
So I have a quick question for you to lead off today's episode.
00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:18.719
When was the last time you handed your car keys to a total stranger and all you got in return was a flimsy paper ticket?
00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:25.920
Because if you used a valet at a hotel, a hospital, or a restaurant, uh that's probably still exactly how it went.
00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:35.439
Um and what's what's a little bit wild about that, besides sort of the obvious, is valet parking is a multi-billion dollar global market, around$4.5 billion and growing.
00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:43.039
And yet uh labor-intensive manual operations still make up nearly 59%, almost 60% of how the service actually gets delivered.
00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:50.159
Um and the majority of this industry is still running on pen and paper and maybe a prayer, uh maybe a superstitious idiom.
00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:55.119
You know, you knock on wood, uh, cross your fingers, just hope you get your car back, everything goes smoothly.
00:00:55.280 --> 00:01:00.000
Um, Valley parking is a bit of an outlier in a world where almost everything has gone digital.
00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:17.519
So these contactless payment adoption um uh services in Valet has already blown past 58%, and fewer than 40% of Americans even carry cash anymore, which um is also a real problem when your valet attendance income depends on tips, which of course we'll get into today.
00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:20.480
Um, and this isn't some niche corner of parking either.
00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:26.879
Hotels, retail centers, hospitals, and the venues together they drive nearly 68% of valet demand.
00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:32.640
So we're talking about uh the literal first and last impression at some of the busiest properties of the world.
00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:39.200
Now, um, I know that was a lot of information, but my guest today is trying to drag all of that into the modern era.
00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:50.480
Adam Sabo is the founder and CEO of Pier Valet, a ticketless valet parking platform that replaces the paper ticket with digital check-ins, real-time vehicle tracking.
00:01:50.719 --> 00:01:55.920
You have text to retrieve, built-in payments, and tipping, of course, which is very important.
00:01:56.079 --> 00:01:59.280
Um it's really the whole sort of curb to keys experience.
00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:07.120
Uh they're in hotels, they're in hospitals, office buildings, residential garages, basically anywhere somebody's handing over their keys, right?
00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:23.680
Um now in our conversation, we'll get into what's actually broken in valley operations, why you can't just text the guest and have that really be a real solution anymore, what going cashless has meant for the valet themselves, and then how fast a property can actually like flip the switch, right?
00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:24.960
Um, and get up and running.
00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:27.280
So um lots to discuss, Adam.
00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:29.599
I know that was a mouthful, but welcome to the podcast.
00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:30.639
Glad you could join us.
00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:31.439
Thank you very much.
00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:32.639
And honestly, that was amazing.
00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:34.080
So I think we can end the podcast here.
00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:35.439
You you just nailed every point.
00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:36.479
So that's a wrap.
00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:36.800
All right.
00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:37.680
That's a wrap.
00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:38.319
We're done.
00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:39.439
No, but thank you.
00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:39.840
Thank you.
00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:40.159
Thank you.
00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:40.639
Yeah.
00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:41.680
I'm glad to have you here.
00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:46.240
I know um I want to start at the the the top, you know, the big I guess the beginning.
00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:53.840
Um, so I think most of us have experienced valet parking where you you you hand your keys to a stranger and you get this paper ticket in return.
00:02:53.919 --> 00:03:00.479
Um, you kind of just accept it and you feel like relatively comfortable with the process because maybe everyone else is doing it.
00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:04.879
Um, but it it does seem ripe for innovation and and modernization.
00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:12.080
So maybe you can just give us a rundown of Pure Valet, like who is it built for, and then how would you describe it for folks hearing about it for the first time?
00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:12.719
100%.
00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:14.240
So I'll give you a quick background.
00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:17.120
So, my background, I spent 10 years in the valet industry.
00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:23.680
I built a company called O Valet, which basically grew from Toronto in Canada to a global leader.
00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:27.280
So the joke is we were on every continent except for Antarctica.
00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:34.479
Um, so we were trusted by global leaders like four seasons, Ritz Carlton, and then we sold it in 2021.
00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:42.400
So what we did after that is now Pure Valet is everything we learned from there and just improved upon.
00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:49.120
So, as you touched on, you know, the experience side of things, like the digitized version of Valet, all that is what we've done.
00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:54.080
So essentially it's valet parking software for anyone, parking cars for guests.
00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:55.680
So anywhere there's a guest touch point.
00:03:55.840 --> 00:04:02.240
So, like you said, this could be a hotel, casino, airport, resort, restaurant, hospital.
00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:05.840
Uh, so we provide the ticket and the ticketless software.
00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:07.599
So there's kind of two options there.
00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:08.400
Okay.
00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:10.080
So that's that's easy to remember.
00:04:10.159 --> 00:04:13.840
Basically, anywhere there's a there's a valet stand, you're you're a fit.
00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.160
So, how did you get involved with the industry?
00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:32.560
Like I assume you were like maybe a valet attendant yourself back in the day, or so the funny thing is actually I had a software company before that, and uh one of our clients came to us and said, was a ballet company, and they came to us and said, we need a solution to enhance the guest experience.
00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:36.079
And so I had this team of guys, and I said, you know what?
00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:37.120
What could we do?
00:04:37.279 --> 00:04:43.360
Instead of doing a one-shot solution for this one valet company, why don't we make this a bigger thing?
00:04:43.519 --> 00:04:46.639
Because I did some research, obviously, and I said, well, look, there's a lot of valet in the world.
00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:48.639
You know, everybody is parking their cars.
00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:50.879
And there's problems with logistics too.
00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:54.639
So places like, for example, Miami, you don't have enough spots.
00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:56.319
You can't even park your own car if you wanted to.
00:04:56.480 --> 00:04:59.120
So I said, I think there's a bigger, bigger thing here.
00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:01.680
And that's kind of what laid the seat of the foundation.
00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:07.759
So the long story short is we never ended up providing this company their own one-off piece of software.
00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:11.600
We came to them and said, you can license our software.
00:05:11.759 --> 00:05:16.319
And so suddenly we got into valet, you know, a little over 10 years ago.
00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:17.199
Gotcha.
00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:18.240
Okay, that's good to know.
00:05:18.319 --> 00:05:18.480
Yeah.
00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:20.560
So you're yeah, you're a problem solver.
00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:22.319
That's like really the entry point.
00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:24.399
You saw this problem, you're like, there's gotta be a better way.
00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:26.639
You used your your software experience.
00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:27.839
Okay, I love that.
00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:28.959
That's awesome.
00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:34.800
Um, now there's a there's a stat I mentioned in the intro, um, but it surprised me, right?
00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:43.120
It's it's even uh even now labor-intensive manual operations, they still represent nearly 59% of how valet service gets delivered.
00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:54.720
Um, so in other words, like the majority of this industry is still running the old way, um like pen and paper, you know, which is kind of a classic thing that comes up in this in the SourceForge podcast.
00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:57.680
A lot of these businesses still run on pen and paper in a lot of areas.
00:05:57.839 --> 00:06:00.959
Um, but that's especially true in the the valet uh industry.
00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:06.079
When when you talk to operators, like what are the sort of headaches that come up over and over again?
00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:09.360
Like what's what's actually broken in the in the process?
00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:11.360
So that's a really good question.
00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:15.120
Now, usually in the valet space, like you said, labor is a huge problem.
00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:19.199
Um, so really there's four key pillars of problems, let's call it.
00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:20.800
Um, damage claims.
00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:26.240
This would be obviously a huge one because now suddenly a car pulls up, you've got a scratch on it.
00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:27.360
What do you do?
00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:35.040
And so a lot of our hotel clients have uh traditionally been used as the fix your car for free kind of place.
00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:40.480
You bring your car, you say they've damaged my car, and then they go and pay for your car to get fixed.
00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:42.720
So this is like a small scratch, a dent.
00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:45.839
It's it's wild to see how this happens all the time.
00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:54.399
Um, because all they're left with is you go to this hotel and they have CCTV cameras high in the sky, and those are not going to be accurate, right?
00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:56.399
They're not gonna see a small scratch or a small dent.
00:06:56.560 --> 00:07:06.319
So what ends up happening is well, unfortunately, they're gonna take the side of the guest to not have a bad experience and to not get a bad review, and they're paying out these massive claims.
00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:12.720
And so when you bring a digital system off the bat, you can do a circle check with a bunch of photos, right?
00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:16.800
So you can take unlimited photos, you have different lighting, you can turn the flash on.
00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:19.519
And these are now smartphone cameras, right?
00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:24.079
They're designed for amazing shots and like super high resolution, super sharp images.
00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:26.319
So basically, damage claims go away.
00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:30.480
And so, unless your guys actually go and smash a car, that's a whole different problem.
00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:32.160
That's the labor problem.
00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:38.000
But if I effectively your damage claims go away, and the system has already paid for itself like 10x right there.
00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:39.839
So that's for your damage claims.
00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:42.879
The second would be like your front desk bottleneck.
00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:50.399
So, what happens is usually in a pen and paper system, like you said, the front desk is kind of like the radio station.
00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:53.920
So people who are upstairs in their room, they want to get their car.
00:07:54.079 --> 00:07:58.079
These are the guests, they'll just they'll just call down and say, Hey, can I get my car?
00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:03.920
And so then the front desk has to go on the radio, radio to the valet with walkie-talkies, old school walkie-talkies.
00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:05.839
And then you have a bunch of guys running around.
00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:12.319
And sometimes with a walkie-talkie, if you if you transmit twice on the same frequency, you miss a message.
00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:19.600
So there are many times where a guest vehicle doesn't get pulled because two people said something at the same time.
00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:24.560
And so, and you can imagine again, this is just ripe for problems, right?
00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:31.279
Uh, so we remove the front desk middleman entirely, let the front desk do what they're good at, not pulling valet cars.
00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:34.639
The third pillar is the turnover.
00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:39.600
So, because you're now talking about a labor component, labor will never go away for valet, right?
00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:46.159
So, because you have a labor component involved, what happens next is the turnover is very high.
00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:50.799
You're not hiring PhD doctors who are parking cars.
00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:52.399
These are gonna be college students.
00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:56.960
They're gonna be a little more less, more or less, less careful with cars, let's put it that way, right?
00:08:57.039 --> 00:08:58.879
So, and the turnover is high.
00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:07.519
So, number one, the way that they treat the cars for the guests are not as good as, again, somebody who's a doctor is gonna treat a car necessarily, right?
00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:10.399
Um, so they're gonna be a little more careless.
00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:14.000
So you might get some some damage from the driver itself.
00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:15.840
So we can mitigate that with software.
00:09:15.919 --> 00:09:19.039
We know, for example, who's driving this car today?
00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:22.960
Um, how many cars did Johnny, the valet driver, get into today?
00:09:23.039 --> 00:09:27.200
Um, why is Johnny taking 20 minutes to park a car versus everybody else takes five minutes?
00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:30.000
So that way you know you can weed out the bad apples.
00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:34.159
But also because of turnover, you have this lovely problem called training.
00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:38.000
So new people come to valet and they want a job.
00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:43.039
You, as the valet operator or the hotel or the airport or the casino, you have to train these people now.
00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:45.600
So you can't just say, hey, go park cars.
00:09:45.759 --> 00:09:46.080
Great.
00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:48.559
Like, welcome day one, go park a car.
00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:49.919
They need to know certain things.
00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:54.159
For example, when when you park a car in the garage, you want to back the car up.
00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:58.320
So when the guest retrieval comes down, you can immediately drive away.
00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:00.720
There's no reversing out of a spot.
00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:06.080
So there's a lot of SOPs and techniques that are involved in how do we do valet.
00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:07.679
Also, the white glove experience.
00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:08.960
How do we greet a guest?
00:10:09.039 --> 00:10:13.600
You know, the white glove experience that you can imagine when you go to a hotel, you open the door.
00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:14.559
Hey, Mr.
00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:17.679
So-and-so, welcome to the Ritz-Carlton, you know.
00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:24.639
And so there's a whole level of training there on how to talk, how to, how to handle a guest.
00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:28.879
So, how we mitigate that is we have a massive training dashboard.
00:10:29.039 --> 00:10:38.639
So, you, as the owner of this valet, saw what's called a company or a hotel, you know you're gonna have a lot of turnover and maybe 20, 30, 40 guys all the time.
00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:40.480
We help you with just training.
00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:46.080
So we will we'll add in your SOPs, we'll add in all the little things that make your business nuanced.
00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:48.799
So, hey, wear some white gloves, open the door.
00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:51.279
You have to say this certain thing when you greet a guest.
00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:53.120
Um, how to take care of a guest.
00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:55.200
So, all that is part of our training dashboard.
00:10:55.440 --> 00:10:59.200
So, when you become a customer, we load all that in there for the first time.
00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:13.759
And so when you have turnover, which inevitably will happen, now you can get these guys at least trained to some level before you are actually wasting your own labor time to train them for, let's say, more hands-on and kind of level two.
00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:17.519
And then lastly, um, is you said the labor cost.
00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:23.440
So now that you've guys you've got these guys trained and they're good, they're parking cars, everything is good.
00:11:23.679 --> 00:11:29.519
With a paper system, you have no idea if you have too many guys or too little guys on shift, right?
00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:36.080
So, as a hotel, how do you know you know, is three guys enough for a really busy afternoon?
00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:38.000
Or do I need 10 guys?
00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:39.759
And that makes a massive difference.
00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:42.720
So, just as an anecdotal quick, quick story.
00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:47.919
Let's say, for example, you've got five guys overstaffed on a shift, right?
00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:52.159
So you're supposed to need only five guys, but you have 10.
00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:55.279
In a year, that's about$200,000 in labor.
00:11:55.360 --> 00:11:57.679
And that's that's with like kind of minimum wage.
00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:00.240
So it just adds up like crazy.
00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:05.840
So, yeah, it just really sounds like there's a lot, uh, just a lot more data that you're able to keep track of.
00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:11.919
And and data is really key for making a better, smoother, more seamless experience for for all parties involved.
00:12:12.080 --> 00:12:18.399
Um, it you know, everything from just making sure the car doesn't get damaged to making sure you have the right attendant.
00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:31.679
Um, I imagine you have like some forms of like background checks and just kind of like data on the drivers, you know, early on with your hiring through the hiring process to make sure, you know, they're they're a good fit, uh, that sort of thing.
00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:33.519
Well, that would be the valley company, actually.
00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:34.159
That's a good point.
00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:36.399
So, but that goes part of the training dashboard.
00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:41.360
So we have a checklist that you as a valley operator would say, Did this guy get a background check?
00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:42.480
Did this guy so on?
00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:45.679
So we don't do the labor side, but we help you with the labor side.
00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:48.399
So we provide time in attendance software.
00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:53.200
So we know that, hey, Bo today showed up late for a shift, right?
00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:54.879
And did he get a background check yet?
00:12:54.960 --> 00:12:56.320
Did we complete the background check?
00:12:56.480 --> 00:13:02.240
And so these are great points that you know, that's where the technology really just adds so much value.
00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:03.360
Yeah, for sure.
00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:05.759
Yeah, and then like the walkie-talkie example was funny too.
00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:11.759
Because I just bought, I believe it or not, I just bought a walkie-talkie kit like last week for a outdoor climbing trip.
00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:21.600
And uh, it's great for if you're like don't have cell service, you just need to like talk to some some buddies um who are you know relatively nearby and just like let them know where you're at and whatnot.
00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:28.639
But like for running if running a business of operation, I could see how that would be uh inefficient and problematic, right?
00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:32.960
Well, just imagine now 200 cars on a on a day.
00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:41.360
Let's say for an average hotel, they they they move 200 cars a day on a walkie-talkie system, and you have, let's say, 10 drivers, it a zoo would be an understatement, right?
00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:43.840
Because it's it's just like a chicken running without their head off.
00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:46.080
You have no idea, no visibility.
00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:50.000
If you miss a request, it's in the air, it's gone.
00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:58.240
Well, yeah, then you yeah, you just have all these expectations and standards to live up to or and and deliver, it just creates a frustrating experience.
00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:03.679
Well, and and I want to bring up a point you just mentioned too on the you have this expectation to live up to, right?
00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:07.759
So these are you're not having a valet at a two-star hotel, right?
00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:18.159
You you're having valet either at a very fine dining restaurant or an airport where it's busy and you have standards of quality to maintain, or like a resort, right?
00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:20.720
So, or even at very high-end hotels.
00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:27.360
So, what happens is these hotels live and die by reviews, trip advisor, Google reviews, and so on.
00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:28.320
So, guess what?
00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:30.080
You had an amazing experience.
00:14:30.159 --> 00:14:32.080
You went there with your family, you relaxed.
00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:34.559
There's really two types of visitors to these properties, right?
00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:46.240
It's either a business traveler who just wants to get on with it and have a great service because he doesn't have time, or it's going to be a family visiting for maybe an activity or visiting a new place.
00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:52.720
So you had all this all this money was spent on this property and resort to give this guest a great experience.
00:14:52.799 --> 00:14:57.440
And at the last second, a radio drops the ball because now they can't get their car.
00:14:57.600 --> 00:15:02.960
Kids are going, you know, you're you're ready to go to Disneyland in the morning, kids are ready, and they forgot about your car.
00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:04.240
What do you do?
00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:05.519
No, that's that's bad.
00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:09.759
And even if it just drops, the review drops like one star, that's like that's a makes a big difference.
00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:16.320
And if it's something over something like valet, like that's you know, that could be easily fixed with this platform you offer, right?
00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:27.039
Um, so okay, without getting maybe too redundant with some of the information um and what you detailed already, um, maybe you can help walk us through like, let's say a car pulls up to the curb.
00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:30.480
What does the experience actually look like from that moment on?
00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:35.759
So basically, car pulls up, attendant takes one photo, okay?
00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:39.360
The AI reads the license plate, the make model color.
00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:41.279
So five seconds, the whole thing's done.
00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:46.879
Guest gets a text, they're inside already, and now the valet ticket lives in their phone.
00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:49.120
So that's the entire experience.
00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:53.679
And from then on, once the guest is inside, you can do all the other stuff you want to do.
00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:56.000
You can take more photos of the damage, right?
00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:59.840
You can you can add more details as you want, but that's really it.
00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:01.919
Five seconds, cars inside the system.
00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:02.720
Wow.
00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:03.039
Okay.
00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:12.480
So by the time I've like finished uh dinner and and and texted for my car or what what whatever the communication of is, it's the car's already out front.
00:16:12.639 --> 00:16:14.240
That's sort of like the dream scenario, right?
00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:18.399
Like you don't have to stand at the valet podium for fun and let alone like the check-in process.
00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:22.000
It's just kind of like hand over your keys and you're you're good to go.
00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:22.720
That's it.
00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:23.120
That's it.
00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:30.320
And like you said, on the on the return, when you want to get your car, the last thing you're thinking about is standing there and watching cars go by, right?
00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:32.399
You want to have the car ready to go when you get there.
00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:40.240
So that's what differentiates us from a lot of our competitors is that with with them, valet was sort of an afterthought.
00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:50.080
They they a lot of a lot of our competitors are parking conglomerate companies where they're focused on parking, they want to make money from gates and and parking traffic.
00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:52.080
The kind of valet is like this afterthought.
00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:54.480
They're like, ah, we'll deal with valet later, it's not a big deal.
00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:56.159
So the experience goes down.
00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:05.680
So for you as a guest, if you're in a hotel room and again, like I said, the kids want to go to Disneyland, everyone's excited, and they're getting ready, they need a half an hour.
00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:06.559
What do you do?
00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:08.720
You can request your car in half an hour.
00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:15.200
With with with traditional systems, you call down and you can say, hey, maybe I can get my car in 15 minutes.
00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:21.359
But usually, because of the walkie-talkie situation, it's the moment you request the car is the moment that that car gets pulled.
00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:25.200
So now you're rushing rather than being convenienced on your own time.
00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:30.640
Yeah, so so I know some listeners they might be thinking, like, oh, you know, my my valet already already texts me.
00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:32.319
There are SMS systems out there.
00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:36.640
Um, I'm curious, like, what made you think there was room to do things a little bit differently?
00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:43.440
And then and then does going digital mean that the the traditional paper system is off the table?
00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:45.119
Like, is there room for both?
00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:47.279
We get this all the time, okay?
00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:48.480
So there's room for both.
00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:50.640
And that's what everyone gets wrong about a modern system.
00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:53.039
So it doesn't have to mean SMS only.
00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:56.480
Um, our paper ticket, which I'm showing you right here, is digital.
00:17:56.559 --> 00:18:00.799
There's a QR code here, there's a QR code here, um, QR code for the guest.
00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:04.000
So what that means is this is a digitized paper ticket.
00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:07.519
So every one of these pieces of paper are unique.
00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:13.599
Um, so if you have a hundred thousand valley tickets sitting in the office, every single one of those is unique.
00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:18.480
And so they all have their own little access pass to request your own car.
00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:19.920
And the branding.
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:23.440
So this is branded to one of our properties or clients.
00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:28.319
So this could be blue, this could be your colors, it could show whatever you want on it.
00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:32.799
It could have different shapes and sizes, but that's a paper ticket.
00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:37.759
And so, in terms of paper ticket versus SMS, this is what the SMS ticket looks like.
00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:42.000
This is a plastic ticket that goes on and it becomes a hang tag on your rear view mirror.
00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:44.480
So, what what's the difference between both?
00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:47.039
One, you get a text message in your phone.
00:18:47.279 --> 00:18:49.920
Okay, the second one, you got a piece of paper in your hand.
00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:52.079
Both of these go to the same place.
00:18:52.240 --> 00:19:05.680
You request a car on a digitized website, and you should you see your car details, you see that, hey, my Tesla is safely parked in the garage, and I can leave a tip, I can pay for my valet, everything you can do.
00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:10.319
It doesn't matter if you want the paper or the uh texting version, you can do both.
00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:14.559
Now, there's advantages to both and there's disadvantages to both.
00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:22.400
Long story short is if you want to get a text only, then you get the guest's phone number and they get a text in their phone, and that's their ticket.
00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:34.720
This with the paper one, because it's a digital ticket, you just hand this to the guest, they walk inside, and now that experience took less than a second because it's just a ticket.
00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:36.960
Welcome to the hotel, off you go.
00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:41.200
So both get the same result, it just depends on what flavor you're looking for.
00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:42.079
That's great.
00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:48.000
Well, I love the I love that you brought props, and this is a good reminder for uh those listening on our audio only channels.
00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:50.720
Check out our YouTube channel, you get the visual experience.
00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:56.079
And Adam, this is the you the first guest to have uh to bring you know visual props here.
00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:57.680
So kudos to that.
00:19:57.839 --> 00:20:05.839
Um and that the branding really does make a big difference, um, you know, and then just we all we all live through the COVID era, we all know how to use a QR code.
00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:08.880
It's just kind of the the future, it's it makes things easier.
00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:18.960
Uh, we all have smartphones, we can scan, and and um being able to unlock this uh a better channel of communication with more data and whatnot, like it just seems like a win-win, you know.
00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:30.960
And then another thing too, um I imagine if you just rely on like an SMS system, you might have international visitors who just don't have like a US phone number, and so you have kind of issues there, right?
00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:34.079
So you you kind of have to deal with that as well.
00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:35.279
Absolutely.
00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:38.079
People come to us all the time looking for the SMS option.
00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:40.319
We give it to them, and they're like, oh, wait, hold on.
00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:42.160
We actually have international guests.
00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:44.559
Okay, so now what we do is we can give you both.
00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:46.000
You can run a hybrid approach.
00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:54.160
You can have SMS only, and you can have paper for the people who are overseas, or their phone died because that's off, you know, that that happens as well.
00:20:54.480 --> 00:21:02.400
Um okay, so let's talk about the money side of things, uh, because there's a whole payments layer uh here and it affects the the people actually running the cars.
00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:09.920
Um so the I the thing that got me on this one was fewer than 40% of Americans carry cash regularly these days.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:12.880
I'm definitely uh one of those um Americans.
00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:15.599
I don't I everything is like tap to pay these days.
00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:21.200
Um and for valet attendants who count on tips as like a real chunk of their income, that that hits hard.
00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:24.799
People who'd happily just tip just don't have the the bills on them.
00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:28.880
So, how do payments and tipping work inside of pure valet?
00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:30.000
Absolutely.
00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:33.279
So, like you said, basically cashless killed the valet tip.
00:21:33.440 --> 00:21:35.839
That was traditionally like whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on.
00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:43.359
Because before you would have, let's say, a$17 valet charge, and it's but it's by design, right?
00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:49.039
These are like a little bit knock perfect numbers because you expect the guy to give you a 20, right?
00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:52.000
So the valet would be 17, and now you're getting a 20.
00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:53.359
Great, I made$3 in tip.
00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:56.880
So, but now the cashless thing you mentioned suddenly just killed that.
00:21:57.039 --> 00:21:59.359
And luckily for us, digital brought it back.
00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:04.799
So It's actually now with digital higher tips than before with cash.
00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:06.160
Because think about it this way.
00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:15.119
So when tipping is an option on the same screen that you pay for your valet on, the valet is earn more because now you have pre-selected boxes, right?
00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:17.599
So now with before you made maybe$3 in tip.
00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:20.079
Now you can say, hey, did you have a great experience?
00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:23.759
Here's a suggested tip range:$5,$10,$15.
00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:27.039
And people generally go for the kind of middle range anyway.
00:22:27.200 --> 00:22:30.880
So your$3 tip becomes a$5 or$10 tip.
00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:38.240
And we support Apple Pay, Google Pay, Credit Card, any type of payment option is open and welcome.
00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:42.960
And so this way, you know, operators can choose how they want to distribute the tips.
00:22:43.119 --> 00:22:50.319
There's many different ways, but some people like to do a pool, and here's a collective pool that we then share across to everybody.
00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:54.799
Some people like to say, okay, it's the guy who retrieves the car.
00:22:55.039 --> 00:22:59.440
And now because we have a digital system, I know that Johnny brought the car back.
00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:02.559
So maybe Johnny gets the tip, or he gets a majority of the tip.
00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:04.559
So there's many ways to skin the cat.
00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:08.319
So long story short is that's what solves that.
00:23:08.559 --> 00:23:12.559
And as a bonus, here's a here's a little uh top tip.
00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:24.160
Operators, so if you're if you're the let's say restaurant owner, or you know, you you suddenly run valet with restaurants in general, I feel bad for them because they're always on a very thin margins.
00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:26.240
And restaurants want to provide a great experience.
00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:31.440
They're providing great food, you have a great ambiance, and you have you have to provide valet as well, right?
00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:40.240
Because sometimes parking logistics, you're dressed up with your wife, you're wearing you know, beautiful suit, dress, you don't want to walk across two blocks.
00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:41.920
It's not a premium experience.
00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:43.440
So you have to have valet.
00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:53.039
And unfortunately, that eats into your margins because if you're running your own valet, then either you're paying an operator for the valet, the labor side, or you do it yourself.
00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:58.640
And of course, if you damage a car accidentally with one of your staff, you curb the guy's wheel.
00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:00.640
Now there's a lot of money.
00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:08.720
So if you want a funny little story there, one of our valet clients, they lost the keys to a guy's uh car.
00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:11.759
And so here's the breakdown, okay?
00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:14.559
You happen to have lost the keys to the guy's Rolls-Royce.
00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:17.519
And so suddenly now you have to re-key the whole car.
00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:22.799
And then the guy came back and said, Okay, great, you lost my keys, but I also had the keys to my yacht.
00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:24.480
I gotta go re-key my yacht.
00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:28.720
Oh, and also my keys to my mansion were there, so you gotta re-key the guy's entire life.
00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:45.119
And unfortunately, with the way valet company insurance works, um, valet companies usually don't claim the insurance, they they eat it out of their own profit because when you make a claim, you can't really make another claim the next year before because otherwise your rates are gonna go sky high.
00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:46.559
So you have this huge problem.
00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:50.079
You have a you have a somebody who's lost something as simple as a key.
00:24:50.319 --> 00:24:52.240
Now it's cost you$8,000.
00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:57.359
So here's where I'm going with this to kind of bring it back full circle.
00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:02.640
As an operator, if you run valet, you can add a small convenience fee.
00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:03.200
Okay.
00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:04.559
This goes back to you.
00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:06.960
So if your valet, let's say, is$17.
00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:12.960
Now you can charge, just like if you were a ticket master or somebody, you can charge a little convenience fee of a dollar or two.
00:25:13.119 --> 00:25:24.400
So if you have 1,000 or 2,000 cars parked a month, you've just made an additional one,$2,000 or$4,000, which heavily offsets a lot of these problems and labor.
00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:33.519
So now suddenly you can run a profitable valley business for your restaurant, and you get the benefit of not being, you know, razor-thin margins anymore.
00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:34.079
Right.
00:25:34.160 --> 00:25:36.240
Yeah, it's like a little insurance policy.
00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:36.880
Yeah.
00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:39.039
That's uh a great story.
00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:48.880
That's that is uh frightening and hits kind of close to home because as somebody who has, I mean, speaking of props in this episode, my keys just full of a million keys on my keychain.
00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:59.119
Um, losing losing my car keys means losing, you know, all of my my locks to like my trailer and like um my house key and all this, all these things are just gonna be massive headaches.
00:25:59.279 --> 00:26:11.680
So um what's interesting to me too is um we we mentioned this, is you're not just doing hotels, your your footprint's obviously a lot like wider uh and weirder in some ways than I'd ex I'd expect otherwise.
00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:20.880
Like you work with hotels, you work with retail centers, hospitals, event venues, um, all of which make up nearly 68% of valet demand, which is pretty staggering.
00:26:21.039 --> 00:26:23.599
Um and they're obviously different environments, right?
00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:27.440
Like um, I know like hospitals, patients are are stressed.
00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:31.920
Um, you know, elderly, like they need to like they just need to drop off their car quick and get in.
00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:37.440
They're emotional, um, versus like you're going to a fancy dinner, you're all dressed up and kind of in a good mood.
00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:42.400
Um, what changes when you're running valet at that, say, like this hospital environment versus a hotel?
00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:46.480
Like, what did you have to build differently to accommodate the different environments?
00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:47.920
Everything, everything.
00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:51.200
So hospital valley parking is basically the busiest parking in the world.
00:26:51.279 --> 00:26:53.759
Um, you've got hundreds of cars a day.
00:26:53.920 --> 00:26:58.559
Now, you also have multiple lanes sometimes uh and multiple drop-off points.
00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:02.640
So you can drop off in one section of the hospital and pick up in another section.
00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:07.359
So logistically, it's it's just way bigger than a hotel operation.
00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:12.000
And then on top of that, like you said, you have to combine compassion with it as well.
00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:14.000
Because you're not going for a great experience.
00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:16.480
You know, I'm not going to a spa at a hotel anymore.
00:27:16.640 --> 00:27:20.079
I'm going because unfortunately, somebody I love is in the hospital.
00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:21.359
It's for maybe myself.
00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:24.240
I'm going for maybe a uh a scan or something.
00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:26.240
So it's a totally different animal.
00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:30.799
And then you also have to deal with things like gates at these parking garages.
00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:36.559
So maybe there's the hospital might have reserved parking just for the valet team, and the gates have to go up and down.
00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:43.599
So now you're integrating with gates that need to be um available to the valet team and not the regular general public.
00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:51.920
Um and then to flip from a hospital, let's go to commercial uh office office towers, let's say, for example, residential.
00:27:52.079 --> 00:27:56.480
So suddenly you're dealing with monthly parkers, people who have who buy a pass.
00:27:56.720 --> 00:28:01.039
And so, what's different in commercial real estate versus a hospital or a hotel?
00:28:01.359 --> 00:28:04.319
Well, these guys all have to arrive at the same time.
00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:07.599
So everyone's coming to work, generally around 9 a.m.
00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:16.559
So you have suddenly, you know, 500 cars arriving to go to park at this uh this massive office tower, and then nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.
00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:18.400
And then suddenly 5 p.m.
00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:21.279
comes around, and all these 500 cars need to go out again.
00:28:21.519 --> 00:28:23.039
So, how do you mitigate that, right?
00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:26.000
You you're not you're not issuing a valet ticket for those guys anymore.
00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:39.599
In that case, what we've done is we can put a sticker in your door jam or in your rear view mirror or in your mirror somewhere or your windshield, and that sticker becomes your permanent, like call it valet tag, right?
00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:44.000
So now you don't have to worry about giving your phone number or getting a ticket.
00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:50.640
You just show up, they scan that little tag on your car, and they know, oh, hey, Bo, welcome back, go park your car.
00:28:50.799 --> 00:28:59.440
And we have a dedicated app for that, for just these monthly parkers, these residents and condos, these office tower um employees.
00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:04.559
So all you do is you go on your app, you say, Hey, by the way, I want my car today at five o'clock.
00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:07.839
And then out comes your car at five o'clock, you know?
00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:15.279
And the one little nice cherry on top is that you can schedule this in advance because you know every day you're gonna leave work at, let's say, 5.15.
00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:17.119
I'm gonna set it up for Monday to Friday.
00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:19.200
At 5.15, I can have my car.
00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:24.799
And so you don't have to even think about it because you're busy finishing up some some last-minute emails and you forget to request your car.
00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:28.720
Maybe now you're waiting to 30 minutes because it's 500 cars coming out.
00:29:28.960 --> 00:29:33.119
So, how nice is it that you can schedule in advance every day, Monday to Friday?
00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:34.880
I want my car at 515.
00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:38.880
Yeah, the scheduling is a nice little cherry on top of everything else you mentioned.
00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:42.640
So, yeah, there's so much to love about this, what you guys offer.
00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:45.279
Um, I I want to like sort of flip the script.
00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:50.640
Like, let's say, like, prospective customer, like somebody's listening right now who runs one of these properties.
00:29:50.799 --> 00:29:54.160
They're sold based off everything you've you've mentioned up into this point.
00:29:54.319 --> 00:29:58.000
Like, what does getting set up and actually running look like?
00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:00.640
Like, how fast can they realistically get going?
00:30:01.200 --> 00:30:02.799
You can be live in 48 hours.
00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:04.640
So the software is ready to go.
00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:07.680
Your team, everything that it runs on is already on their phones.
00:30:07.839 --> 00:30:09.920
So they can install the software on their own phones.
00:30:10.160 --> 00:30:11.680
Training takes half an hour.
00:30:11.839 --> 00:30:15.200
And I mentioned we have this whole training suite, so we can cover you on the training.
00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:17.519
And then we also keep everything in stock.
00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:22.000
So tickets are ready to go, hardware is out the door, anything you need.
00:30:22.240 --> 00:30:29.519
The joke is I always say hardware can be overnight anywhere in North America and pretty much next day in most major world cities.
00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:37.920
So, what about um like playing well with what somebody already has going on, like the the dynamics they already have in play?
00:30:38.079 --> 00:30:40.720
Um, like the integrations, I guess, is what I'm getting at.
00:30:40.799 --> 00:30:44.720
Like hotels, especially, they they live and die by their property management system.
00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:48.640
Um, how does Pure Valet fit into what a property is already running?
00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:53.200
Like PMS platforms, um, like opera payment systems, that sort of thing.
00:30:53.519 --> 00:30:56.000
Well, luckily for you, we already integrate with all that.
00:30:56.079 --> 00:31:00.799
So as the stuff is on its way in FedEx on a plane to you, integration is already complete.
00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:06.000
So all you have to do as a hotel is find pure valet in your PMS, like Opera, install it.
00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:07.839
And again, again, we're gonna walk you through all this.
00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:12.240
You just install it with one click and you're you're integrated before the stuff even arrives.
00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:15.200
And so payment side of things too is very easy.
00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:16.160
It's all online.
00:31:16.319 --> 00:31:19.599
We support all the payment processors like Stripe, Square, and so on.
00:31:19.839 --> 00:31:22.559
So we just link it with your finance team.
00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:27.359
They have some uh some you know, a couple of clicks they have to make, and then payments now flow through you.
00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:30.319
So essentially the payments go right into your own bank account as well.
00:31:30.400 --> 00:31:32.319
They they bypass us, they go right to you.
00:31:32.480 --> 00:31:36.799
And so integration-wise, it's it couldn't be easier.
00:31:37.200 --> 00:31:37.440
Wow.
00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:47.279
Yeah, and I imagine like you're I mean, you sounds like you already have most of the integrations in place, but you're probably adding more as well, like the some of the more niche integrations.
00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:49.039
Yes, all the time.
00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:49.519
All the time.
00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:51.519
Because there's thousands out there.
00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:58.319
So when you go to a trade show for hotel technology, there's probably 2,000 different companies that provide hotel PMS systems.
00:31:58.400 --> 00:32:04.480
So the lucky thing, the good thing is about this, is that all these hotel PMS systems have an integration available, right?
00:32:04.640 --> 00:32:07.599
So if we don't have it, we will have it for you.
00:32:07.680 --> 00:32:08.559
There's that's a promise.
00:32:08.720 --> 00:32:10.880
It's not even a question of can we do it?
00:32:11.039 --> 00:32:12.559
If you need it, it's done.
00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:13.359
Awesome.
00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:14.720
It's only a matter of time.
00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:19.839
Um, well, once a property's like gone fully digital, they've integrated pure valet.
00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:22.799
What do they suddenly see that they couldn't maybe do before?
00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:24.160
Like, is it wait times?
00:32:24.400 --> 00:32:26.079
Is it like counting cars?
00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:29.359
Like how how many valets do they actually need on like a Saturday night?
00:32:29.519 --> 00:32:31.200
Like, what's the biggest thing they noticed?
00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:32.960
Yeah, just like we mentioned, basically.
00:32:33.039 --> 00:32:38.960
So before you're operating blind, imagine you just are one walkie-talkies, you have no idea what's going on.
00:32:39.119 --> 00:32:42.720
Now suddenly you know car counts, you know, the peak in possession.
00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:45.839
So, what is the peak of my Fridays?
00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:49.039
Every Friday I have this many as the peak of cars.
00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:51.119
Tip tracking, like we talked about, right?
00:32:51.200 --> 00:32:52.319
So, how many tips came in?
00:32:52.400 --> 00:32:53.839
How do we distribute those tips?
00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:59.759
Incident logs, how many times did a customer claim a damage photo uh was you know incorrect?
00:32:59.839 --> 00:33:03.519
Let's say, for example, so things that a clipboard can ever tell you, basically.
00:33:03.680 --> 00:33:09.680
And then to the points earlier, instead of guessing for the labor demand, which is the biggest component of this, right?
00:33:09.839 --> 00:33:18.720
So you run the run the system for a couple weeks, let the data roll in, don't touch anything, and then we start to see the ebbs and flows.
00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:20.640
Okay, hold on a second here.
00:33:20.799 --> 00:33:23.680
We're wasting labor on Wednesday nights.
00:33:23.839 --> 00:33:28.480
We have way too many drivers, not enough, not enough uh usage of the valet at all.
00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:34.799
So then kind of your your second, third week is more trimming the fat, right?
00:33:35.039 --> 00:33:36.559
So you're just making efficiency.
00:33:36.640 --> 00:33:38.559
So, number one, you're becoming more efficient.
00:33:38.799 --> 00:33:41.200
Your guest experience from day one goes up.
00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:44.160
You know, you can request from your room, you can request from anywhere.
00:33:44.319 --> 00:33:46.319
It's branded to the property.
00:33:46.400 --> 00:33:50.079
So you're not just requesting on some random black and white screen.
00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:52.319
Um, it's branded to your property.
00:33:52.559 --> 00:33:54.400
But now all this data is trickling in.
00:33:54.480 --> 00:34:00.880
So as the weeks go by, the labor side is improving, and basically you're gonna see a return on your investment in the first month.
00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:14.159
Yeah, I I picture it's almost like kind of I picture being overwhelming with how much data you get, but overwhelming not in like a log jam sort of manner, but just sort of like a uh enlightenment sort of way where you're just like, oh, I can do all these things now.
00:34:14.239 --> 00:34:19.679
I can, I can um, you know, my return on investment becomes all the more rosy.
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:27.840
Um, you know, the the drivers start like seeing more tips, like it's just sort of a chain reaction of beneficial outcomes, I would say.
00:34:28.239 --> 00:34:30.719
Yeah, and and you're not overwhelmed with the data either.
00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:34.880
So that's where we pioneer, you know, it's really hard to do something simple.
00:34:35.119 --> 00:34:39.440
And so anybody can give you a thousand reports, you're never gonna click on them, right?
00:34:39.519 --> 00:34:41.519
Because you're not gonna even know what these reports are.
00:34:41.679 --> 00:34:47.039
So anytime you've ever used a new system or a new technology, it's it's a lot to learn.
00:34:47.199 --> 00:34:51.360
So what our system does is it distills it down for you as you need it, right?
00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:52.639
That's where the AI comes in.
00:34:52.719 --> 00:34:56.639
And obviously, AI is the most famous, best word in 2026 now.
00:34:56.719 --> 00:35:01.360
Everyone's using AI for everything, but we use it strategically to get the right data to you.
00:35:01.519 --> 00:35:02.400
So you're not overwhelmed.
00:35:02.480 --> 00:35:08.320
So the system says to you, hey, I noticed on Wednesday you have a little bit too many drivers there.
00:35:08.480 --> 00:35:10.719
Like they're running around, they're not doing much, right?
00:35:10.880 --> 00:35:18.239
Or, hey, by the way, um, the guest feedback score came in, and you're not doing too good on the retrievals, right?
00:35:18.480 --> 00:35:20.079
Maybe the the time is slipping.
00:35:20.159 --> 00:35:22.559
So that's where our analytics come in.
00:35:22.639 --> 00:35:27.599
It monitors your site all the time, and then it just feeds you the data as you need it.
00:35:27.679 --> 00:35:30.320
Hey, by the way, this can be improved, right?
00:35:30.400 --> 00:35:36.239
So that's where it's overwhelming with a new system, but now this distills it down, makes it a lot easier.
00:35:36.559 --> 00:35:44.400
Well, I've got a few more questions for you, and I want to sort of uh treat them like these elevator pitch questions, hard, you know, quick hit questions.
00:35:44.559 --> 00:35:47.519
Um, maybe, you know, feel free to elaborate on your answer and whatnot.
00:35:47.679 --> 00:35:55.119
But um, in a sentence or two, what what would you say makes Pure Valet like the pick, the solution over everything else that's out there?
00:35:55.440 --> 00:35:56.960
It's speed and choice, right?
00:35:57.039 --> 00:36:03.679
So you get a five-second check-in and you get the freedom to run SMS or paper, which is a digitized paper, or both.
00:36:03.920 --> 00:36:09.440
And so the other nice little bonus on top is we're the only software that has offline mode.
00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:13.280
So with a parking garage, you always have spotty connection.
00:36:13.519 --> 00:36:20.159
Doesn't matter with with even if you have no internet at all, Pure Valley is the only system that still works and just syncs everything up as soon as you get back.
00:36:20.239 --> 00:36:26.320
So you get the guest experience, offline mode, five-second check-in, and you can run whatever choice you want for tickets.
00:36:26.639 --> 00:36:26.960
Awesome.
00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:27.920
Okay, clean answer.
00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:29.199
Yeah, speed and choice.
00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:33.760
Those are the two things to really to remember and and kind of hammer home.
00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:38.960
Okay, and then every founder like yourself, they they have this one thing they wish customers just got, right?
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:41.519
Like the one thing you you could shout from the rooftops.
00:36:41.599 --> 00:36:44.320
Uh I'm curious, what would that one thing be for pure valet?
00:36:44.880 --> 00:36:47.360
It's that again, modern doesn't mean SMS only.
00:36:47.440 --> 00:36:50.480
People keep coming to us and say, I want a modern system, that's SMS.
00:36:50.639 --> 00:36:52.800
And we're like, great, that's not it.
00:36:52.960 --> 00:36:58.559
So basically, modern means you have choice, and you can have it in 48 hours or less.
00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:02.400
But essentially, modern is your choice, right?
00:37:02.480 --> 00:37:05.360
And modern doesn't equal SMS.
00:37:05.599 --> 00:37:06.400
Got it.
00:37:07.519 --> 00:37:14.960
Um, and then what do you what do you think others in Valet Tech uh are getting wrong that you're determined to do differently?
00:37:15.360 --> 00:37:22.559
Okay, so all the category leaders were built like 15, 20 years ago, and these guys all got absorbed into these massive parking conglomerates.
00:37:22.719 --> 00:37:26.239
So, you know, valet, as I mentioned earlier, just became this afterthought.
00:37:26.400 --> 00:37:30.159
They're focused on gates and and and just parking technology.
00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:34.159
When you go to a parking garage, you pay with a and you get a little stub.
00:37:34.320 --> 00:37:35.280
That's what they're focusing on.
00:37:35.440 --> 00:37:39.039
Nobody's focusing on valet, which is the guest experience side.
00:37:39.199 --> 00:37:41.519
So that's why our name is Pure Valley.
00:37:41.599 --> 00:37:44.079
That's all we do is valet software.
00:37:44.400 --> 00:37:44.960
I love it.
00:37:45.119 --> 00:37:45.360
Okay.
00:37:45.519 --> 00:37:54.639
And then maybe you can leave us with a story that really like has resonated with you, maybe a time that Pure Valet just kind of went like above and beyond for a customer.
00:37:55.039 --> 00:37:56.239
We always go above and beyond.
00:37:56.320 --> 00:37:58.480
We try at least our best to uh to go above and beyond.
00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:03.199
But there was one time we had to launch a five-star ski resort in Colorado Intellide.
00:38:03.360 --> 00:38:10.239
And so the person who's supposed to install the system happened to call in sick the day before, and poor guy got sick, and he was supposed to fly out.
00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:12.719
So, well, you got to do what you got to do.
00:38:12.800 --> 00:38:22.880
So I booked a flight for myself for the next day, hopped on a flight, and it's not just one of those things where you can just land into this ski resort five minutes away.
00:38:22.960 --> 00:38:26.079
You gotta land in from me, at least, for coming from Canada.
00:38:26.239 --> 00:38:28.719
I got to go to color, um, where am I?
00:38:28.960 --> 00:38:29.840
To uh Colorado.
00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:31.280
I got to land in Denver.
00:38:31.519 --> 00:38:34.400
Then I got to hop another flight to Montrose.
00:38:34.559 --> 00:38:39.199
And then once you get to this tiny airport in Montrose, you got to take a 45-minute shuttle.
00:38:39.440 --> 00:38:44.400
So, you know, by the time I got to the ski resort, um, it was a bit of a journey.
00:38:44.559 --> 00:38:49.679
But we got there, I had to set up the whole system myself because the guy who's supposed to install again couldn't be there.
00:38:49.920 --> 00:38:52.960
Train the whole team, but you have to do what you got to do.
00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:56.719
So sometimes even the CEO has to go and make a visit in person.
00:38:56.880 --> 00:38:59.440
And but that's part of our our mantra.
00:38:59.599 --> 00:39:03.199
So with us, there's no such thing as leaving our guests behind, right?
00:39:03.280 --> 00:39:05.840
Our guests are our actual customers, right?
00:39:05.920 --> 00:39:07.679
So this is a five-star ski resort.
00:39:07.920 --> 00:39:09.119
We can't let them down.
00:39:09.280 --> 00:39:11.679
And so you gotta do what you gotta do.
00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:16.320
Well, I love all the stories um and and the props and everything you've mentioned.
00:39:16.480 --> 00:39:24.320
I think um, you know, the the platform really, you know, sells itself once you you you kind of see all the offerings it contains and the integrations and whatnot.
00:39:24.480 --> 00:39:27.519
Um, and uh that story was just a great note to end on.
00:39:27.599 --> 00:39:30.400
So, Adam, uh thank you for everything you've shared with us.
00:39:30.559 --> 00:39:36.880
Um, for listeners who you know are curious about Pure Valet, they want to learn more, where's the best place to go?
00:39:37.440 --> 00:39:41.840
Purevalet.com, and that's spelt with P-U-R valet.com.
00:39:41.920 --> 00:39:43.440
So it's pure without the E.
00:39:44.079 --> 00:39:46.480
Pure without the E, Purevalet.com.
00:39:46.639 --> 00:39:50.320
All right, and then uh if you want to get into contact with Adam, go over to LinkedIn.
00:39:50.559 --> 00:39:51.199
All right, Adam.
00:39:51.280 --> 00:39:52.559
Well, uh, this has been fantastic.
00:39:52.719 --> 00:39:54.079
Thanks again for everything you share with us.
00:39:54.159 --> 00:39:55.519
And um, I hope to have you back.
00:39:55.599 --> 00:40:00.559
Maybe we can lead a narrowed, focused, topic approach uh, you know, episode with you.
00:40:00.800 --> 00:40:01.360
Would love to.
00:40:01.519 --> 00:40:02.000
Would love to.
00:40:02.159 --> 00:40:02.880
It's been great, Bo.
00:40:03.119 --> 00:40:03.760
Really appreciate it.
00:40:04.320 --> 00:40:05.039
Thanks for having me on.
00:40:05.519 --> 00:40:05.840
Of course.
00:40:06.400 --> 00:40:08.239
Thank you all for listening to the SourceForge podcast.
00:40:08.320 --> 00:40:09.599
I'm your host, Bo Hamilton.
00:40:09.679 --> 00:40:14.000
Make sure to subscribe to stay up to date with all of our upcoming B2B software related podcasts.
00:40:14.320 --> 00:40:15.840
I will talk to you in the next one.
