How much should a parking lot charge per month?

Start with a competitor survey, then use your own occupancy to decide whether to go above, at, or below the market midpoint.

What do you need before you set a rate?

Before you pick a number, gather three things: a list of nearby lots and their current monthly permit prices, your own stall count, and at least four weeks of daily occupancy counts. Without those, you are guessing.

A monthly permit is a recurring agreement that gives a parker the right to use a stall for a set calendar period, usually billed in advance. It is different from daily or hourly revenue because it is predictable income you can count on.

Here is the workflow in order.

1. List every competing lot within a five-minute walk of your entrance. Note their monthly permit price, whether the stall is reserved or unreserved, and whether covered parking is included.
2. Compare your occupancy to the 85% target. The Victoria Transport Policy Institute's Parking Pricing Implementation Guidelines cite 85% as the widely adopted occupancy threshold at which a lot is priced correctly, a figure also codified in San Francisco's SFpark program.
3. Position your rate relative to competitors based on your occupancy. If you are running below 85%, you may need to price below the market midpoint or add value. If you are above 85% consistently, you have room to raise.
4. Set an opening rate and announce it to any existing monthly parkers with enough notice to comply with your permit agreement terms.
5. Review occupancy again after 60 days and adjust.

What does a competitor survey actually look like?

Call or visit each competing lot. Ask what they charge for an unreserved monthly permit and what they charge for a reserved stall. Write it down with the date.

For context on what markets look like: SpotHero's Average Monthly Parking Rates by City shows $60 per month in Billings, MT and $315 per month in Boston as of 2024 to 2025. The City of Seattle FAS published official 2025 garage rates of $350 per month for unreserved stalls and $400 per month for reserved stalls at the Seattle Municipal Tower and SeaPark garages, effective January 1, 2025. Those numbers tell you the range is enormous. Your local survey matters far more than any national average.

If your lot has features theirs do not, you can justify a premium. If theirs have features yours lack, you may need to price below them or invest in the lot first.

How does occupancy tell you whether your rate is right?

Occupancy is the clearest signal you have. IPMI / ParkingProfessional.com identifies consistent peak occupancy above 95% combined with turned-away customers as a strong signal that current rates are below the market-clearing price. That means parkers want your stalls more than your price reflects.

On the other side, IPMI / ParkingProfessional.com states that dynamic pricing systems commonly use occupancy triggers: raise rates when occupancy exceeds 85%, lower them when occupancy falls below 60%. You do not need a dynamic pricing system to use that logic. You just need to check your counts regularly and act on what you see.

Hypothetical example

That is above the 85% target from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute's Parking Pricing Implementation Guidelines and above the 95% threshold IPMI / ParkingProfessional.com flags as a signal of under-pricing.

What are the common mistakes?

Raising rates too fast is the main risk. A 2025 CARB review of 50 parking studies, cited by AirGarage, found that every 10% increase in parking price reduces parking volume by more than 5% for commute trips and more than 3% for other trip types. Raise in steps of 10% or less and wait to see the occupancy response before raising again.

Ignoring seasonality is another mistake. Demand for monthly permits often drops in summer in office-heavy markets when commuters take vacation or work remotely. Check your occupancy by month, not just as an annual average.

Setting one price for every parker is also a missed opportunity. IPMI / ParkingProfessional.com notes that well-managed facilities can improve revenue 10 to 25% through strategies including segment-specific pricing. A reserved stall, a covered stall, or a stall with guaranteed access after hours can carry a higher rate than a standard unreserved permit.

What should you measure and how?

Track these three numbers on a regular schedule.

Peak occupancy rate: filled stalls divided by total stalls at your busiest hour, expressed as a percentage. Collect it by walking the lot or reviewing camera footage at the same time each weekday. The denominator is total stalls, not just permitted stalls.

Monthly permit count: the number of active permits at the first of each month. Track it in a simple spreadsheet. Compare month over month to catch churn early.

Revenue per stall: total monthly permit revenue divided by total stalls. This tells you how much each stall is earning on average and lets you compare periods fairly even if your stall count changes.

Review all three at the end of each month. If peak occupancy is above 85% and revenue per stall has not moved in three months, that is your signal to revisit the rate.

What should you do next?

1. This week, call or visit every competing lot within a five-minute walk and record their monthly permit prices and stall types.
2. Count filled stalls at peak time on at least five weekdays and calculate your current occupancy rate.
3. Compare your occupancy to the 85% target from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute's Parking Pricing Implementation Guidelines and position your rate accordingly.
4. Set your rate, update your permit agreement, and notify any existing monthly parkers.
5. Put a 60-day calendar reminder to recount occupancy and decide whether to hold, raise, or lower the rate.