I keep seeing in American movies people saying “can you validate me parking”
Do you not just buy a ticket and put it in the windshield?
Edit: thank you Calm_Doughnut_1905 there’s a fee associated with most parking garages..if you have a business validate your parking, that fee is waived…by stamping your parking ticket or punching a hole in it. Once you exit the parking garage, you show the parking attendant your validated ticket and the fee is waived
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In places where parking is for customers only (or only free for customers), you might need one of the businesses in the building to validate it to show that you really are a customer.
It might be regional but I’ve rarely actually seen that.
That means the store/theatre/restaurant will give you a pass for free parking, so you don’t have to pay for having parked your car there.
A lot of parking garages are pay by the hour (or, sometimes, pay one rate for 15/30 minutes then pay another hourly rate). They track your time by issuing you a ticket at the entrance. You pay on your way out – put your ticket in a machine, it sees how long you were there, you pay for that amount of time and then you enter the paid (validated) ticket at the exit to get out.
There are variations to that – most places support just paying your ticket at the gate as you’re leaving, some places scan your license plate so you don’t technically need a ticket, some places let you enter your credit card at the entrance and then you enter that card on the way out.
Alright now that that system’s explained, *validating* the ticket can *also* oftentimes be done by businesses associated with the parking garage/lot as a way to incentivize people to go to those businesses. For example, a restaurant might have a private lot that you need to pay to park in *unless* you’re eating at that restaurant. Or a private business at a shopping plaza may validate your parking ticket if you spend X amount of money there.
This way your ticket gets paid off and you just present it at the exit to leave.
edit:
Also…
Yes, there are parking areas where you pay a flat fee and put the ticket in the windshield, such as at some state and county parks, or… just some places are like that I guess.
And many places also support pay-by-app so you just plug in your parking zone / spot number, license plate and how long you want to pay for and you don’t touch any paper or machines.
There’s a fee associated with most parking garages..if you have a business validate your parking, that fee is waived.
If someone validates your parking, they pay for it, usually at a discounted rate. If you don’t get it validated, you have to pay the full price yourself.
I park at a hotel’s underground garage when I go to a theater nearby. Parking at night is a flat rate of $14. The theater “validates” your parking ticket and you pay $10.
I haven’t bought a ticket to put in the windscreen for years.
If it’s street parking, I pay by app.
If it’s parking in a car park with one of those gates that swings up to let you out, you usually put your ticket into the gate and pay by credit card. Or you pay by credit card in the car park at a machine before you leave, then put your paid-for ticket in the exit machine and the gate swings up.
Or you buy something at the shop and they scan your ticket so the parking gate reads it as paid-for. That’s “validating” the parking.
In many places, especially in city center business districts, a building might have a garage (or in the suburbs a surface parking lot) that has a fee to park. (And just for clarity, these garages are most commonly pay on exit.) The merchants in that building will subsidize the cost to park there as a way to attract business. So you bring them your parking ticket and they either stamp it or run it through a scanner and this decreases the parking fee (or makes it free) when you exit. (In the old days they used to use stickers, but I haven’t seen that in 25 years at least.) The merchant pays some cost to the building management to make up for the lost revenue.
Since the question has been answered, two jokes related to the subject:
Person: Hey, can you validate my parking?
Parking attendant: Yes! You did a great job parking! You’re within the lines, and it only took you three tries to get into the spot – and I don’t think that the person who parked beside you is going to notice that scratch at all!
—
Person 1: Hey, can you go ask them to stamp my parking ticket for me?
Person 2: Nah, my therapist said that I really need to stop seeking other people’s validation.
i would add that the fee is not always waived. sometimes validating just reduces the fee.
I’ve always assumed that “validating parking” is one of the many things that exist only in Southern California but that movie/TV writers think are universal. I’ve never encountered it here in the northeast of the U.S. Do businesses in other parts of the country do it as well, or is it mostly just a SoCal experience?
It doesn’t necessarily mean your parking fee is waived but it could be reduced. In our city, parking is a premium. If you go to a hospital in the city, parking would normally be $30-$40 for 6 hours but if you get your ticket validated for seeing a doctor there or visiting a patient, its $18.
There are some places (even more lately) that validating your parking means you’ll get a discounted rate, but not free. I have 2 doctors whose offices do this – 1 is for a parking lot, the other a parking garage. They both validate so that you pay $5 , no matter how long you’ve been parked.
In Australia, this is reasonably common at parking structures attached to shopping centres with movie theatres in them, at least in NSW. Most of those have 3 or so hours of free parking, so if you scan your movie ticket in the parking machine they’ll often add an extra hour or two free so you have time to do more shopping before you leave.
So it’s free like if you are a customer
Who pays for parking validation? Is that a monthly or yearly fee a business pays to the parking lot or is it on an individualized basis per validation?
You talk to the parking spot and compliment it and affirm its life choices. Make it feel valued.
The awful way that some people park makes me wish that someone with authority would validate their parking skill.
Validated parking is waiving the parking fee. So let’s say an office building owns a parking garage. They have it as paid public parking, but free parking if you’re doing business in that building. So they get their parking ticket stamped and get no charge
I’m pretty sure parking garages in Australia do the same thing. People working downtown pay to park. But shoppers and diners get a free parking pass
Let’s say there’s a parking lot that costs $10 to park in. But if you eat at the restaurant next door and they validate your ticket, you only have to pay $5 to park there. or may even make it free, depending on the arrangement of the lot and business. Usually, it means the restaurant, store, doctor’s office, etc. use a device to swipe the magnetic strip on the card you got upon lot entry, or they may put a bar code sticker on it, or may even give you an additional card to insert when paying.
Just park your can where it says “fine for parking”. It’s fine to park there..
In America you traditionally pay for parking when you exit the garage (The longer you park the more you pay). If you use a parking garage to do business with one of the tenants in the building oftne they’ll have the ability to “Valdate” your parking with a stamp or ticket so that you’re not charged for short parking periods. It’s something they work out so clients don’t feel like they’re getting gouged for parking for doing business with them.
American here. I learned something new today.
When you tell a parking spot that they’re doing a great job.