BestParking.com today launched a new version of its website aimed at helping people find the best short-term and long-term parking. It’s also announcing that it’s making its data available to third-party developers through an API.
The company offers pricing data for off-street parking in 64 cities and near 80 airports, says founder Ben Sann. The data is collected from parking-lot operators and through on-the-ground surveys (conducted two to four times), and is then improved by corrections from BestParking users. The mobile apps have been downloaded more than 600,000 times and they’re used by 120,000 people every month, he said. The website, meanwhile, sees 230,000 unique visitors per month, but it hasn’t been redesigned since 2009.
“We … brought everything we had learned from our mobile experience to the desktop, taking time during the process to overhaul and modernize our website’s design,” Sann told me via email.
I only drive once every week or two, and when I do (using CarShare), I usually leave San Francisco, so I haven’t tried the old version of the site. However, browsing BestParking this morning, it only took me a few clicks to find what seemed like a wonderland of semi-affordable lots near the TechCrunch office, with the prices calculated based on how long I plan to stay.
As for the API, Sann said his team has been using it for a while to provide parking data to navigation systems like Garmin and Magellan. It’s also integrated with smart calendar app Tempo to show parking options near users’ meetings. Now the company is officially making the API available to developers for free (Sann said TechCrunch readers will get priority), and you can read more here.
By the way, Sann said the company has been bootstrapped and profitable since 2007.