Anyone who has been to the centre of Warsaw can attest to two things: there are plenty of things to do, and there are people and cars everywhere. On one hand, Warsaw is known for its stunning attractions and long history, such as the Vistula River, the Mermaid of Warsaw, Palace of Culture and Science, the Warsaw Uprising Museum and the city’s famous cream pie, Wuzetka. On the other hand, traffic congestion, crowds of people, a constantly growing number of cars and an increasing lack of parking spaces can be found in Warsaw as well, just like in every big city,
That comes as no surprise when we consider that Warsaw, as the capital and largest city in Poland, is the most populated city in the country with about 1.8 million residents, with more packing their bags and moving here year by year.
NaviParking’s roots lie in Poland, and because of this, we decided to begin our journey with smart cities and more specifically, smart mobility, in the heart of the largest city in Poland, Warsaw. Every city in the world experiences problems with a lack of parking spaces for residents and visitors, especially those in the dynamically developing parts of Europe, and Warsaw is no exception. To help out drivers headed to the centre of Warsaw, we began cooperation with Novotel Warsaw and implemented our smart parking solution, NaviPay, at their parking lot.
Key Highlights
- The Novotel Warsaw parking lot is located conveniently in the city centre at Nowogrodzka 27.
- Parking is simple at Novotel Warsaw thanks to NaviPay, our innovative parking solution to upgrading and digitising a parking lot that enables individuals to park and pay with the help of their phones.
- The cost of one hour of parking is 6 zł.
- Drivers can make parking reservations and have a guarantee of available parking.
- NaviPay is safe to use during the pandemic because you only need to use your phone in the parking facility instead of coming in contact with external surfaces or staff.
- Due to the number of important places located in the centre of Warsaw, such as government offices, embassies, the courthouse, but also places such as unique restaurants and interesting museums, the Novotel Warsaw parking lot is the perfect place to park thanks to its convenient location.
- For employees who have offices in the centre of Warsaw, this parking lot is also a great solution, especially when it comes to the hybrid workplace.
- If you need to travel outside of the city centre, our mobile application NaviParking can show you the locations of different parking lots all over the city.
Smart parking at Novotel Warsaw
Although Varsovians know what to expect when they visit the city centre, the huge amount of people and cars continues to be frustrating, and the challenges this poses can often ruin someone’s day, understandably so. Driving around packed streets looking for an empty parking spot in a city that never seems to have any is bound to cause stress and upset any driver and their passengers, regardless of whether they have to be somewhere at a specific time or not. Either way, time spent looking for a parking spot is time impossible to get back.
NaviPay is a flexible solution to upgrading and digitising a parking lot that enables individuals to park and pay with the help of their phones. When drivers want to access parking at Novotel Warsaw, they simply make a reservation, download the NaviPay app on their smartphone, create an account and enter the parking lot without having to leave their vehicle: the parking barrier opens automatically with an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) camera or by pressing a button on the app. When the driver is ready to leave, he pays for the parking in the app and has a wide variety of payment methods available to him, and then can seamlessly exit the parking.
This simplifies the process for both the parking owner and the user.
For the parking owner, benefits include:
- effective parking management
- optimisation of the entire parking process
- maximising profit, minimising hassle
- real-time monitoring of occupancy and availability through a web dashboard
- adaptable to changing parking demand
- increased parking occupancy and revenue
- optimisation of infrastructure
The user, on the other hand, gets the following benefits:
- a simple and seamless solution to parking
- no parking queues
- digital reservations
- real-time occupancy shown with navigation functions
- convenient payment methods
- safety: reduced contact with external surfaces and staff
Since the Novotel Warsaw parking lot is located in the heart of Warsaw at Nowogrodzka 27, it is perfectly convenient, and its flexibility allows you to park for as long as you need to without worrying about prepaying or running out of time. You choose when you want to arrive and exit the parking lot.
The prices of parking are:
- One hour: 6 zł
- 24 hours: 130 zł
- 48 hours: 200 zł
- 30 days: 600 zł
So the next time you ask yourself how to find parking in the centre of Warsaw, take advantage of NaviPay at Novotel Warsaw and treat yourself to a hassle-free parking experience.
Official matters and appointments in the city centre
When in Warsaw, you will oftentimes find yourself with a need to take care of something or run an errand in the centre of Warsaw. That is because there are many crucial buildings, such as the courthouse, government offices, healthcare facilities, post offices and embassies, located in that area. To visit a majority of these, you have to have an appointment and one that may be difficult to schedule, let alone reschedule, especially during the COVID pandemic. Although we are all aware it is best to show up to these types of appointments ahead of the scheduled time, difficulty to find an empty parking spot to leave your car might not only make that impossible but might even make you tardy enough that your appointment needs to be rescheduled. And even if you manage to make your appointment on time, you will show up stressed which might make it difficult to carry out your visit in a positive manner, especially in an already stressful situation such as going in for a medical examination or facing a case in court. All this can be eliminated when you park in the conveniently located Novotel Warsaw parking lot.
In the centre of Warsaw, you will also find an incredibly wide variety of shopping stores, hair salons, barbershops and beauticians, and similarly like in the above mentioned official matters, you need to schedule an appointment, excluding the shopping stores, of course. Now that the pandemic restrictions are being loosed, the long-awaited possibility of going out to get a haircut or beard trim, a touch-up of the roots, a fix of quarantine hair, a professionally done manicure and pedicure and going out to get a new summer outfit or shoes has arrived. Don’t let the challenge of finding available parking stop you from treating yourself to a trip to one of these places. Take advantage of NaviPay and get to your appointment on time from the comfort of your personal vehicle.
To increase the convenience and affordability of parking in the centre of Warsaw, we also introduced an app feature aimed at business owners called Business Account. With a Business Account, businesses in the area such as restaurants, stores, beauty shops and barber shops, can guarantee parking for their clients and offer them discounted or even free parking. The size of the discount given is completely up to the business owner, who picks out the different vouchers available to him.
Prices of vouchers are:
- 20 zł: valid for 14 days
- 50 zł: valid for 28 days
- 100 zł: valid for 42 days
- 200 zł: valid for 56 days
- 500 zł: valid for 182 days
An example of a place where you can access the discounted parking as a client is Chill Out Barber, a barbershop located at Żurawia 24, about a 3 minutes walk from the Novotel Warsaw parking lot.
Working in the centre of Warsaw
Corporations, firms and start-ups in coworking spaces located in towering skyscrapers are a significant element of the city centre. Before the pandemic struck, heading to the office was a regular, daily occurrence. Now, this is no longer the case for most companies. In order to increase safety measures, companies are adapting to the hybrid workplace, which combines working from home and the office, oftentimes on a rotating schedule to limit the number of workers coming in at the same time. With employees coming in and out at different times, finding parking can become complicated, especially when the workplace does not rent out a corporate parking lot and ensure parking accessibility for each employee. If your office is in the centre of Warsaw, the solution to your parking troubles can be found at Novotel Warsaw. When your work schedule is flexible, so should your parking.
Similarly, even employees who don’t partake in the hybrid workplace model might have to stop by the office once in a while for a meeting or to pick something up and will need a place to leave their car and get to the office on time without wasting unnecessary time. By parking with NaviPay at Novotel Warsaw, you can quickly make a parking reservation so that you have the guarantee that an empty parking spot will be waiting for your arrival. Additionally, you have access to the flexibility that NaviPay offers in paying for your stay by the hour when you’re ready to leave, instead of prepaying and having to worry about calculating a specific amount of time your car will be parked.
Read more about the new normal of corporate parking here.
Parking safety during and after COVID
The COVID19 pandemic has impacted our lives in many ways. One of the biggest is the huge change when it comes to our approach to safety, particularly in public places and facilities. Ensuring increased safety, being careful and avoiding coming into contact with external surfaces and with people has become the norm during these troubled times.
The importance of safety carries over to public parking facilities. Since public parking lots have people coming in and out every day, the less contact individuals have with external surfaces and parking staff, the safer they are. At the Novotel Warsaw parking lot, users can access the facility from the comfort of their car, not having to deal with a parking ticket machine or with the parking staff. Thanks to innovative technology created with IoT, everything from opening the barrier to paying for parking can be done in the mobile application.
Exploring Warsaw
There is a lot of culture and history in the centre of Warsaw, which you can expect to find appealing regardless of whether you are a permanent resident of the city or a tourist on a temporary stay. In free time, it’s definitely valuable to go out and experience what the centre of Warsaw has to offer, such as a wide variety of restaurants, gorgeous parks and interesting museums.
For those travelling to Warsaw and wanting to explore other parts of the city other than the city centre, we have another solution: the NaviParking app. NaviParking equips users with the knowledge of where parking lots are located throughout the entire city. That way, even when you are not parking at the Novotel Warsaw parking lot, you can still experience a parking process that is simple and quick. Instead of driving around looking for a parking lot, simply open up the app, pick out a parking lot near you, go there and enjoy the rest of your day without having to worry about parking.
Expanding your stay in the centre of Warsaw
The element of safety also applies to your vehicle. You want to leave your vehicle somewhere where you know it will be safe, which means it is preferable to leave it inside a closed parking facility, instead of parking at the side of a street. Especially if you are leaving your car somewhere overnight, which you might sometimes need to do when plans change, and a quick visit to the centre of Warsaw turns into an overnight one at the last minute.
Sustainability
It is possible to be sustainable even when driving a personal vehicle, thanks to the power of smart mobility. With NaviParking’s navigation system that takes drivers directly to a chosen parking lot and with NaviPay’s navigation system that takes drivers directly to their reserved parking space, not only is the amount of time spent in the parking process lessened but also the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from the vehicle.
Drivers with disabilities
Whether a parking lot is digitised or not makes a huge difference to one group of people in particular: drivers with disabilities. Using parking ticket machines, dealing with cash payments and leaving the parking facility through a barrier exit poses many difficulties for people with disabilities. Digital parking solutions help make the parking experience as simple and accessible as possible.
Our Account Manager, Malina, recently met up with Sławek Florkowski, a member of Polska bez Barier, a Polish foundation specialising in helping people with disabilities. Sławek tested our NaviPay solution at Novotel and was very impressed with how easy it was to park for him. According to him, the more automatised the parking solution, the better.
