We all know that parking in Waikiki is at a premium and it’s harder and harder to find free parking in Waikiki. Well, the situation is about to get worse, probably a lot worse. I guess we should have seen this coming, but we were caught off-guard. We find it a sad ending to an era for us at least, of free parking during the day at Ala Moana Shopping Center.
Paid shopping center parking started in April and it is going to expand.
Four areas of the shopping center currently have paid parking, while the rest is free. But the writing is on the wall. Clearly there are two things at play:
- The shopping center is seeking to increase profits via very lucrative, low-impact paid park.
- They have long wanted to stop people from parking at Ala Moana who were actually not shopping there. An example is the hotel, where we’ve attended events and parked for free in the shopping center.
- Finding parking at Ala Moana shopping center has long been a challenge.
Premiumpark.com’s paid parking plan.
Varying rates in effect are as follows:
1. For parking we just checked, 1-4 hours was priced at : $2.88 per hour, pus tax and service fee. Total cost is $4.30/hour.
2. For more than four hours discounted rates apply.
6 hours: $14.39 plus tax and fees.
10 hours: $19.18 plus taxes and fees.
Full 24 hours parking: $28.78 plus taxes and fees. As far as we know, there will be no in and out privileges associated with 24-hour parking, but that might be a good idea for them to pursue.
3. Other parts of the mall have cheaper parking listed from $1.92 per hour plus tax and fees.
4. We see reference to surge parking, but we aren’t clear what that means or how it will be implemented. We are reminded, of course, of Uber’s surge prices, which can be ridiculous.
No parking validation option at this time.
There is no indication of store parking validations. So for now, at least, it is all paid if you choose those parking spaces, and it is handled exclusive though the vendor’s phone app.
We haven’t seen how much parking violations will cost, but we can imagine they will be high.
Advance parking reservations will be help.
One of the positive aspects of this is that you can reserve your parking stall in advance. We can’t tell you how much time we have spent over the years driving around the shopping center looking for parking at crowded times of year and especially on weekends.
How will the mall know if you paid or not? Even more of a reason to shop with Amazon. Soon it will be like Waikiki – just for tourist.
Hey visitors get ready to be charged a fee also for the popular botanical Garden Ho’omaluhia on the windward side of Oahu! And reservations being implemented too! Remains free for us residents!
Can’t wait to see this back-fire miserably. What Mall requires it’s visitors to pay for parking??? Can’t think of anything worse that would deter shoppers from going in the first place… Mainland malls would Never.
I generally don’t shop at Alamoana, because it has become too overpriced. With this new parking fees, I probably won’t go at all.
Worst idea ever! I for one am tired of being nickled and dimed to death having to pay to park every single place. I don’t go there very often now as it is and if they charged for parking I wouldn’t go at all. Also, I’m not too good for the bus 🙂