A NEW app dubbed the 'Airbnb of parking' is now available in Northern Ireland.
Australian company Kerb was launched in October 2016 by Rob Brown and Matt Salmon and is the world's first global parking app.Translated into 16 languages and now live in 300 cities it officially launched in Belfast last week, but is available to anyone in the north with vacant residential and business parking spaces.
The app, which has over 25,000 users worldwide, first launched in the UK in January and aims to provide cheaper and easier parking for drivers as well as additional income for individual residents and car park owners.
Speaking to The Irish News, manager of sales, marketing and partnerships at Kerb, Harriet Harvey said the Belfast market is an area of potential for the company and hopes it can emulate the success enjoyed in Dublin since the launch in February.
"Belfast is a bit like Brisbane, which is where one of our founders and I live and because it is a smaller city there's more parking in residential areas close to the city, which makes it a lot more practical. And a lot of people drive in Belfast so that's why we picked it," she said.
"There's so much space that we could be using that is empty. Every time you go to work your car space is empty and someone else could be using it. You don't actually have to build parking infrastructure, because there is already a fair bit of it around."
As business grows in Belfast the company, which can also provide parking listings for boats and even helicopters, hopes to target new markets, establishing a well-respected and trusted brand in Northern Ireland.
"As we grow as a business in Belfast we will be targeting residential, hotel, churches and existing car parking companies and our aim is to lower the cost of parking to be a new competitor.
"There are people already doing it in the UK, but we believe we can do it better and we also have the advantage of being a global company.
"We want to be the biggest parking company in the world up there with the likes of Uber and Airbnb. We want people to use Kerb as a verb.
"We want to actually be making a difference in the parking world. Cheaper, convenient parking is our philosophy and making use of that available space.
It is free to list a parking space on Kerb, but the company takes 20 per cent on every booking. Prices start at around £4 a day in Belfast, with discounts available for long-term bookings.
