Valet parking is a parking

Parking

Parking is the act of stopping a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied for more than a brief time. Parking on one or both sides of a road is commonly permitted, though often with restrictions...

 service offered by some restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

s, stores, and other business

Business

A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

es, particularly in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. In contrast to "self-parking", where customers find a parking space

Parking space

A parking space is a location that is designated for parking, either paved or unpaved.Parking spaces can be in a parking garage, in a parking lot or on a city street. It is usually designated by a white-paint-on-tar rectangle indicated by three lines at the top, left and right of the designated area...

 on their own, customers' vehicles are parked for them by a person called a valet

Valet

Valet and varlet are terms for male servants who serve as personal attendants to their employer.- Word origins :In the Middle Ages, the valet de chambre to a ruler was a prestigious appointment for young men...

. This service either requires a fee

Fee

A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup.Traditionally, professionals in Great Britain received a fee in contradistinction to a payment, salary, or wage, and would often use guineas rather than pounds as units of account...

 to be paid by the customer or is offered free of charge by the establishment.

Explanation

A valet is usually an employee of the establishment, or an employee of a third party valet service. When there is a fee, it is usually either a flat amount or a fee based on how long the car is parked. It is customary in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 to tip the valet who actually parks the car. Valet parking is most often offered (and is most useful) in urban area

Urban area

An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

s, where parking is scarce, though some upscale businesses offer valet parking as an optional service, even though self-parking may be readily available. For example, in wealthy suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

an areas like California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

's Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

, some hospital

Hospital

A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

s (like Stanford University Medical Center

Stanford University Medical Center

Stanford University Medical Center represents the Stanford Hospital and the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and is located at 300 Pasteur Drive in Stanford, California. Stanford Hospital provides both general acute care services and tertiary medical care for patients locally, nationally and...

) offer valet parking for the convenience of patient

Patient

A patient is any recipient of healthcare services. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, advanced practice registered nurse, veterinarian, or other health care provider....

s and their visitors. On the other hand, where parking is not scarce, such as on the Las Vegas Strip

Las Vegas Strip

The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...

, it is offered as a convenience

Convenience

Convenience is anything that is intended to save resources or frustration. A convenience store at a petrol station, for example, sells items that have nothing to do with gasoline/petrol, but it saves the consumer from having to go to a grocery store."Convenience" is a very relative term and its...

 to patrons. Some hospitals, like the Yale

YALE

RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...

-affiliated Greenwich Hospital (Connecticut)

Greenwich Hospital (Connecticut)

Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut, is a community hospital serving people in lower Fairfield County and in lower Westchester County New York....

 on Connecticut's Golden Coast, have such limited space for parking that the emergency room is valet parking only, to fit as many cars in as possible.

Some cars come with an additional key, known as a valet key that starts the ignition and opens the driver's side door but prevents the valet from gaining access to valuables that are located in the trunk or the glove box.

Efficiency

An advantage of valet parking is that it is possible to pack more cars into a given physical space, in what is generally known as "stack parking." The valet holds all the keys and can park the cars two or more deep, as he can move cars out of the way to free a blocked-in car.

Another type of stacking is called lane stacking. This is useful for events where guests arrive at around the same time, say for a wedding reception. The point of this procedure is to keep the lane (or lanes) of incoming traffic flowing forward so that guests are spared a long wait time for valet service. This is usually accomplished by designating one or two of the valets to be "stackers", who simply "push" each car up fifty feet or so and prepare it for a quick "take-away" for a returning valet to park. The process is then repeated until all cars are parked, utilizing as much lane space as possible, meanwhile keeping the lanes moving.

An additional advantage of valet parking, aside from stacking, is that valets can park cars closer and straighter than some customers may park. This will save them space in the parking lot or garage, and prevent the inconvenience of going to different floors by cramming everything in.

An efficient valet service will implement (or at least prepare) a system to handle the expected number of cars and guests. This may include, but is not limited to, any of the following: designated greeters, stackers, and parkers, a system for marking car locations, and sometimes even a shuttle service for valets at large venues in order to expedite car return times at the end of the event.

Luxury

Valet parking also adds a touch of luxury compared to self-parking. Many locations and events that provide valet parking provide extra touches such as bringing the car up front, having the doors opened for the guest, and in rare cases cleaning and detailing of the vehicle.

Venues

As described above, several different types of venues offer valet parking. These include:

• Single Event: These Valets are usually hired for just the evening and have assigned roles for efficiency. Parking may be at an off site location that can handle many cars, and can range from a dirt field to a multi-story parking lot. It might also be in the streets near the pickup location. At a wedding the cars may be stacked in order, respecting the hierarchy of importance of the visitors. For instance, at a Middle Eastern oil company executive party the vehicles might be stacked in the order of the importance of the executives of the company.
• Restaurant or Bar location: In this setting, parking is usually in the establishment's own lot, but may also be a blocked-off section of a nearby parking house or multilayer lot. Often a dozen spots in front will be reserved for the big spenders or frequent visitors. When the restaurant is not busy, the nicest, most unusual or newest vehicles will be parked in front of the restaurant. This can be a sales and marketing stipulation. Restaurants trying to attract tourists may park rental vehicles or common vehicles in front. Expensive restaurants looking to attract less frugal customers may park expensive cars in front, including those of the restaurant employees or owners.
• Bar or crowded urban setting: Here, space is a premium, yet the cars on the street may have a huge bearing on the clientele inside.
• Hotel location: Hotels can have all types mentioned above. Lots, multi-layer lots, parking houses, hydraulic structures, parking in front, parking in back, shuttles for car owners, shuttles for valets and more. The biggest difference between hotels and other types is the cost. Hotels usually charge double or more for valet parking when compared to bars, restaurants and major events. Usually this is because of a captive market and the need for overnight parking.
• Airports: In the United Kingdom
  United Kingdom
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
  
  , companies such as BCP
  Better Choice Parking
  BCP is one of the largest independent airport car parking companies in the UK , also offering parking at Dover and Southampton ports . BCP also sells pre-bookable central London parking .-History of BCP:...
  
   have offered valet parking at airports. The service is also offered when parking at an airport hotel.
• Casinos: The major casinos in the U.S., particularly those in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and most larger Native American casinos provide either free or low cost valet parking.
• Malls: Major shopping centres with high traffic volume often result in full parking facilities. Some malls offer valets (with fees) to park the vehicle at a temporary location or a reserved lot. Keys are given to the valet and a ticket is issue to the driver. Upon the return of patron, the valet will drive the vehicle back to the valet booth. Temporary mall parking valets may be found during major holiday periods, like Christmas
  Christmas
  Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
  
  .

Career/employee turnover

Most career valet parking attendants are college age, around 18-28 years of age. However many valet parking attendants at the most influential establishments are as old as 60 years of age and up. Administrative attendants at parking lots or cashier centers may drive a car from time to time. These attendants may be any age.

Turnover is usually 2-3 months, but much longer among the older employee population. A valet attendant may be quickly dismissed by one company after an accident, but he may easily find a job with a competing company. Other frequent reasons for employment termination are:

• Driving infractions (moving violation
  Moving violation
  A moving violation is any violation of the law committed by the driver of a vehicle while it is in motion. The term "motion" distinguishes it from other violations such as parking violations, equipment violations, or paperwork violations relating to insurance, registration, inspection, etc.-...
  
  ) - surprisingly unknown to the employer until a driver's license is revoked.
• Crashes, accidents, damage to vehicles

• Habitual lateness or irresponsibility
• Drug use, alcohol or other substance abuse
• Theft
• Lack of language skills (Non English speakers in the United States for example)

Over-extension of control

Valet parking attendants directly in front of bars or restaurants may use the limited street parking as "extra-fee" parking. For more affluent customers or those who simply desire to keep their vehicle parked up front, the attendant may park these vehicles in short-term or even prohibited parking spots on the street even in violation of local laws. These customer vehicles may remain for hours or even an entire evening in a 20-minute, red zone

Red Zone

Red Zone may refer to:*Red Zone , a region of France decimated during World War I*Red Zone , a term designating unsafe areas in Iraq after the 2003 invasion by the United States, Britain, and other allies...

 (fire zone), or loading zone. The attendants may manipulate the city ordinance by shuffling customer vehicles after the meter maid makes their chalking of the car tires, or by placing cones to block access to the spots, or even by using the valet's own vehicle in these spots for later use. Handicapped parking spots are infrequently used due to the very high fines associated.