In some bars or restaurants in the United States, you may sometimes see a sign that reads, ‘Tipping is not a city in China.’ It’s a play on the city of Teiping and meant to convey to customers the notion that they should not consider tipping, a distant and foreign concept. For Addis, the term ‘Par-king is not a city in China’ could be a play on the Chinese city of Peking while of course referring to the incredibly abysmal efforts that pass for planned parking by developers in the city.
Some portion of these problems is sure to be a legacy of a fast growing city trying to cram too many structures into limited space. But when you see a brand new building going up that seems to have left its parking capacity up to the pavement (or sidewalk – with the operative part of that word being ‘walk’!) that it sits on, that’s a real head scratcher. Maybe even worse are businesses in the hospitality sector with purpose built structures to host possibly hundreds of guests that somehow seem to be expecting them to be beamed into their businesses or something to that effect.
Recently, a visitor to Addis spent a good part of his 3 week vacation switching from hotel to hotel in a frustrating search for one that could reasonably accommodate his rented automobile at most times of the day. In fact, several of the newer hotels in town are sorely lacking in this department. Although it is a fact that land allocation policies in the city have created a shortage of space for these buildings forcing many of them to build on just a couple of thousand square meters (if that), underground parking structures have been successfully executed by some visionaries albeit at some additional cost. At least some planners seem to be thinking that their guests can simply make do by finding parking along the street or on some nearby empty lot but try doing that in Kazanchis today and then imagine what it will be like 3 years from now when several condominiums, office buildings and two new hotels join the mix.
Besides the potential loss of significant business by virtue of not having enough space for their customers to park in, these buildings are also losing the opportunity of parking as a source of revenue. In many of the bigger cities of the world where parking issues have transcended even their considerable efforts at planning for it, hotels may charge as much as $35 USD per night for parking. The JW Marriott in Washington DC actually charges $40 daily. Now let’s not get too excited about making that much money from parking in Addis but how about a smaller figure more commensurate with the clientele likely to frequent the establishment?
We know that Ethiopian Airlines is a really big driver of the increased hospitality sector business in Ethiopia. But it’s not like they’re actually going to drop guests off into their rooms directly from their aircraft. With the increasing competition from all the new hospitality sector businesses in town, it’s simply a matter of time before discerning customers start paying attention to such things when deciding which one to give their business to.
