If you need someone to park your car for you in Manhattan or Brooklyn, there’s an app for that.
Launched in 2014, Valet Anywhere summons a professional driver to pick up or drop off your car anywhere in the two boroughs.
And if you have outstanding parking tickets, it can help with that too: Through the end of March, new users with Valet Anywhere can get up to $115 of their parking tickets paid off by entering the code “PAYMYTIX.”
But all this comes at a cost, as the app’s monthly subcsriptions run from $199 to $999.
For $199, users pay $45 per drop off and pick up, which together are called a “round trip.” The next option, which costs $279, provides two round-trips per month, and requires three hours’ notice for scheduling.
In addition to 30 round-trips per month, the $999 package offers additional perks such as two car washes and three gas re-fuels, plus a complimentary annual inspection.
Valet Anywhere is the second venture of 35-year-old software developer Robert Kao.
Kao, the app’s co-founder and CEO, graduated from Columbia University in 2003 and in 2008 founded Smart Guard Mobile Security, an app that tracked lost Blackberry phones, similar to Apple’s Find My iPhone feature.
“My background is in mobile software, and we’re not parking guys but and we’re trying to change the parking world,” Kao said. “People are trying to save a few a dollars and a lot of times, whether it’s street side rules or overstayed [parking], they get ticketed.”
As for the app’s price, Kao said New Yorkers know owning a car isn’t cheap.
“When you have a car in the city it’s a lifestyle choice,” he said.
All plans include monthly storage inside an indoor lot and all cars are covered by the company’s $2 million insurance policy.
