Valet parking, scam or legitimate service

Joey Skinner · 02-13-2005, 09:32 AM

Is valet parking mandatory? My wife and another couple went to a restaurant last night that had valet parking. It was a small restaurant with a small parking lot. I just pulled into a space which was literally 15 ft from the valet stand and about 25 ft from the front door. As we were walking in the attendant tried to give me a claim ticket and take my keys. I felt a little embarrassed but I didn't see the point in giving my car to a valet and him driving it 15 ft to a parking spot. After dinner we walked to our car, past the people waiting for the valets to retrieve their cars, and as I was about to leave this guy came up complaining about $3.00 he was losing. I was going to give him some money just to leave me alone but he left. Is this a racket or am I just a cheap @#$%*. Isn't the point of valet parking to keep you from having to walk long distances to the front door?

Philip_G · 02-13-2005, 10:11 AM

Personally I think it's stupid. But I don't live in an area where parking is hard to find :p

Phil_L · 02-13-2005, 10:24 AM

Valet parking is only legit when there is little to no readily available parking near the restaurant. I love valet parking but don't see a point when I can park the car myself right near my destination, especially if the place has its OWN parking lot. weird.

02-13-2005, 10:48 AM

I've lived in Denton. Valet parking in Denton? What a joke.

Joey Skinner · 02-13-2005, 11:57 AM

This was in Dallas at La Duni restaurant (which was great). After dinner we went to the Meyerson Symphony Center and I wished I had used their valet service because I went to the wrong parking garage and spent 20 minutes looking for my car!

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Scott Merryfield · 02-13-2005, 12:35 PM

I'm not a big fan of valet parking. Several years ago the valets lost my car key at a bar, turning a 20 minute drive home into a 1.5 hour journey. And the idiots had the balls to try and blame me for losing the key, since I removed my car key from the ring and kept the rest of the keys. They said it made the key easy to lose. Well, if I hadn't removed the key, they would have lost all my keys.

My response was they had only two jobs to perform as a valet service -- park the car without damaging it, and keeping track of the key! They failed miserably on half their job.

Needless to say, I avoid valet parking like the plague since this incident. I will park someplace else and walk before I give my keys away.

DaveNel · 02-13-2005, 01:06 PM

So did you have a spare or geta locksmith, And did they pay for the making of the new key

Scott Merryfield · 02-13-2005, 01:58 PM

Quote:

So did you have a spare or geta locksmith, And did they pay for the making of the new key

My spare key was at home, so one of the valet employees had to drive me home to get the key and return me to the parking lot to retrieve my car. The valet service eventually found the key the and dropped it off at my home, so I didn't need a duplicate key cut. Since the car was always locked in our garage at home and had an alarm system, I didn't worry too much about them having a duplicate made themselves (if it was a dishonest employee running a scam). If my car had been parked outside, though, I probably would have changed the locks on the car.

Eric Kahn · 02-13-2005, 02:21 PM

there is at least one restaurant here in my area that only has valet parking, you want to eat there, you pay the valet, I personally think it is a crock, but I do not eat there anyways

Kirk Gunn · 02-13-2005, 02:58 PM

Quote:

I just pulled into a space which was literally 15 ft from the valet stand and about 25 ft from the front door