Personalisation Starts at the Car Park: What JLL Data Shows

Visitors increasingly expect places to recognise them, not just brands and apps. JLL’s Experience Matters 2025 research found that 74% of people like to visit brands that recognise them and personalise their experience. For a destination, the car park is one of the few points where every returning visitor can be recognised automatically. It is also the first branded space they see. 

What does JLL’s research say about personalisation? 

In  Experience Matters 2025,  JLL’s Ruth Hynes, Shweta Choudhari and Allie Kantor report that personalisation is spreading from products and retail into expectations of places. 

Key findings: 

• 74% like to visit brands that recognise them and personalise their experience. 
• Among 35 to 44-year-olds, that rises to 79%. 
• 72% of 35 to 44-year-olds expect retail spaces to offer events and in-store experiences. 
• 69% choose places that match their values over convenience or price. 
• 60% prefer to return to familiar places, but that loyalty depends on consistency and trust. 

The authors conclude that real estate should create spaces “that are more hospitality-focused, with welcoming environments and human interaction”. JLL links personalisation, ethical practices and community contribution to building trust in mixed-use developments. 

How can a car park recognise returning visitors?

ANPR identifies a vehicle every time it arrives. That creates the chance to treat regulars as regulars, without asking them to scan, tap or register at the barrier.

The starting point is Hozah AutoPay. Drivers register their vehicle and payment details once. After that, every visit is recognised and paid for automatically, with no ticket, no machine and no app to open on the way out. For a regular visitor, the car park already knows them, and that is personalisation in its simplest form.

With returning visitors recognised and paying seamlessly, destinations can build on it:

• Automatic validation: parking discounts applied when a visitor spends in store.
• Frequent-visitor recognition: insight into how often visitors return, to measure loyalty over time.
• Seamless permits: staff and residents recognised with no extra step.
• Loyalty-linked parking: free or discounted parking for members of a centre or retailer scheme.

How can branded signage and marketing make a car park part of the destination? 

Personalisation isn’t only about data. It’s also about how a place feels the moment you arrive. A car park with generic operator signage feels like a separate space. One carrying the destination’s own brand, colours and tone of voice feels like the welcome has already begun. 

Hozah delivers branded signage and on-site marketing for the sites it manages. That means: 

• A branded welcome:  entrance and wayfinding signage in the destination’s identity, so the visit feels consistent from arrival to exit. 
• On-site marketing:  space to promote retailer offers, seasonal campaigns, events and loyalty sign-ups at the point where every visitor passes. 
• Receipt advertising:  parking receipts can carry offers and messages from the destination or its retailers, reaching drivers after they’ve left and giving them a reason to return. 
• Clearer, friendlier information:  tariff, payment and ANPR notices written in the destination’s voice, so they inform rather than warn. 

This also ties into a wider shift. JLL’s  Global Real Estate Perspective, August 2026  notes that retailers are combining customer data and retail media platforms to create new revenue. The car park is a high-footfall space that most owners haven’t yet treated as a media channel. 

Hozah in practice 

At 9 Yards, the brief was clear from the start: every car park had to feel like a 9 Yards space, not an operator’s. Hozah designed and installed signage across their sites in 9 Yards’ own brand identity, from entrance and tariff boards to wayfinding and ANPR notices. The result is a car park that drivers recognise as part of the 9 Yards experience, with no generic operator branding competing for attention. 

The same approach shaped the signage at EastGate, where entrance and on-site signage carries the destination’s look and voice, so the welcome is consistent from the moment visitors arrive. 

Beyond signage, Hozah uses the car park as a marketing channel. At Festival Place, Hozah delivered a full campaign promoting corporate parking and season tickets, spanning door-drop leaflets, posters, email, and social media adverts. It showed how a car park can promote the destination’s own offers to people who already visit. 

Why does community contribution matter in the car park? 

Personalisation on its own doesn’t build loyalty. JLL’s Experience Matters 2025 research found that 72% of people expect businesses to contribute to their local communities. The authors identify community contribution, alongside personalisation and ethical practice, as a key driver of trust in mixed-use destinations. 

At Hozah, that commitment starts in the car park: 

• Giving back with every visit:  at sites such as Marlowes, Festival Place, Angel Place, Hozah donates 1% of AutoPay revenue to local charities. Every parking session contributes something to the community around the destination. 
• A local welcome:  when any site is launched, Hozah hires local young people as brand ambassadors to help drivers get to know the new system. It’s the human interaction JLL’s research highlights, delivered by people from the community itself.
• Technology recognises the visitor. People and community give them a reason to come back. 

How do you personalise without being intrusive? 

JLL’s research also shows trust matters. Personalisation should feel helpful, not watchful. ANPR personalisation can comply with data protection law when sites have a lawful basis for processing, clear signage, transparent privacy notices, and data used only for the stated purpose. Well-designed branded signage helps here too: it tells visitors how the car park works in plain, welcoming language. 

What should destination owners do next? 

1. Decide what “recognising a regular” should mean at your site. 
2. Bring the car park into your brand, from entrance signage to exit. 
3. Use car park signage and receipts to promote offers, events and loyalty schemes. 
4. Link parking to existing loyalty or retailer schemes where possible. 
5. Give the car park a local role, from charity partnerships to hiring local people at launch. 
6. Be transparent about how vehicle data is used. 
7. Track repeat visits as a core experience metric. 

JLL’s research is clear; visitors want places that recognise them, reflect their values and give something back to the community. Most destinations try to deliver that inside the building. The car park is where it can start. 

A personalised parking experience brings together everything in this article. ANPR recognises returning visitors without asking them to do anything. Branded signage, on-site marketing and receipt advertising make the car park feel like part of the destination and keep it talking to visitors after they leave. Charity donations and local brand ambassadors root it in the surrounding community. Together, they turn a functional space into the first and last chapter of a visit people want to repeat. 

For owners and asset managers competing on experience, the barrier is no longer just a point of entry. It is the first moment a destination can say “welcome back”.