Right now I’m the only "Only if (some other circumstances).
While I have used it in the past mostly when it was the only option. The time I used it most was when I was getting radiation treatment for my cancer. I had to go every weekday. There were something like 4 people who could be treated at once and each treatment took about 15 minutes so we cycled through pretty quickly. They’d take your car at the entrance to the hospital and move it to a small area. They knew how long you’d be so they could get teh cars ordered right for an easy exit.
and IT WAS FREE while regular hospital parking cost something like $5 minimum.
I’ve used valet parking once, maybe twice in my life. And that was only because at the place I was going that was the only option. So I picked “only if I have no other choice.”
I would have picked “not that I recall” if it had been an option, because I seriously don’t remember it happening. It honestly seems quite probable that I have never driven to any location where it was offered. I don’t run in fancy circles.
My answer: Only if (other) where ‘other’ is “it’s the best choice”. Some hotels require valet-ing unless you want to park five blocks downhill. We paid-to-valet once at a restaurant but we shouldn’t have been driving in North Beach, San Francisco. I whip out my issued free-valet-parking tag a LOT for my too-often trips to major medical centers. But that’s about all I’m in big cities for now so valets are mostly irrelevant.
Will autonomous taxis drive valet parking extinct? Where will those poor mooks find work?
Being in a big city, and traveling in “those” circles, I end up using valet parking frequently. My biggest gripe is that in the past I had a flashy car, so in some situations it would be parked right out front by the valet. So when it can time to leave I would walk up to the valet station, give them my ticket and money, and watch them drive my car 8 feet over to me, and hand the guy a tip. :rolleyes:
one else driving your car & adjusting it for themselves. I don’t have a fancy car; which means I don’t have seat (& mirror) memory. I hate having to dial it back in for me because you drove it < ¼ mile.
I also keep minor ‘valuables’ like parking meter money or sometimes more valuable items, like my camera bag in the car; I don’t trust them to not avail themselves to some of it. We’re literally talking a few bucks for the currency but it’s the principle of it. If I park & come back to no broken windows then I know anything I left in my car is still there.
I use it if handicap parking is not available nearby. I also use it at my local Indian casino. It’s free and they give you 1000 points on your loyalty card.
Only if I have no other choice. My Jeep Wrangler is a stick, and it is embarrassingly filthy because I do not care if it’s a mess and I haul our dogs around.
Slight hijack: When I test drove my Miata I had to wait around for them to find the one salesman who could drive a stick (because apparently they’re not allowed to let customers back the car out of the space – the salesperson’s supposed to get the the car and drive it around front to the customer)
Nope. I avoid it as much as possible. I drive a stick, and one out of every three or four valets who bring the car back have it smelling like nothing but burning clutch. Plus I often don’t have walking around cash with me, so I feel awkward having a valet get my car and not have a couple of bucks for a tip. Plus I occasionally want to access my car to get something from it while it’s parked, and if a valet parks it, I have no idea where it is. So, yeah, I avoid as much as possible, but I still end up valeting about four or five times a year when there is little other good choice.
