Seattle Airport Parking Comparisons
Seatac International
Seattle Tacoma International Airport, is the Largest Airport in the north west, situated 12 miles south of downtown Seattle. Seatac is the largest generator of vehicle trips within the state and has the largest parking structure in North America with 13000 parking spaces under one roof. Cheap airport parking in Seattle’s international does not come cheap, with a price tag of $28 per day.
Parking Location
Parking costs will always vary depending on location, convenience and length of stay. For short term or drop off parking the pay per hour rate is usually high and this is designed for pure customer convenience to get you in and out as quick as possible. It’s a funnel system designed to keep the traffic moving and at the same time keep the money rolling in for companies that own these parking spaces.
Length of Stay
The next factor to consider is location and with that your length of stay will decide your overall costs. As a general rule, the closer you park to the main airport terminal the higher the parking cost, compared to parking further away from the main terminal building. Although this higher cost might be associated with the close convenience factor – it’s more to do with a purchasing demand.
Premium Pricing & Comparisons
When there is a high demand, premium pricing will always be charged as marketers know that a mass market will always facilitate that demand. This is good for competition as other companies can now apply their product offering and steal some of this demand with better offers in order to attract customers in their direction. So lets make some comparisons.
Seatac Terminal Direct
- Daily Rate – $35
- Price per hour – $4
- Distance from Airport – 0 miles
Seatac General Parking
- Daily Rate – $28
- Price per hour – $3
- Distance from Airport – 0 miles
Private Parking lots – Long Term Only
Listed below are some of the Cheaper Seattle Airport Parking alternatives. Although the Taxes and fees are not included in the Daily Rate, I have included a 2 day parking comparison to show the effect of the daily incremental.
Extra Car Airport Parking
- Daily Rate – $5.95
- Taxes and fees – $13.06
- Total for One Day – $19.01
- Total for Two Days – $25.52
- Distance from Airport – 1.2 miles
- Shuttle Wait 5 min
Skyway Inn Airport Parking
- Daily Rate – $5.99
- Taxes and fees – $12.42
- Total for One Day – $18.41
- Total for Two Days – $24.97
- Distance from Airport – 1.4 miles
- Shuttle Wait 5-10 min
Park N Jet Lot-2
- Daily Rate – $6.99
- Taxes and fees – $13.18
- Total for One Day – $20.17
- Total for Two Days – $27.16
- Distance from Airport – 3.5 miles
- Shuttle Wait 5-10 min
Conclusion
Parking off-site versus parking on-site at Sea-Tac is a lot cheaper based on daily rates. Location does factor in the cheaper alternative, although some of the private parking options will have premium rates of their own based on overall product offerings.
Note: Pricing is subject to change at the various parking lots, based on the discretion of the their owners. Pricing displayed within this article has been deemed as accurate as per date and time of publication.
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Hi Colin,
I’ve flown into Seatac several times to visit family in Tacoma and other surrounding areas. I’ve always had family members pick me up from the airport so I haven’t had to use the airport parking. But I’m sure that this article will benefit a lot of people traveling out of Seattle.
Thanks, Steve
Thanks Steve
Hello here. You did compressive research of parking lots. Overall parking around Seattle is expensive. I guess it is better to rent car. Do you have train service from airport to city as it is in San Francisco or Chicago?
Maybe for couple days is reasonable to leave a car, but longer as for one month, can be painful.
It is good when people could find cheaper services using your website. Great job.
All the best to you, cheers, Nemira.
Hi Nemira
Hiring a car is just an option for travelers landing at their point of destination. In terms of Train services for Seattle, I believe that you can get a train ride downtown. Although train services are provided by some airports, it’s up to each customers preference on their preferred mode of transport. Should you travel by car and need to park within the vicinity of the airport, cheaper airport parking can be provided by various merchant companies.
Thanks – Colin
This is a unique and useful website! I enjoy the layout overall and thought it was pretty well done tune and tempo needed some more improvement as it tended to lack quality in some areas but was mostly good I really liked the logo you picked! I think it is perfect for your site logo and you have some serious creativity! Good Job!
Thanks John for you generous comments.
Great article, especially for first time flyers. I travel a few times a year and usually use the long-term lots on the outskirts of the airport.
I’ve also tried the shuttle service when my entire family went out of the country. We couldn’t fit in one vehicle so figured the initial expense was worth the convenience. Overall a good experience with a few hiccups along the way.
If you can plan ahead, there are usually coupons for the longer term lots in the marriage mail packets delivered to your home. Some of the lots even have frequent flyer rates.
Do you go out of town on a regular basis? For pleasure or work?
Hi Cathy. Many private lots will have their own incentives with loyalty programs and rewards. The lots that are located here through the website are discounted, so a cost saving incentive for those that wish to book. As an extra bonus coupons can be found on our social media pages when a promotion is initiated by one our partner stores.
In terms of my own travel it’s for leisure as I’m based in Ireland. Personally I use public transport to and from the airport as I stay out in the countryside. If I stayed within the city, I would make use of the long term parking.
When you read your post to see the actual cost of parking in Seattle it is not so bad from my home town. It goes without saying that larger cities with higher demand will cost more but you just don’t realize how much till you see the numbers.
Like you say though we also pick to park from the main terminal because of higher pricing to the cheaper parking area a take there shuttle.
Good information to know.
Hi Travis
Yes parking at convenient locations will yield higher costs.
Thanks for your comment.
Regards – Colin
Hi Colin,
Very valuable information. Thanks for sharing. I was in Seattle at the beginning of this may arriving from Vancouver. I was lucky that I didn’t need to park my car because parking at airports is always so expensive. Next time when I need to park anywhere around an airport I’ll definitely visit you site again 🙂
Cheers
Don
Hey Don – Much Appreciated. Colin