Six things move the total, and the number of days is not the biggest

One: the bay type

The largest lever by a distance. An oversized bay is roughly eighty per cent above an open surface bay on the same dates, and a covered deck sits between them.

That is why the bay types page spends so long on measuring a car. Booking a category you do not need is the most expensive avoidable mistake here, and booking one too small is the most disruptive.

Two: whether your dates touch a peak week

A single day inside one of the windows in the note on peak weeks can move a whole reservation onto the peak rate, because operators price the stay rather than the day.

A trip that starts on the nineteenth of December and a trip that starts on the twenty first are not the same purchase, and moving by two days sometimes saves more than switching category.

Three: the length of the stay

Not linear. Under a week you pay the daily rate. Past nine or ten days a weekly figure usually applies and the effective daily rate drops, which the note on weekly rates sets out.

This is the term people expect to matter most and it comes third.

Four: position inside the lot

Some operators price a bay near the shuttle stand above one at the back fence. The difference is small, two or three dollars a day, and it is the only line on a parking quote that buys pure convenience.

Worth it with luggage and children. Not worth it otherwise, and we will say which we are quoting.

Five: local taxes and airport fees

Passed through at whatever they are on the day and never marked up. They are a fixed percentage rather than a flat sum, which means they scale with everything above and are the reason a quote is never a round number.

Six: the extra day nobody plans for

A stay that runs past the reserved pick up day is charged at the day rate by the operator at the gate. On a long trip, one late return can undo the saving from a weekly rate.

Telling us a return flight number when you reserve is the least expensive insurance available here, because it lets us extend the reservation before it lapses. The note on flights that move explains the mechanics.

What does not move it

• How you booked. The form and the telephone produce the same figure.
• How far ahead you booked. Booking early buys availability in the windows, not a discount. Nobody here will pretend otherwise.
• Being a returning customer. No accounts exist here, no tiers and no membership, which leaves nothing for a discount to attach itself to.
• Loyalty. Same rate on the tenth reservation as on the first.

Why the site publishes floors

Six moving parts do not honestly collapse into a single printed figure. Attempt it and the number ends up arguing with the site's own small print.

So the rates page carries floors, describes them as daily rates starting from, and the free quote you get before reserving carries the whole total with each of the six named.

Every parking price anywhere, this one included, is an answer to some arrangement of those six questions. What separates the sites is whether they show you the working.

Get the real number

Send the dates through the reservation form for a free quote with the parts named, or call +1 (415) 906-2431 and somebody will go through it out loud. Monday to Thursday 7:00 am to 7:00 pm, Friday 7:00 am to 4:00 pm, Pacific Time.