If you’re a frequent traveler, you know what a hassle airport parking can be. You calculate the cost of parking versus taking a taxi or shared-ride van for a long trip -- and find it’s usually a wash. Speaking of which, you often come back to find your car filthy, and maybe with a couple of new door dings.

Of course, you could use an expensive valet service that meets you at your car door, takes your keys, parks your car and will even wash it while you’re gone. But what if you got all of this for free, and the parking service even gave you a free gas card?

There is a catch: Someone would be using your ride while you’re gone.

That’s the idea behind a California start-up called FlightCar, which combines airport parking with a car-sharing service like ZipCar. FlightCar is testing the concept at San Francisco International Airport using a nearby rented warehouse that can fit 30 or 40 cars.

Outbound travelers who have registered with the service via its website can call FlightCar when they're departing for the airport, and they’ll be met there by a valet. The valet takes the keys, documents the fuel level and mileage and takes pictures to verify the condition of the car.

But before you consider driving your wreck to SFO and making money off of it, keep in mind that the company accepts only cars with fewer than 150,000 miles on the odometer and made after 1999. “They have to be generally rentable,” co-founder Shri Ganeshram said to Boston.com. “We don't want cars that people would be embarrassed to drive around.”

FlightCar then offers the cars it receives for rent to arriving travelers. According to Boston.com, a late-model Volkswagen Touareg SUV rents for $30 a day. Renting a BMW SUV from Avis at SFO for one day costs $210, $60 of which is taxes and surcharges.

When car owners return, they call FlightCar and a valet brings their vehicle back to the airport. The gas tank is filled to the same level as when the car was dropped off, but the owner is also given at least a $10 gas card -- and more depending on how nice and new the car is.

Even if the company didn’t manage to rent your ride, the parking and valet service is still free. "Instead of paying $18 a day for long-term parking somewhere, you might be able to buy an extra ticket and take a friend along with you," Ganeshram said. "And you get a cleaner car when you come back."

Depending on its success in San Francisco, Ganeshram said FlightCar plans to launch in a second city later this year and is considering Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle. But county and state tax officials may have a say in whether the startup can get off the ground by deciding whether it’s subject to the same levies as rental-car companies.

Ganeshram contends that because FlightCar is a car-sharing service similar to ZipCar, and for members only, it shouldn't have to pay the same taxes imposed on rental-car companies. He pointed out that ZipCar successfully used that reasoning to avoid taxation and that FlightCar intends to only collect the sales tax that’s included in the daily rates on its website.

At least the founders could always fall back on their day jobs as students. Ganeshram is taking time off from his undergrad studies at MIT to launch the company, while the other two founders, Kevin Petrovic and Rujul Zaparde, are high-school students who are heading to Harvard and Princeton.

[Source: Boston.com]