How to book your visitor parking session
Once the pack has been approved, you are given 120 credits. One credit equals one hour of parking. A pack of 120 credits equals 120 hours in total.
Each household can have two free packs of 120 credits and purchase an additional five packs.
- Log into your account
![Shows Reading Borough Council permit login page.](https://images.reading.gov.uk/2024/03/login-permit-session.png)
2. Go to ‘Bookings’
![Shows Reading Borough Council permit site once logged in, particularly the dropdown options with 'Bookings' selected.](https://images.reading.gov.uk/2024/03/session-booking-300x273.png)
3. Go to your ‘Visitor Permits’ by scrolling down and finding the pack of permits:
Tip – tick the filter to only display your active permits.
![](https://images.reading.gov.uk/2024/03/Visitor-permit-sessions-300x75.png)
4. Under ‘Actions’ tap the 3 dots
![Shows multiple credits status as 'active', no payment required, the date added, the date it is valid from and the credits remaining.](https://images.reading.gov.uk/2024/03/Actions-session.png)
5. Select ‘Use Credit’
![Shows 'Use Credit' page with fields for:
Credits, permit start date, permit start time, permit expiry date and time, vehicle type, vehicle make, vehicle model and vehicle colour.](https://images.reading.gov.uk/2024/03/Use-credit-session-300x170.png)
a. Select the number of credits.
Note: this is the number of hours the visitor is staying for.
![Shows credits field.](https://images.reading.gov.uk/2024/03/Credits-session-300x66.png)
b. Select your start date.
![Shows permit start date field with drop down of month.](https://images.reading.gov.uk/2024/03/start-date-session-284x300.png)
c. Select your start time.
Note: Depending on the device you are using to book, you can either scroll with the arrows or use your keyboard to enter the hours and minutes.
![Shows 'Permit Start Time' field in session form.](https://images.reading.gov.uk/2024/03/permit-start-time-session-300x104.png)
Once you have selected the credit, start date and time it will display the expiry time.
![](https://images.reading.gov.uk/2024/03/Session-booking-complete-300x148.png)
d. Enter the vehicle registration.
Important: make sure the vehicle registration number exactly matches your visitor’s registration plate. If they don’t match, they won’t show on the Civil Enforcement Officer’s handheld computer.
Tip: make sure the numbers 0 and 1, and letters O and I are correctly selected.
![Shows an example registration plate: TEST01OI.](https://images.reading.gov.uk/2024/03/Test-registration-plate.png)
e. Optional to enter vehicle type, vehicle make, vehicle model and vehicle colour.
![Shows fields in session booking form for: Vehicle Type, Vehicle Make, Vehicle Model and Vehicle Colour.](https://images.reading.gov.uk/2024/03/Vehicle-details-session.png)
7. Once you have entered the details please select ‘CONFIRM’. Sessions cannot be cancelled once they are confirmed.
8. The booked session now shows in your ‘Permits’ section.
Note: no email confirmation is sent for a booked session
Tip: active permits show current and future permits (including visitor sessions), in active permits show expired and cancelled permits (including expired visitor session).
![Shows 'Active' as a selected field and 'Inactive' not selected. The details for active sessions show below.](https://images.reading.gov.uk/2024/03/active-inactive-permits-sessions.png)
9. You can set a reminder for this visitor session by going to ‘Actions’ and selecting ‘View Reminders’ and ‘Add a reminder’.
![Shows fields in session form for 'View Permit Detail', 'View Reminders' and 'Add a reminder'.](https://images.reading.gov.uk/2024/03/Session-reminder.png)
10. Select how to receive the reminder.
Note: if your account does not have a mobile telephone number, you will not have the option for an SMS message.
11. Select the reminder time, before the expiry and ‘Save’.