Leaving the hotel room at 10 am… Train at 8.30 pm… Fans of long weekends know the problem: How to take advantage of the last day of your stay without carrying around your luggage?
For many years, stations have offered a simple and effective solution: the locker. But in the 1990s, the Vigipirate plan changed the situation and the vast majority were closed to ward off potential dangers for travellers.
Do not “carry around” your suitcase
If these instructions point their nose again (today in 13 stations in France, including five Parisians), companies have appeared over the past ten years to fill the void and offer alternative solutions.
One of them, Nannybag, even signed a partnership with the SNCF after a call for applications launched by the public company. Launched in 2016, this start-up offers to drop off your luggage and suitcases at partner merchants. Shops, restaurants, hotels, cafés… all must be located 500 meters from a station. “The objective is to offer a service less than a five-minute walk from the station,” explains Matthieu Ballester, co-founder of Nannybag.
A point that pleased Marie, a young Breton who comes out of a shop in the Montparnasse district. After three days spent in the capital, she left her rental accommodation in the 19th arrondissement in the morning to come and drop off her luggage: “I’m leaving Montparnasse station this evening and I wanted to visit the Panthéon and the Luxembourg Gardens today without “carrying around” my suitcase. So I came directly this morning to drop her off. It was more practical to pick it up here, before taking my train. »
An opportunity for businesses
Nannybag is not the only one to offer this service since other companies such as Bounce or Stasher also offer deposit deposits in shops in the capital. “You just have to download our application, geolocate yourself, then choose the business, the time of deposit and collection of the luggage. The reservation is made for the day for 6 euros regardless of the size of the luggage. “, specifies Matthieu Ballester who insists on the requirement of quality and time amplitudes of the businesses selected by Nannybag which “makes 50/50” with the merchants on the gains. Present in 40 countries around the world, Paris and its suburbs remain Nannybag’s largest market with 250 lockers.
A boon for travellers, but also for merchants like Cécile, employed in a tea room not far from the Opéra Garnier (9th arrondissement) which offers the deposit services of one of the operators who, in addition to “monetizing a free space”, bring traffic to their shop, and sometimes additional sales: “We opened a few months ago and this allows us to make ourselves known to tourists who often have a coffee or a snack before leaving for their train or bus to the airport. »
Airbnb guest desperately looking for luggagesitter
For Ahmid too, the conversion of part of the back of his souvenir shop in the Saint-Michel district has benefited his turnover: “There is a lot of demand here. It’s a touristy area with lots of hotels and AirBnbs around so it’s convenient for returning tourists. »
Because yes, AirBnb has changed the game. Unlike hotels, which often offer a left-luggage service for their customers, platform accommodations often leave visitors with their luggage on their hands. “AirBnb tenants represent 40% of our customers, testifies Matthieu Ballester, we see it on the reservations which often go from the end of the morning to the beginning of the evening. »
A wave felt by Jean-François Foncin, founder and president of City Locker, one of the French pioneers of the locker. Created ten years ago, City Locker offers a different concept from those previously mentioned, lockers: “At the time, I wanted a real locker, not a luggage drop-off. A more modern and accessible product, with online booking to be sure of having a seat. » Secure lockers with codes, airlocks and surveillance cameras, and a hotline from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., which he offered first in Paris in the Marais and Saint-Germain districts. City Locker now offers six locations in the capital (the last one will soon see the light of day near the Gare de Lyon) with formulas at 2 euros per hour and up to 15 euros per day, with no time limit .
“We really meet a need”
A formula that pleases with more than 3,000 reservations per month. And not only to tourists, as Jean-François Foncin testifies: “Some embassies or institutions, which cannot accept certain luggage, direct their visitors to my lockers. Buoyed by this success, City Locker is already preparing for the big leap out of Paris.
Formerly at Air France before converting to short-term rental, Jean-François Foncin has seen the evolution of practices: “Tourism is increasingly itinerant and the lockers lend themselves to this formula. Especially since post-Covid, it’s been a blast. We are really filling a need. »