•Find conditions under which Intelligent Parking Services (IPS) can reduce cruising.•Consider parking and traffic dynamics to estimate impact of IPS.•Identify causes of cruising-for-parking, and quantify their impact.•Illustrate model with empirical case study from the city of Zurich. Intelligent parking services (IPS) use modern technology to help travelers find parking. Local authorities also recognize IPS as the new solution to reduce cruising-for-parking in urban areas. While many cities are considering to invest in the system, the potential of IPS in reducing cruising is often unknown. This makes it very difficult to assess the investment and evaluate the performance of IPS. This paper provides a generalized methodology to evaluate the potential cruising time savings generated by using IPS. Based on probability theory and a macroscopic parking model, the cruising conditions with and without IPS are emulated. By comparing these two sets of conditions, the total cruising time savings can then be estimated. The model requires very few data inputs; the main inputs being the parking occupancy and the number of cruising vehicles over time. To illustrate the methodology, an application example based on an area within the city of Zurich, Switzerland, is provided. It is shown that, in this small downtown area (0.28 km2), IPS can save up to 15.6 h of cruising time (17%) in a typical working day. The authors hope that this study can be used to establish a systematic tool for IPS evaluation. The use of such a tool could further support practitioners’ decisions on parking management.