A system for recognizing an occupancy status of, in particular unmarked, parking facilities is provided, which system includes: a) a plurality of occupancy sensors that are disposed, at a specific distance from one another, on or above an area to be detected; b) a central monitoring unit on which a virtual image of the area to be detected is stored and which is embodied to communicate with the occupancy sensors and to receive sensor data or information regarding the occupancy status at the location or in the vicinity of the respective sensor, the positions of the individual occupancy sensors being known to the central monitoring unit, and the central monitoring unit being embodied to create a virtual image of the occupancy status of the area to be detected and to recognize vacant and occupied sub-areas as a function of the sensor data.