Adding Revenue To Your Self Storage Business

By: Self-Storage-Owner


In addition to offering moving and storage supplies to generate added revenue, many self storage facilities also charge fees for other various services. The most common fees for self storage facilities are late payment fees but this is not a method any self storage owner or property manager prefers to add to the bottom line. In fact, late fees can even decrease revenue due to the time spent trying to collect late payments. Late fees however do have their place by encouraging the tenant to pay on time and to try and reduce lost productivity and rent.

It used to be in the old days the only way someone could pay his or her rent was to mail a check or stop by the self storage office to make a payment. This was problematic because not everyone has a checking account nor could everyone always come by when the office was open. The alternative back then was usually a drop box on the side of the self storage office. The downside of that was everyone calling on Monday to be sure if the payment was received taking up valuable time when you could be answering rental inquiries. With the onset of checking debit cards it did make it easier on the renter to pay on time by paying over the phone.

Just about everyone has some form of plastic to make payments with these days. But there are not many self storage facilities that keep a staff on 24-7. With the increase in technology there are many ways now to avoid late fees. The Internet has opened a whole new possibility for payment options among other things. Hopefully, your self storage facilities have a web site and are set up to take payments. This of course makes it simple for all parties involved although you will still have stragglers as not everyone has access to a computer.

Another solution is to partner your self storage facilities with an off-site call center. There are numerous software programs that now make it possible for someone off-site to access accounts and post payments. For the tenant it would be just like paying with someone at the store while it frees the onsite staff to show rental units. One popular program is using software that allows communication between self storage facilities and off-site sales staff. It even allows new customers to bypass the onsite office for move-ins increasing the opportunity to make new sales. This is like doubling your staff without doubling your payroll.

Many self storage facilities charge an upfront administration fee to help offset some billing and paperwork expenses but this can be tricky as many people making inquiries might be put off for someone charging a fee in addition to rent. The best thing is to compare with other self storage facilities you compete with to determine what to charge. A solution to charging an upfront fee is to arrange an automatic monthly debit program where you can charge a tenants credit or debit card each month. This would prevent late charges accumulating and your attempts to make collections a total win-win scenario. For those who cannot pay electronically you could still charge an upfront fee or encourage the tenant to pay a certain number of months in advance.

There are also multitudes of ways to charge fees that are not rent dependent. This brings to mind the luggage carts at major airports that for a small fee they can rent one. Many self storage facilities have inside storage where you have to go down a hallway to get to the unit so this would be an advantage. What about 24 hour access to the self storage units? Many self storage facilities have certain time frames a tenant can come in and out with a pass code but what if someone needs 24 hour access on an occasional basis? Charge a small fee each time a tenant accesses after normal gate hours and track it with the gate log.

If you put your mind to it there are ways to pump up profit while keeping the monthly storage unit rent competitive. Look to see what your particular self storage facilities offer that a small fee could be charged or create new ones. The one thing you do not want to do is fee people to death like many of the car rental companies do. No one likes to rent the economy car for 19.99 a day and end up spending 75.00 a day, after fees and taxes. This type of fee scheduling has given the car rental industry a bad reputation and you want to try and avoid that at all costs.

The original article is located at Adding Revenue To Your Self Storage Business

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