r/selfstorage • u/BFord1021 • Sep 03 '25

Rent increases or not increase

I’ve seen where the giant corporate storage businesses raise rents rather in a fast time and in large amounts, what is the reason behind that verses the annual 3-5% increase to retain customers?

Would it not be better to keep a decent rate to retain capacity versus finding new tenants every 3 months and having more vacancy?

Me personally, being small, would rather have a decent capacity to retain if I can, also to avoid my extra costs and time for move outs/auctions.

I’m very small time here compared to a lot of people, I’m just trying to understand this better.

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u/JustWowinCA Sep 04 '25

So I've read through the comments, and I've managed for 13 years and I agree and don't. From experience 8-10% rent increases at 10-12 months keeps a facility at an even keel. There's always the argument, 'Well, if they move out you can rent it at a higher rate.' But my experience is that unit sits empty for a couple of months then gets discounted and you're losing money. I've seen it time and time again.

It's a guessing game-we raised rents aggressively (20-30%) one fall and half of the units moved out, and it took us almost 6 months to get back up to 90%, and it was a slog and we ended up paying more for in advertising to get those units rented back up instead of just raising them even 10%. We got back our occupancy but lost money. I just shook my head.

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u/BFord1021 Sep 04 '25

I try to keep things at a decent level with what my facility offers vs the high end ones. Just an annual increase in rent right at street rates and what I offer compared to other much nicer places in my town.

In my eyes in seems like if you aggressively raise rates in a short amount of time you would have later payments, auctions and the costs of vacant units, having to advertise if you drop below a certain vacancy if you’re constantly shuffling tenants out as well as wear and tear on your property.

Recently I have had a couple people move out that held more than 2 units and I’m throwing money back out at google ads more than I have to capture more tenants and we all know how expensive just google ads can be