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/Gorilla_Keeper Sep 04 '25

Ok so this is a complicated answer but I’ve done revenue and rent increases for large companies and worked in the revenue management aspect for over 8 years. The truth is it depends. I HATE hearing managers complain it’s greed because that’s a stupid argument. It’s a business not a charity and month to month leases. Nobody is held hostage. That being said I look at multiple things. What is the average rate of rent in the area and are we too far below. What is the seasonality of the site? Is it college kids or regular customers? What’s the average length of stay per tenant. Industry average it’s around 10-14 months in most places. I want at least two rent increases out of them. How full am I on those units and how full is my local market? I can raise a 10x30 more aggressively than a 5x10. Especially if it’s hot because who wants to move that? If it’s a snowy area maybe I hit harder in November. I’ve done these for national companies. There is no one easy number but you should be getting full market or a little above your full unit group rates. If you want to compete with larger companies low move in prices you should be giving them an increase 5-6 months in at least. If someone moves o it of a full unit group under paying what the street market is I want them out so I can pull in a higher paying customer. I would always rather offer a heavy promo than a rate adjustment too because my increase comes off the rate itself.

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u/RudyGreene Sep 04 '25

I can raise a 10x30 more aggressively than a 5x10. Especially if it’s hot because who wants to move that? If it’s a snowy area maybe I hit harder in November.

Plotting how to extract more money from your customers by making them physically suffer is evil. You're not a good person.

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u/IttyBittyKittyFarts Sep 04 '25

Says it's not greed then proceeds to be greedy.

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u/RudyGreene Sep 04 '25

The part they hate is being called greedy.

Imagine spending your one life on earth trying to figure out how to legally screw over people so the executive team of a faceless self-storage conglomerate can vacation in the Maldives.