Operator math, campaign insights, and hard-won lessons from running self-storage facilities and filling them with paid ads.
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REITs run 92% occupancy. Independents average 87%. That 5-point gap is about $72,000 a year at a 500-unit facility. Two of the three reasons are hard to copy. The third you can start fixing this week.
National street rate is about $133. The web rate is about $119. That $14 spread isn't an accident, it's a real-time read on your pricing power. Here's how to read your own spread and what to do with it.
Your occupancy can look great while your revenue lags, because the number that decides revenue is what you actually collect per occupied unit. That's achieved rate, and most independents are leaving points of it on the table.
There's no magic percentage, but there is a way to size it. Start from what an empty unit costs you per month, work back to what a move-in is worth, and spend up to that. Here's the operator math for setting a marketing budget that actually pays.