In many markets across the country, we are being challenged like never before in our efforts to keep occupancies up in the face of the housing downturn, negative economic data and gas approaching $4.00 a gallon. After talking with a number of owners and managers, I am really interested in seeing exactly what type of discounting policies that are being used across the country.

This poll is designed to gauge that specific discounts that are being used and by what percentage of facilities. Please take a moment to participate in this totally anonymous poll. You can select as many of the various discounts used and you can also post a message if you are doing something unique. Thanks for participating.

MisterJim444

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Learning Never Ends

Jim:

Contrary to common practice, our sites have always avoided the admin fee, and that by itself is usually viewed as a big savings by our customers. We are finding that in this current economy, it is paying off and helping us to avoid the use of more dramatic discounts.

We also utilize a standard "dollars-off-first-month" approach, which is offered as a reward to customers who 'COME IN TODAY!' This creates and capitalizes on the urgency factor.

John Roser

We offer different discounts depending upon availability.

At this time we are offering 1/2 off May if pre-paid at move in on select sizes only. This offer comes and goes depending upon availability.

We offer 5% discount for Military for Seniors.
We offer -- pre-pay 5 months get your 6th for free. This is available at all times!
We offer free locks at move in.
We offer free trailer use for move-in.

I will not follow the "big" guys and do the $1 move in -- that just invites the people who are too cheep to take their trash to the dump. I have never had that problem and I don't want it!

We don't do first month free. Like Autodoc, I don't want someone dumping their stuff and never paying again. We prorate the move in month. They also pay for the first full month, and then they get the 2nd full month free. If they can't pay those rents and the deposit and admin fee, then then can go down the street and become another storage facility's problem.

We discount police, fire, active military 10%, veterans 5%. We discount for 6and 12 month prepays. 6 month is a 5% discount and 12 month is 10%. We get a lot of 12 month prepays, not as many 6 month.

We're offering the second month free, 10% senior and military discount and referral discount $10. We're now at 94% occupied.

Thanks John - Autodoc - KayBee and Managers2 for you comments. I hope that by sharing what we are all doing and voting on this Poll question, we all can get some new ideas and see what other folks are doing around the country.

All my best,
MisterJim444

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Learning Never Ends

we did some discounting in the late winter, based on unit mix, we offered half off for two months then raised back to full price. Seemed to work great at the time and saw physical occupancy inch up. I was initially concerned at how many would convert to full price vs moving out before the rate went up.

What we found was many of these discounted customers went to collections and we had a 200% increase in the number of lien sales when our June auction date arrived. A look at who was auctioned turned up the increase was due to the customers who rented at the discount.

The analysis is not complete, however, I suspect the discounting we did, cost us money. We stopped discounting and will tread lightly in the future. If your competition is discounting be careful to react with discounts, you may be competing for future losses and lien sales.

We have stepped up our collections and are being way more aggressive, calling more frequently, e-mailing, mailing and will go to lien ASAP. I don't want another auction day like we had earlier this month.

2nd FULL month $10. So we prorate moving in, charge a full month for the next calendar month, and then they get the next month for $10.

Prepay 12 months and get a 10% discount, which equals a bit more than a free month every year. Prepay 6 months and get 5%.

Free truck use on move-in, but only on 10' or bigger sizes. I'm not sending out my $18k Isuzu for you to wreck so you can move your book boxes into a 5'x5'.

Never had an admin fee, never will. We charge a fully refundable deposit of $15 or $30, depending on size. I know that the admin fee is a big moneymaker, but it feels too much like just a sleazy money grab to me. Why should people pay an admin fee when the office staff is sitting there for that very purpose? Enough people have told me they feel the same way, so I make a big point of not charging "admin fees, setup fees, or whatever other garbage fees my competitors are using to get your money. Everything you give me is either rent or a refundable deposit"

I printed up discount coupons touting the 2nd month $10 and put them in every correspondence I have with customers, cost me about $100 at Kinkos. So far 3 of them have been used, and if RK is right that each customer is worth $1200, then that $100 just made me $3600.

Seems like a fair trade.