We are thinking of adding the The Hotel California clause to leases: "You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave!" As an incentive for prospective tenants to sign up under the HCC, they will get to see my smiling face every month when they pay their rent. What more could they ask for? Besides they will be confused hearing my Canadian accent in the heart of Texas, and will be embarrassed to admit that they can't understand a thing I say. They will sign, sign away just to get me to shut up about hockey, snow and the Queen.

That should keep occupancy rates up!

My boss is French Canadian - at least I took French in high school - makes it a little easier to understand him.......I like your Hotel California ways!!! Good Thing I don't live in Texas though.........I probably couldn't afford the length of time you'd want me to stay...........

I am off the main road, I am not allowed to have a sign and then on top of all that I am behind a LANDSCAPING company that has a yard full of dirt, mulch, and old debri that they burn on a regular basis.

What can I do to help that customer walk in the door? I have found that once I get them in the office I can normally rent something to them...biggest problem is them not coming to the office or even calling.

I hear you there we are off a main road. We do have a sign out front. <no one seem to notice it> Luckly we are behind a couple of strip malls so people do notice us but can not figure out where our office is located on the property. Word of mouth is our biggest seller. We also do place mats in resurants for local advertising. Do you have a Chamber of commerce you belong too in that area. Our chamber let us put information down. Brouchure with map on it might be good for someone like you.
Look for special in a community newspaper for adverting ect? Also most people do not rent storage far from where they live so it best to stay local.

Colleen

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Manager
Mason Mini Storage
Mason Michigan

If you have a local pizza delivery restaurant, see if you can give them a free or reduced price storage unit in exchange for them putting one of your flyers on every delivery they make. That should blanket the area around you.

There's one a block from us, the owner has his motorcycle parked in a 5 x 10 driveup here. He gets the unit for half price, we give him flyers for the top of his pizza boxes.
Every once in a while, we order a pizza to make sure there's a flyer on the box (plus we LOVE pizza!)

Lisa T. sounds like a great idea...Now lets see if my home office will allow me to run with this concept. THanks again.

The pizza box idea is great! We're gonna do the farmers market possibly. You have to register and pay a fee to have a booth. Too many homeless selling stolen stuff. I do Avon also so I'm going to see if I split the cost the owner would be willing to do it. A little community involvement.

We started a 'goody bag' of several promo items. Here's the fun part, we give them to new tenants.

They are not used to lure people into our store, but rather to thank the ones that do come in. We've actually had good results with this! More people tell their friends that they got a 'gift' for renting from us, rather than the standard 'free lock' at move-in.

Our bag contains, a collapsible zipper bag that can fit in your jean's pocket, a click Sharpie pen, a band-aid container, a key chain measuring tape, some fun postcards (old-time pix of our area) and a container of "Stress Gloop" for adults. It is like a stretchy play dough, blue, sparkly and it makes funny sounds when you put it back in the container. The men like that part for some unknown reason.

All the items are useful when moving, band-aids for the cut finger, a marker for boxes, a little measuring tape (and level) and a toy to relieve the stress of moving.

We hand a bag to the new customer as we complete the rental process with our thanks. Sometimes, I will close by saying "I needed to make sure you have something to store in your unit."

Sounds expensive right? It's not at all. We purchase all of the items with our logo imprinted and order huge quantities at once. This cuts the cost down tremendously. Our cost per gift: less than $5.00 including tax, s&h, and is about the same cost as the free lock everyone does.

People tell their friends about the goodies, how nice we were etc. and that kind of 'free' word of mouth advertising is invaluable.

By the way, we do donate these items throughout the year to different projects such as the 'Welcome New Educators' bags or to pass out at community events.

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You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough!

I rally like this, for great customer incentive/confidence in our centre we have a program with the police sniffer dog squad that they can come and go when they please. It is a great deterrent for crime and great confidence in clients who wish to store with us. It also gives a great relationship with the local police force. We have signs in our office and corridors that say we support the police dog training program and conduct regular training on this site. As you could guess, we don’t have many problems. and I suggest that all managers look at this and may be take this on all you need to do is ring your local police station! In addition, it is a great advertisement tool Newspaper articles or TV reports. Have a great day and ill be back with more like a boomerang.

I love this idea. I've been thinking of implementing some creative marketing plans. Can you tell me who your supplier is for the goodies? thanks!

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DonnaT