Hi!

My name is Megan Eckert with USstoragesearch.com, an online marketing firm that services the self storage industry.

I'm wondering how many of you out there accept reservations and/or payments via your website. If you do accept reservations and/or payments have you had success doing so? Are you renting units online? How are you marketing your website to prospective tenants? Have you been able to find out if the people who rent online have a longer or shorter stay at your facility? If you are giving your tenants the ability to pay their bill online, do you have better collection rates because of it?

If you are not doing online reservations and/or payments why did you choose not to?

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to include a link to show off your website also!

__________________
Megan Eckert
Executive Vice President
USstoragesearch.com
886-880-0742

Megan-

My locations here in Ca. do use both online reservations and payments. I currently have 4 locations on the web and would have to say yes to helping in every way. On average all of my locations have 15% payments each month (which of course shares in reducing late people). Each location on average gets 3-4 rentals each yr. Which yes is not high number. But I feel any way that we can draw a customer is is better even if at 2am then losing them. We have done the online program for about 3 yrs now. It is something we have included on our move in checklist that each employee is required to express to our customers. Again is also noted on first notice for being late when we still allow all forms of payment. Which most customers are greatfull to have.

Susan

Susan,

Can you please explain more about the service/company that you are utilizing? cons/pros etc..

USstoragesearch.com Is the webs answer to a web site call center. An email is sent to the store to confirm an online reservation. If your paying good money for key words PPC (pay Per Click) you don't want those leads to vanish. Now days you can't do business on the Internet without a webmaster. We also use a banner exchange with other local businesses.

Megan

We are using on-line payments - we use PayPal with great success.

We also researched on-line payment options and found that this was the best option for us. Our initial start up costs were low as I built the web site. Continuing costs are in line with standard credit card fees (2 to 3%). Convenience to the customer is the biggest benefit. And yes we do have customers staying longer.

Two months ago we set up a free on-line request form, and from that we have rented three units. We do not take reservations over the web (or the phone) - if you want to reserve a unit we need a down payment in person.

We do not accept credit card payment over the phone without having signed documentation in the office with a signature on file. This policy prevents credit card fraud. Online security is handled by PayPal.

I have tried other on-line reservation services with no luck, so we will not be using any of those in the future.

this is just my .02c

No - and I am not gonna start now.

I have had tenants call and want to use "their grandmothers card" over the phone. Sorry - not gonna happen here!

I have never lost a customer over this policy - in fact most like that we are so strict with credit cards!

Yup that's all you need for someone's grandmother, friend, or ex-husband to pay over the phone for their storage unit, then they move out and the grandmother, friend, or ex-husband tells the credit card company that it was an unauthorized charge.

Here they have to pay in person and sign, with their own card, or if a significant other is paying, they have to pay in person and sign. If they want to pay over the phone, they have to have a signed agreement in the file with the credit/debit card number(s) listed on the agreement.

They can pay over the internet however, with whatever card they want. I have no idea what safeguards are built into the internet, since I have never paid online at our facility.

We have about 300 customers a month pay online, they can pay when they want, according to their own payroll schedule, instead of automatically being charged on the same day each month.....and a credit card holder can contest the charges from 3 to 6 months after you charge their card, depending on what type of card it is. You can't make people wait 3 to 6 months to move out or access their unit after paying with someone else's credit card.

I know I should not respond to this but I must.

I resent the fact that you are calling the rest of us greedy just because we may charge a cleaning deposit or an admin fee! Not all of us can live and work in OZ where every tenant pays on time and you never have to deal with Lien Sales (that one is getting a little old and I don't think anyone really buys it!).

In the real world we have tenants that are PIGS, we have tenants that are homeless, we have tenants who don't have mutual respect for others property.

For us - we have been here for almost 25 years! The same family who built this place still own it! For me it is a pleasure to work for them. We have been charging cleaning deposits and admin fees since day one!

The admin fees are for maintenance and up-grades to the office and computer systems - this is a normal part of business. Your owner may just charge higher rent to cover those costs - we charge a onetime $6.00 fee!!!

The cleaning deposits are small just to keep the customer honest - 98% of the time the customer gets that back when they move out. It's a bonus that most of them forgot about. This helps to make them happy as they are leaving and brings most of them back when they need storage again!

I am happy that your facility is so fantastic - I wish you continued success, but for those of us in the real world we will continue to do business our way no matter how disgusting you think we are.

Nuff said.

Once again Teri - if I have overstepped the bounds please just delete this post.


Edit - it seems that Dirkwoods posts have been removed form this thread - this raving was in response to a post he had made.