What should be the minimum staff per the size of a facility. Small facilities might get everything done with one person. As the square footage becomes larger, the need for a part time person is required? When a facility is large enough staff will require two full time people and possibly a maintenance person. I am hopeful that with enough response a staffing formula will emerge that everyone will find useful.

From a managers point of view.

We residential manages of a 20 year old 650 unit 66,000sq/ft facillity. We have one "assistant manager" that covers for our two days off a week.

Between the three of us we handle just about everything this place can throw at us.

I handle most of the maintenance, my wife handles most of the accounting.

We don't see the need for additional assistance at this time. If a project arises that I can not handle the owners have no problem hiring someone to do it - so far that has only been the case in having the place re-painted and some plumbing work.

In the future we plan on adding about 75 covered RV spaces and even then we should be able to handle the increased load.

I look forward to seeing what others post here.

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Wayne
All American Self Storage
Palmdale, CA.
webmaster@all-americanselfstorage.com

Some questions though: Is it only storage rental or are rental trucks involved as well? Are there any other services offered there? I know when it's just the storage side of the business, it's not difficult to have one person handle it. However, when more services are added, it takes my husband and I both to make it run sharp. We have Budget Truck rentals, UPS, Proprane gas exchange and Auto Trader (not to mention the units and merchandise), so on any given day we both need to be in here. Even on the weekends when our relief manager works, he usually is contacting us because there are 5 people in office and he needs some assistance.

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Buzz and Jen

Southside Storage
Leesburg, Florida
info@southsidestoragemall.com

We have 661 units, also box/packaging sales, and we are the #1 U-Haul dealer in the Orlando and surrounding area.

My husband and I run it Tues-Saturday 9-6. We have one assistant relief manager, she works with us on Saturday 9-6, and handles it herself on Sunday 9-2 and Monday 9-6.

We are busiest on Saturday, particularly with U-Haul, while the truck rentals usually are slow to non-existent on Sunday and Monday, usually just checking them in.

I run the office, and my husband does the off-site marketing, post office trips to mail certified auction lien letters, bank deposits, "shopping", and he does the cleaning and maintenance including painting, plumbing, electrical, etc. the only thing he doesn't do is grass cutting and HVAC. He also shows storage units when he is here.

Our last facility had 550 units, this one has 661 and it doesn't "feel" any bigger, I would guess we could go well over a 1000 units without adding personnel, though much larger then that, I would add a 2nd person to help on our days off, particularly at the end/beginning of the month.

One other important consideration is your monthly turnover.....here we seem to be in an extremely transient area, and we move in about 70 units a month, and move out about 55 or 60, with the highest amount of move-in's and move-out's occuring at the beginning of the month. Our rent is also due the first of the month, so we have a lot of people moving out at month end to keep from paying the next month's rent.

Our previous facility, the rent was due on the anniversary of the move-in date, so people moved in and out more evenly throughout the month, and also the turnover rate wasn't nearly so high.

Both move-in's and move-outs are time and labor consuming. So I would think it isn't the size of the facility so much that determines staffing, as it is the # of ins and outs you have every month.

Lisa makes a good point --- we don't have the turnover she has -- we have maybe 10 to 15 move outs and 15 to 20 move ins per month (some months it flip flops ), but we generally are not that busy that one person can't handle it. We have a very steady tenant base and I like it that way.

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Wayne
All American Self Storage
Palmdale, CA.
webmaster@all-americanselfstorage.com

Wow 70 a month???
The only month I am busy like THAT is in May when the CAL students move out of the dorms and keep their stuff here over the summer. I had 100 m/i's this last May.
but typically it's 15-20 move in's 10-15 move outs, so I work tues-sat and my asst manager and works my days off, sick time, & vacation.
We have an oncall maintenance person and we use a variety of vendors for repairs/landscaping. I sweep the units and keep the lobby/office looking good.
But we have to stay in the office to allow access so it's very different than most everywhere else. We don't have elec. gates.