During Storable’s recent Summer Surge or Status Quo webinar, three industry leaders in self-storage management gathered to share their top strategies and tools for attracting tenants during the busy season.
More than 76% of webinar attendees identified attracting tenants as their top concern amid the current market conditions.
Additional polls found:
- Most respondents (49%) said they were somewhat confident they would meet their occupancy goals this summer.
- 23% were very confident they’d reach occupancy goals, while 5% were not confident.
- 53% of attendees said they were planning to invest more resources into digital marketing this summer than other areas.
- 30% said they were planning to invest more into revenue management.
- 1 in 5 operators were planning to invest more in artificial intelligence and automation
How is Demand Looking?
According to panelist Peter Spickenagel, owner of Citizen Storage Management, last year was one of the worst years he’s experienced for lead activity, noting that search volume for the term “storage near me” on Google was down about 75% from the pandemic peak to 2024
This year is looking better, he said, with his company seeing a significant increase in leads over the last two months compared to last year.
“[From] May of 2024 to May of 2025, we’re actually up 59% in the volume of leads that we’ve received at our stores” Spickenagel said.
John Eisenbarth, Chief Operating Officer at West Coast Self-Storage, said they’ve had pretty good demand this year and last. What has improved is the number of move outs.
“Move-ins are about similar to last year. But our move-outs are down like 10%,” he said, ”Extrapolate that together and we’re off to what I consider a good start.”
Recommendations for Attracting More Self-Storage Tenants
Panelist Sue Haviland of Haviland Storage Solutions emphasized digital marketing services as an important way to gain more rentals and generate demand. She advises storage operators to check their dashboards and look at their keyword analytics regularly as search trends change over time. Her company recently tweaked keywords at two stores after digging deep into research and ended up producing over 20 rentals this month.
“My leads have gone up again. I’m not saying that’ll work everywhere. But if you’re not looking at those kinds of things. How are you ever gonna know?” Haviland said.
The panel shared many more incredible tactics for boosting sales this summer including:
- Using AI to generate new keyword lists and uncover underutilized terms.
- Optimizing website content for question-and-answer formats to align with AI-driven search.
- Reintroducing guerrilla tactics (e.g., door hangers, community events) to build hyperlocal brand recognition.
- Deploying direct mailers with QR codes linked to Google Analytics to track performance.
- Using a CRM tool to monitor every lead and track conversions.
- Prioritizing seamless, quick digital rentals—especially for customers who prefer zero interaction.
- Ensuring consistent branding across all platforms: website, social media, review sites, and in-person signage.
The panel shared many more recommendations and answered questions from the audience. Watch the full video below to see everything they talked about:
