Sharing of info with other facilities ?

Prime

Does anyone else share information among the facilities near your location, I.E. rates, bad tenants, unit availability ??? I feel as though those things should not be that closely guarded because we are all in the same business, so why not be friendly about it.

CVSSSTORAGE

I do and I wish more people would. 

teamcapitola

We share with other local facilities; we would also share with the chains nearby but they rarely want to.

We share a bi-annual rates sheet (passed around 6-10 local facilities over the last 7 years; if you participate, you get a copy of the results spreadsheet at the end) It's up to each facility what they want to include; we usually list a few sizes and rates, but leave out our occupancy for example. It also lists manager names and contact info for questions and such.

We also have an unofficial "do not rent" list/spreadsheet that we circulate between friendly facilities....listing names and reasons (i.e. auctioned, left trash, sleeping in unit)

Faye

I like this idea.

skinman

We call each other with "Do not rent" problem tenants as they try to move from one storage to the next as @teamcapitola mentioned. As far as rates and such, we do... but if they call I only give them the information that is already available on our website.

Orkocean

It's always hit or miss sadly. If i've been in an area long enough to build connections with the other sites it's something i've always been up for doing. Hell I visit the local competitors also just to know who's the next best option if I can't handle what a customer needs so I can send them over versus let them keep randomly looking. My original city I started in every site within about 5 miles knew each other from site visits etc.. We would share info about pricing, trouble tenants, break ins, anything that we thought would be useful for another to know to help them in their day to day would be shared. Of course a few visits with starbuck drinks in hand helped this process begin  

As they said above, bigger chains rarely share info and I've heard a lot of workers tell me they're not "allowed" to share info but I've also come across people at the bigger chains who are more than happy to talk shop and share info. I think it really comes down to the worker themselves and if they are just sitting around collecting a paycheck versus a worker who truly understands storage and knows it's better to share with others instead of shutting them out. 

i43storage

We are a fairly small community with rates online.

websterb

We often "share" information when called. We will do referrals to other facilities if we don't have what the customer is looking for. We are a rural area and like helping our neighbors which in turn that customer will put in a good word about us in return. 

L_Greenwell

Yes, we share information when asked. We have several different storage facilities where we are at. We may not have a size available, someone else might. It all about helping the customer with what they need. Works for us.

Prime

CVSSSTORAGE said:

I do and I wish more people would. 

I do as well, its a shame I think that others don't partake. Thank you for your response.

ShedStuff

I have often wished their was a local storage unit group that meets to talk about such things. As I see; some of you do meet in your area  I am assuming from your comments you have made the grps. I was thinking more from a state/national organization to have a legal format.