Competitor Comparison

Braam

Does anyone use the competitor rates comparison tool within sitelink? I am soooo confused. I went in and changed prices for a couple different competitors and it's showing on the screen but when I print it out it reverts back to the old prices...

MamaDuke7

I have used it at other locations.  I think it's far too tedious, and I don't like the reporting for it.  I prefer to use an excel spreadsheet.  Much quicker and easier to see what I need to see.  And I can do a lot more calculations for my needs (such as average cost for size).

It sounds like a glitch if the report isn't changing to the updated info.  I just did a test and when I changed the price, the report changed.  Maybe reset your database or run a Live Update?

Orkocean

We took the time to input all the info at a site to see how useful it might be, we tried it for a few months and went back to my excel spreadsheet I've used for every company I go to.

Braam

Thank you both for your input!! Im not very excel saavy.. any tips or would you guys mind maybe sharing what you all do for your competitor rates in excel?

MamaDuke7

I just list the competitors down the side and across the top I list the standard sizes.  Then I fill it in from their website info as much as I can.  At the bottom, I do a calculation for the average price of that size so I can see where we are in relation to the average for the area.

Here is one I did a while back.

Braam

Thank you so much @MamaDuke7!!! Another quick question if you dont mind.. We keep a file of all of our tenants.. We are brand new and Ive never worked in storage before so honestly Im not even sure if we are doing our operations the way everyone else would but.. When a tenant moves out should we keep the file? Shred it? I can't see it being needed for anything down the road but I could be (probably am) wrong lol

MamaDuke7

Yes.  You need to keep all tenant files for 7 years.

Orkocean

I pretty much do the same thing, attached is a snap for one I did for our Vegas site, more to it on down with specials they have and all but just to show a general idea. I find a site that lists their prices rather it's their own site, sparefoot, going into their sitelink like a customer and clicking reservation etc. and make it a hyperlink for each site name so I can just click their name everytime I want to update.

teamcapitola

Would be nice (ok its a "pipe dream" ) if Sitelink had a way to hook the prices/sizes of all facilities within 10 miles (crawling websites) and keep them updated. It would only be as accurate as what the comp websites list, but tell me that wouldn't be cool?

There's got to be a way to script something like that.. you would have to manually enter each page for it to pull from, but once its set up....

Orkocean

There are services that do that exact thing. When I was with Westport properties we paid $1 per site to a service to receive an email every monday which as that exact thing. I personally didn't care for their formatting of the email and how it read so I still did it myself as I wanted to see things with my own eyes.

i43storage

One nice thing about the competitor thingy is the map showing the locations of the competitors.