oes your facility feel safe? Not “Is it safe?” Not “How many break-ins have you had?” And not “Tell me more about the crime statistics in your county.” Just “Does it feel safe?”
Tenants aren’t going to give you a chance to justify your spending decisions or tell them why you focused on certain features instead of others. If your facility doesn’t look and feel safe, you’ll never talk to that tenant. They’ll just rent somewhere else.
So in this list, we’re going to go over common security amenities and rank them based on which ones will make your facility feel safest to potential tenants. We’ll also talk price ranges and the difficulty of setting them up, as well as side benefits, detriments, and ways you can turn your security features into extra revenue.
Fifty-seven percent of millennial renters are female and 56 percent of Gen-Z renters are female. When you think about security at your facility, consider how safe a young woman would feel visiting alone.
If you just want the answers, we have each amenity ranked by cost effectiveness and ease of implementation. See Security Amenities On A Budget.
Sources: We talked to Aaron Harwell of SpiderDoor for his take on security features, and we’ve added our own expertise and the questions, concerns, and advice of friendly operators across the industry. We’ve also consulted the SSA’s 2023 Self Storage Demand Study for some data.
1
Most facilities already have these, but if you don’t, the upgrade could well be worth the cost.
What you can measure is this: Every tenant who visits your property will see your fence and gate, or lack thereof.
It is possible to have a facility that feels safe without a gate and fence. For example, if you’re in a nice part of town surrounded by other businesses and foot traffic, you may not need an imposing fence.
On the other hand, a fence and gate are never going to hurt your facility, and they could end up making a big difference. Take note of your competition, and if everyone else has a fence and gate, you may be falling behind.
Tenants can’t miss your gate. If it looks good, they’ll feel safe. If it looks bad, they’ll notice.
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You don’t need the nicest, newest style of gate—you just need one that makes your customers feel safer. The low end of gate installation could cost you around $10,000, which is enough to make even experienced operators balk.
Fencing can get expensive too. According to ISS, you’ll be paying $40 per foot for chain link, and over $100 per foot for the nicer, more decorative options. A 50,000-square-foot facility would need about 900 feet of fencing if the facility is perfectly square, which it won’t be, so bumping that up to 1,000 feet of fencing, you’re still looking at $40,000 on the low end.
For the gate and fencing together, that puts us at $50,000 worth of upgrades just for this one amenity, but it’s a big one. And that $50,000 should pay for itself in valuation and new renters, eventually.
If your facility is struggling to stay afloat without a gate, the investment becomes riskier. But this is still the one amenity Harwell said he would add first to any facility he owns, A, B, or C class.
2
On a bright, sunny morning, when your new tenant stops by to rent her storage unit, lighting never comes up. The sun is doing that part for you; the facility is clean and well-lit, feels safe, and your manager does a great job sealing the deal. Tenant moves in, she’s happy, everything is going like it should.
Then, she needs to stop by after work to pick up a box. And work runs late. Suddenly it’s 8 p.m. and the sun isn’t helping any more.
Your lights matter a lot then.
Powerful lighting can make a facility feel much safer, especially at night. If you have good lighting, make sure your GBP has pictures of the facility at night with the lights on full blast. You’ll reassure tenants before they even know to be concerned!
Good interior lighting also makes your facility look much cleaner. White LED lights work better than the older, yellowish lights that some facilities still have, and that upgrade is incredibly cheap compared to some of the others on this list.
If you’re looking for even better lighting, get motion-detector lights. These turn on your spotlights whenever someone passes by, which is attention-grabbing and theft-deterring. Customers will notice your lights popping on without you having to say or do anything extra.
COST
LED lights aren’t too expensive to install, with prices starting at about $40 per fixture if you’ve already got the wiring in place. Installing new fixtures is much more expensive, as you’ll need to hire a professional to make sure it’s done correctly.
Replacing interior lights with new LED bulbs is even cheaper! If you’re looking for a cost-conscious way to make your facility feel safer, powerful lighting is a great place to start.
3
You can influence that perception by the type of cameras you have and the prominence you give them.
If a potential renter walks onto your property and can’t help but notice the cameras you have watching the gate, your office, and that first row of storage units, you’re starting off right!
If you can show those potential renters that you don’t just have cameras, you have cameras, they’ll feel safer at your facility. This could be super-high-tech cameras, sleek-looking low-profile cameras, or overwhelming them with the quantity of cameras.
The goal is not necessarily to catch the face of perpetrators, though this can be beneficial too. The goal is to have every tenant who steps foot on your facility feel like you have a good eye on the place.
When potential thieves see your cameras and decide to go elsewhere, that’s the camera doing its job. When a tenant sees your cameras and thinks their stuff will be safe, that’s the camera doing its job. Anything beyond that is just gravy.
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Cameras aren’t as expensive as gates, but they can be more expensive than lighting. A full system of surveillance cameras could cost you anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 or more, depending on the features you want and the number of cameras you need.
Pug Pro Tip: Get a TV up in your office that shows live feeds from different cameras around your facility. This draws customers’ attention to your security features without you having to spend time talking about them.
4
Sure, if other units get broken into, they’ll be worried. And if the facility gets vandalized, they won’t like it. But the first question is always going to be “What about my stuff?
Individual unit alarms answer that question every time it crosses a tenant’s mind. That’s why so many tenants are willing to pay more for a unit with a smart alarm installed inside!
These smart monitors (or individual unit alarms) monitor the interior of a single storage unit, looking for motion or heat depending on the specific model you’ve chosen. If the monitor detects someone inside the storage unit, it will alert someone.
The different models can usually do a handful of different things, including:
- Making loud noises (auditory deterrent)
- Text the tenant to see if someone is supposed to be in the unit
- Message the manager
- Alert a call-monitoring center (who usually have access to the cameras)
- Alert law enforcement
The technology is constantly getting better, so there may be some features not mentioned here!
The problem with unit monitors/alarms is that tenants usually have to be pretty far into the rental process to learn about them. Renters can’t see them from the outside, and even if they did see the alarm, they wouldn’t know what it is.
That means you need to invest some marketing into educating your leads about your individual unit alarms. If you add these to your facility, make sure they’re all over your website too. Include them on your marketing flyers. And whenever you talk to a tenant about renting a unit, make sure they know you have these!
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Unit alarms/monitors are hard to pin down, pricewise, because the vendors will probably offer big discounts depending on how many you purchase, so they don’t want to scare you away with a big sticker price. On top of that, the vendors usually charge a subscription fee to continue using the devices, which is easily offset if you can upcharge the customer for using them.
The one price we were able to find pins the monitor for an individual unit at about $100, with a $1 a month subscription.
If you’re able to charge $10 or so for the upgrade, this becomes worth your while very quickly!
5
This one is tricky because your customers can’t see “pest control” from the road or in pictures. Pest control might not have even crossed their mind, but you can bet they’ll care about it when it does.
If someone stores her grandmother’s bookshelves with you, and they’re infested with roaches when she takes them out, you can bet you’re going to get some harsh reviews. And she’s going to tell her friends and her family not to rent with you. That one bad incident could cost your business more than preventative pest control would.
Pest control is vital at a storage facility because your tenants are going to bring you their bugs. If they’re storing the stuff from their attic, their garage, their late grandmother’s closets, you’re going to get some creepy crawlies.
Powerful pest control measures usually consist of poison sprayed around doors and other entry points. There are additional barriers you can use, but sprays are the most popular choice.
Make sure your customers know that you’re using pest control. If you partner with a local pest control business, you can do them a favor by putting their information up in a few places around your facility, and maybe they take a handful of referral cards with them.
COST
Pest control can be pretty affordable, maybe $30 a month at the low end, though if you want your whole facility covered, you’ll pay more than this.
You can probably expect to pay at least a few hundred per treatment to get pest control over the entire property. Make sure you calculate the per month vs. the per year cost of different treatments to get the best overall deal.
ON-SITE MANAGER
An on-site manager isn’t the same as a security guard, but having somebody around can definitely dissuade thieves and reassure your tenants.
Resident managers, managers who live at the facilities they manage, are probably the best example of this. Hiring a resident manager is a big ask for most facilities though, and this practice seems to be fading across the industry.
How to take advantage: Make sure your tenants know that your manager is actually at the facility for specific time frames and overnight. Paired with good security cameras and a TV with live feeds of the facility, this can create a strong feeling of security.
MOTION DETECTORS
Motion-detector lights are actually a pretty good security feature, but other types of motion detectors are more of a hassle. The main way we’ve heard of people using these is to secure their boat and RV storage sections.
Motion detectors will alert a security system or observer when motion is detected. There are some AI options that can tell the difference between a thief and a raccoon, but you’ll still be paying extra for that type of monitoring. If you do big business guarding expensive RVs, consider adding motion detectors!
If you have a run-of-the-mill storage facility, motion detectors should be lower on the list of upgrades.
How to take advantage: This amenity would primarily be used when trying to close a lead, especially for a high-value rental. You can also include it in marketing materials targeted at premium RV storage renters.
EMERGENCY CALL BOX
If your facility feels unsafe at night, and lights and fencing are either not helping or aren’t viable, consider adding an emergency call box.
These can cost between $5,000 and $10,000 each, which is why we don’t recommend these at most facilities. We would only recommend this addition if you have serious concerns about your customers not feeling safe at your facility.
Emergency call boxes, or blue light boxes, can promote security just by being there, even if they aren’t used. Like a lot of these other security amenities, they demonstrate that the operator is paying attention to security.
CORNER MIRRORS
Corner mirrors are curved mirrors that help drivers and pedestrians see around the corner they’re about to take. If your facility has a lot of blind turns, these are a great way to prevent fender benders and the accompanying headaches.
But you can also use interior corner mirrors to help people see around corners inside your facility, too. Again, picture a woman alone inside your facility at night. Even if the interior is well-lit, she can’t see around the corners. A corner mirror could help alleviate her fears and make her feel more comfortable storing with you.
See which security amenities provide the biggest benefit per the cost. If you’re trying to upgrade without breaking your budget, use in the table here.