oe Shoen is taking a stand. In an exclusive interview, Shoen sat down with MSM to explain why he’s going against the grain when it comes to pricing. He says he’s “fed up” with what he describes as a strategy among major players (offering low introductory rates and then increasing them multiple times a year, sometimes before customers even move in), so he’s taking a different approach: offering customers a one-year rate lock guarantee.

Shoen had been circling the idea for a while, and then he got hold of a year-old article in Slate titled “Sneaky Self-Storage Unit Rate Increases.” He reads a piece of it aloud. “These kinds of massive rate increases [ECRIs] are more common among larger companies … familiar names like Public Storage, Extra Space Storage, U-Haul, National Storage Affiliates, CubeSmart, Prime, and StorageMart,” quotes Shoen, and he shakes his head. “The thing is, we don’t do that. We’ve never done that. I didn’t even know what ECRI meant until I read this. And now we’re being lumped in with those who are doing this because we’re all the biggest names in the industry. That sealed it. I thought, ‘I need to distance myself from these other guys.’”

Shoen says he’s had many people including industry colleagues tell him that he could make a lot more money if U-Haul did adopt aggressive ECRI practices. “I’ve heard it all. They say, ‘But all the REITs are doing it,’” says Shoen. “And the REITs, by doing this, they’re communicating to me that they are smarter than me. OK, maybe you are, but I’m not being sued by the city of New York.”

In an industry increasingly driven by data models and revenue management software, Shoen is betting that predictability will beat out optimization. Plus, he’s been going against the grain for years. For one, he has insisted that facilities post their rates in store for at least the past 30 years. “Because we post it, we can’t change it very frequently. Plus, it’s just too much work to have one price for one customer and another price for another customer. If you want a 5-by-5, here’s the price. It’s the same for the next guy or gal too.”

U-Haul is also famous for its “first month free” promotion with a truck rental. “We don’t require a dollar. There’s no admin fee, no insurance requirement. You need to have a lock, but it can be your own lock. It’s legitimately one month free. There are customers who come and stay for just one month, and they get it for free. Now, we’re hoping we can sell them a box or a lock, but it’s a straightforward promotion.”

U-Haul does increase rates over time, of course, but customers receive a notice 30 days in advance, and it’s never an “outrageous” amount. “We apply rent increases that are somewhat in line with inflation. We’ll perform an analysis by location, unit size, it’s pretty simple. If all our 10-by-10s are rented up, we’d probably consider a rate increase. But even that won’t happen now, not for a year from the move-in date.”

Is the first month free promotion going away with the new price lock guarantee? No, says Shoen. “They still get the first month free with a truck rental. So, for those customers, the price lock is 11 months. I had to double-check the literature to make sure it was written that way so that we weren’t locking in 12 months free,” says Shoen with a chuckle.

Customer service has been Shoen’s priority since day one. That is why, any time there’s a natural disaster, U-Haul is first to open its doors to those impacted by the event. “Hurricanes, floods, fires, we give them one month of free storage if we have units available,” says Shoen. “Many people take advantage of that and move out 30 days later. We don’t make any money off them, but you know what, the rooms were empty, so why wouldn’t we extend them to people? I just think it’s a standup thing to do.”

Shoen believes part of the reason customer service has been lost over the years is because the individuals who pioneered the industry–legitimate business people just trying to offer a product or service–have been replaced by finance people. “These are people from Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America. That’s where all these people come from now. They don’t come from the storage business. They may come from a hotel REIT or maybe a shopping center REIT, but they don’t come from the storage business.”

Because of their financial perspectives, Shoen doesn’t think they understand that storage can be a significant expense for a lot of customers. Instead, he says, “They’re attending seminars on how to squeeze the most amount of money out of people. How much can you crank it without incurring the wrath of the government? Can you crank it 30 percent? Can you crank it 40 percent? That’s a bit like people who’d raise the price of gas because it’s running out. There’s something wrong with that and that’s a real sore point for me.”

Shoen says it’s difficult enough for people these days without self-storage taking advantage of them. “Renting a unit for $34 when you know you want $99 for it, just to get them in the door, knowing full well you’re going to nearly triple that within 90 days, is disgraceful. People’s money and their belongings that they’ve entrusted to you are not something to be played with.”

What also infuriates him is that he understands that many customers have had a disturbance in their lives and they’re coming to you for help. “Maybe they lost their home. Maybe they had a death in the family. These things happen. To imagine preying on them in their time of need is ridiculous.”

Shoen also knows that at least half of the customers who need storage are very budget conscious and are living paycheck to paycheck or payment to payment. He says these same people are the ones who’ve helped make U-Haul the success it is today. “Why would you want to take advantage of them?” asks Shoen rhetorically. “There has to be some modest amount of reciprocation, so at U-Haul we say, ‘Service comes before profit.’ Unless you serve someone, why should they allow you to make a profit? You’ve not done anything, so service comes before profit.”

This is not naivety; Shoen knows he still has to pay the banks, the employees, and so on, but he doesn’t feel he needs to “trick customers” to do that.

“U-Haul is very much long-term relationship driven. While [the REITs] may just think of storage as a 30-day contract, for us it’s a 30-year relationship. We treat this customer right and we know they’ll be back. Maybe not to the same store. Maybe not for a few years. But they’ll be back when they need us.”

U-Haul was famously founded by Leonard and Anna Mary Carty Shoen, who at one time could not find a rental trailer for a one-way move, forcing them to buy a trailer. This was the aha moment that gave birth to U-Haul, which the Shoens began in Portland, Ore., before uprooting the business and headquartering in Phoenix, Ariz. “So, U-Haul has been a family business from day one. And today, I have three of my children working here (sons Stuart and Sam are executive vice president and U-Box program director and board vice chairman, respectively, while daughter Royal is U-Haul’s eastern Arizona president). While I don’t insist they work at U-Haul, I encourage it,” Shoen told MSM in 2025. Self-storage is in the blood. Perhaps that’s why these new pricing practices have his blood boiling.

“It’s offensive to me,” says Shoen. “The storage industry has spent years establishing itself as a legitimate consumer product, and now we’re gonna just throw it away?”

He says it’s a slap in the face to the hardworking pioneers who build the industry. “It used to be, ‘How can we make this industry better?’” asks Shoen. “Now it’s finance people asking, ‘How can we milk this cow?’ Well, self-storage is not a cow to be milked. It’s a customer relationship. This storage business was created out of nothing. You go back 60 years, there was no self-storage. Different people came in and did product, and did innovations, and made mistakes and learned from them. I made plenty of mistakes and learned from them, but today we want to be in a relationship with the storage customer over decades, not a 30-day period.”

Shoen says nothing is going to change his mind. Has he spoken with the heads of other REITs about this? He shakes his head no. “I have not, and I went back and forth on that one. Maybe I’ll lose some friends over this, but I don’t want to tell them how to run their business. I’m just saying that it won’t work for me, so there was no need to have a discussion. I have spoken at other events and said that I didn’t think raising rates exorbitantly was a smart move, that it would bring the government into our business because they’d finally determine that this is a form of consumer fraud.”

In addition to U-Haul owned stores, the company also works with approximately 5,000 dealers who are independent self-storage operators. “These are people who own one, two, or three stores. They haven’t raised rates in two years. They get full enough that they’re happy, they’re making a return, they’re good. If you told them, ‘Move somebody in for $27, then jack the rate to $99,’ they’d look at you like you were crazy.”

Shoen says this is because this is the part of the industry that is not run by finance people. It’s run by small businesspeople who now are pretty big small business people, but they’re still small operators compared to the REITs. “They’re the heart of this industry. They’re just trying to serve the community and do their job. And that’s largely how we view ourselves at U-Haul too.”

Since Shoen has warned about government control in the past, does the New York City lawsuit give him some sort of validation? “Well, I knew it was just a matter of time, but I’m not happy about it,” he says. “I hope it gets dropped and some of these operators come to their senses.”

Despite this hope, he does believe the industry is going to get price controls from this. “It’ll be a crying shame,” says Shoen. “You worry about making money, but you want to see what’s really going to increase your costs? Government regulation of anything. Your costs are going to go up and you’re not going to like it.”

Shoen says that when price controls do go into effect—something he thinks is almost inevitable if the REITs keep at the pace they’re at—it’s going to be very difficult to extricate the industry from the government’s grip. “It would take a decade, at least, of everybody cooperating for them to loosen up, so my idea is to get out in front of it now, and the people who know better need to say it.”

If the regulators were to come to him today, Shoen would tell them exactly what he’s saying in this interview. “I’m not going to cover for others and say, ‘Well, they really just didn’t understand what they were doing,’ because they damn well know what they’re doing. They have conferences on how to do this. They have people who consult on how to do this. Go talk to them because I don’t engage in this.”

In California, where rent control bills were on the table with Senate Bill 709, the California Self Storage Association and the national Self Storage Association worked together to transform it into a bill about transparency; rate hikes were OK so long as proper disclosures were provided.

“There was a lot of lobbying done around that bill, and I supported that lobbying because I don’t like rent controls. They don’t work well.”

However, the outcome for disclosure, he says, is something that anybody can work around. “All the other majors have engineered around the California law, pure and simple. Sure, they disclose it to comply with the minimum requirements of the law, but it’s buried deep enough with a lot of other terms and conditions that people don’t pay attention or even see it. They’re just initializing boxes to get the contract signed.”

He thinks New York City won’t go for this. “I was told of a clip where [Zohran]Mamdani, in a live speech, mentioned both Public Storage and Extra Space,” he says. “I’m probably next. I’m number three. So, although he didn’t mention my company, it’s not a great leap to imagine the next time he adds, “and U-Haul.” I need that like a bad cold. And that’s why we’re going to set U-Haul apart from the crowd.”

Shoen has been reading MSM’s 2025 Self-Storage Almanac, and he wholeheartedly agrees with a statement he read on page 75, which hypothesizes that the strategy of low move-in street rates with aggressive in-place rent increases is a reason why national competitors have seen drops in occupancy after long-term tenants moved out. “I think that’s very likely the reason we’re having trouble with renting up right now,” says Shoen. “It’s because of the abusive prices and schemes that have been used by a bunch of the majors.”

Shoen believes the industry needs to get back on track and return to a more customer-centric approach. He says that while a company may set its terms and conditions, in the end, the customer gets what they want. “If the business won’t play fair or is unfriendly, another business will come in and take their spot; there’s always someone on the hustle.”

He adds a few words of caution for the REITs. “Abusing the customer doesn’t work out in the long term; the customer figures a way to get even. It’s a complicated process and involves tens of millions of people, but it happens. You may be an economic behemoth today and can’t imagine taking a fall, but plenty of companies have come and gone because a customer changed their attitude towards the business.”

Shoen also hopes his actions show independents that operate with honesty and integrity that they’re doing it right. “I’m ashamed that I didn’t speak out publicly before now. What those smaller guys are doing is reasonable and fair, and I should be backing them up, so I’ve decided to separate myself from what really is all the other majors, who are all in this to one degree or another. So, just as that Slate article mentioned U-Haul with the others, I don’t want to be mentioned in that contest. U-Haul’s not in that contest.”

Shoen wraps up the interview by stating that by taking a stand, he’s hoping to do his part to make the industry better. For Shoen, what was once a fight to make self-storage legitimate as an asset class has now become a fight to make self-storage reputable again.