How Your Storage Facility Can Earn a Great Reputation in the RV Community

Do you want to move into the RV storage market? Do you already offer RV storage but would like some ideas on how to attract more tenants? If you answered “yes” to either, then these tips should help.

Offer Outdoor and Indoor Storage

There are two major types of self storage for RVs: outdoor and indoor. With outdoor storage, your RV customers park their vehicles in a gated lot. Outdoor storage provides high security, but RVs are subject to the elements. Yes, vehicles are made to withstand weather, but it does eventually start to take its toll paint jobs, metal parts, and tires.

Offer indoor storage units for RVs, and you’ll give tenants the option to keep their motorhomes well protected from wind, rain, snow, and sun throughout the year. You can offer individual units or even have a warehouse-style indoor parking lot. Also, you can charge more for indoor storage, and many will be happy to pay the increased amount.

Offer Climate Control

You can add even more protection for tenant RVs by offering units with climate control. After all, RVs do contain living quarters where your tenants sleep when they go on trips. Inside the RV, there may be cloth upholstery, clothing, and some personal items. In other words, there may be things that cold, dry weather, and hot, humid weather can damage over time.

Because of this, a climate controlled environment may be called for, and you can offer that.

Provide the Stations RVs Need

We understand; you’re not a gas station. But when RV owners are just about to go on a trip, or just returning from one, there are certain things they may need. If you provide them right at the storage facility, they’ll love you for it.

Your storage facility can offer RV wash stations as well as dump stations. You may also consider offering RV supplies as well as ice and firewood for camping.

Stay Open 24/7

When RV owners come back from long trips, they need to get their vehicles back in storage as soon as possible. Most neighborhoods don’t allow RV parking on the street, and not everyone has a big enough driveway for their rig.

Even on the best-planned trips, unexpected things happen. A family returning home may have intended to get back into town at 7:00 pm, drop the RV off at storage, retrieve their car, and go home. However, hunger attacks, traffic, a visit that ran longer than expected, and so on can add hours to a trip, and that family might not get into town until 1:00 am. They need to put their RV in storage, and you can make that possible.

Offer Deals

Are there certain tourist destinations or campgrounds that you know your tenants go to? Contact them, and see if you can work out a deal. Perhaps some will offer a discount to your tenants. If potential customers know that by renting a unit at your facility they can get 10% off a campsite or park they enjoy, that may sway them to become actual customers.

Keep Your Prices Competitive

Even if you are the only facility in town offering indoor, climate controlled service with lots of other perks, don’t go overboard and grossly overcharge your tenants. People have a sense of when they’re being taken advantage of.

Naturally, you want to make a profit, and you should be able to. However, if you charge too much, that leaves a sort of business vacuum. Another self storage business may start offering the same services at much lower prices, because they can, and you’ll have tenants eager to leave your facility to move to the other.

Serving a community starts with understanding what that community needs. We hope these tips help you understand the needs of the RV community a bit better so you can gain a great reputation with them.