Self Storage Article Directory

Public Storage -- Specialties

Public Storage is the world’s largest self storage provider and offers storage in 38 U.S. states and 7 European countries.  Because of the sheer size of the company and the varied locations, they offer all types of self storage: climate controlled storage, drive-up accessible storage, wine storage, car storage, boat storage, RV storage, motorcycle storage, office storage, etc.

But wait, do they offer those things? Consumers searching for specialized self storage like RV or wine storage will have a little research to do before locating a facility that offers these things.

The Public Storage website has a navigational search in which a customer can enter their zip code or city and State. Users must give either a zip or city and must enter a state. So looking for wine storage in California is nearly impossible, unless you tediously enter each city in, one after the other. And it seems you’d have to guess at where wine storage might be located and find one using trial and error because the only size options on the pull down menu range from 5x5 to 10x30 and parking. Even if you had selected a city and state offering wine storage, you wouldn’t realize it based on the information given on the Public Storage website because wine storage is not listed in the size options or advertised anywhere on their website.

I suppose a customer looking for wine storage could simply call the Public Storage facility they wanted to store at, but the direct phone numbers are not listed online. Public Storage only offers a general toll free number. Upon calling the number, consumers must navigate through at least three sessions of automated prompts before they reach a representative. (Even pressing zero several times doesn’t get you to a live person.)

It is more likely that a customer searching for a place to store their wine collection would choose a facility based on information they already know, such as a recommendation from a friend who uses wine storage. Customers are also more likely to narrow an online search by Googling “wine storage” or similar keywords and not blindly navigating through the Public Storage web page.

RV storage is a bit easier to locate on the Public Storage web page by selecting the “parking” option or a very large storage unit size, such as a 10x30, under the size menu, but you still must know the city or zip code and state. If you vacation in Arizona and prefer to store your RV there, you’d most likely want to shop around the region to find the best deal. Doing so online is rather difficult given the restrictive search.

As most RV owners know, parking is a hot commodity. The online search on the Public Storage website displays the following message when no RV storage is available, “We’re sorry, we couldn’t find any units that matched your search parameters. Please try another search or choose a different option from the grid.” It’s unclear as to whether that facility offers RV parking but has no vacancies or simply doesn’t offer it at all. So, once again, a consumer has to call the toll free number, for lack of local number listings, navigate through the automated system and speak to the call center.

Searching for RV storage is similar to searching for car storage, motorcycle storage and boat storage. A consumer can search for parking or a unit large enough to accommodate their vehicle.

It’s important to consider the ceiling height of the unit and if it is a drive-up accessible unit, the width and height of the door. You don’t want to rent a unit only to find your boat won’t fit through the door. Also remember to calculate the added height, width and length a trailer adds.

Let’s say you want to store several items that require a climate controlled environment. If you know what size you’ll need, you can easily search your city and state by size. However, locating a climate controlled storage will take a little extra effort, as you can not restrict your search to climate controlled units. These unit types are depicted by a purple square with a symbol of a rotating fan and the letters A/C. Once you’ve learned how to read Public Storage hieroglyphics, you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for, but good luck on some of those symbols; there’s no key indicating what each one means. If you’re good at the crossword puzzles in the newspaper, you’ll get a kick out of this.

Furniture storage and household storage, or self storage in general, is easier to locate than other specialized storage units are. The home page of the Public Storage website offers a “space guide” that helps a customer envision what size of storage unit they will need in order to accommodate their belongings.

Public Storage also offers Budget Truck Rentals at many of their locations. Truck Rental can be viewed on the second tab on the Public Storage web page. Similar to the self storage search, users must enter a zip code or city and the state. Additionally, users must select the pick up date and time as well as the drop off date and time. Rates are tallied to the right once the selection has been made.

Weekend rates are typically higher than rates throughout the week day. A flat fee is charged for the rental and charges are added per mile. Customers must also pay a deposit in order to rent the truck.

Overall, the Public Storage website is not user friendly for consumers looking for storage, especially niche storage. There are too many pages to navigate through and the layout is so busy that you don’t notice the small, blue link offering additional information for each location, which takes you to another window and another page to navigate. And they still don’t give the customer the direct number to the local store.

In fact, the only way to get specific information about what kind of specialized storage the property offers is to begin the reservation process on a unit. However, what are the chances that a consumer will pretend to begin renting a unit they don’t need in hopes of finding what they were really looking for? Pretty slim.

Only after you confirm a reservation will the website give you the phone number to that store directly. (That was a confusing explanation of a website. You can only imagine how difficult it is to locate what you need.)

The site would me much easier to navigate if there were a map with points linking to each location, taking the customer to another page in the site only one time, where a complete list of what sizes and types of storage are offered. This is just one example of how the Public Storage website could improve and be easier to use. 

Public Storage is a giant in the self storage industry. Those who cast a wider net catch more fish but it seems their net has a few knots in it when it comes to their web page as they lead their online customers through what ends up to feel like a rat maze.

Sarah Little

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