Are you going to be renting a home or apartment, but it isn’t the size you had hoped for?
Do you need to need to find a local storage facility to house some of your stuff temporarily? If you need 24-hour storage access, you can run into problems. While many national businesses might appear to offer such a service, it may not be offered at the nearest location to you.
If you visit your local storage facility, you could be surprised to find that they don’t offer 24-hour access to a storage unit as you expected.
Different storage facilities can offer different service levels at each location, even if they are part of the same group. When moving to a new city, finding what you need can be a challenge.
Let’s take a look at what you need to do to make sure you find a storage provider that gives you the full access you need.
Why is Finding 24 Hour Storage Access so Difficult?
While a national storage company may advertise that 24-hour access is available, these details might not be advertised for your local storage facility. It is very common for national businesses to have different opening and closing times at their locations. The manager will decide the manager’s opening hours, so the opening times will be based on local conditions.
Even if a particular storage facility does offer 24-hour access to customers, it can still be at the manager’s discretion. If you know you’re going to need around-the-clock access to your unit, you will need to make sure the manager will allow you to do this ahead of time.
The storage facility might need to provide you with an access code for the security gate so that you can get to your unit when you need to.
3 National Companies Worth Checking For 24-Hour Service
There are 3 larger self-storage companies worth considering that probably will offer the convenience of being open 24-hours.
- U-Haul – U-Haul is probably your best bet when it comes to finding 24-hour service storage options. They have more locations than any other storage facility, so the odds are higher you’ll find one near your location. The other benefit to going with U-Haul is one-stop shopping if you have the need for a moving truck as well.
- Life Storage – Life Storage is another well-known company that has 24-hour options. You should explore their local availability as well.
- istorage – iStorage is worth checking out as well but has fewer locations than these other storage giants.
Pro tip: you can use storage finding websites to help locate something near you. If you need a Seattle storage unit, you can easily find it!
Local Storage Options
It is frequently the case that local businesses that are not part of a national group are more likely to offer 24-hour access. If you run a search for storage in your area, you may discover more options than expected. There will, of course, be the well-known national companies along with some smaller businesses.
A storage business that only has one or two facilities is likely to give better and more accurate information about their opening and closing times.
Whenever you are looking at a self-storage company’s website, whether it is a local or national business, you need to do some research to ensure that they really offer 24-hour access. This may mean reading the small print and checking their terms of service. Only then will you be able to find out for sure if around-the-clock access will be available.
You might find that local storage companies offer a more reliable 24-hour access option. Though with local businesses, you might not get the same level of service offered by larger national providers. The smaller business may not offer things like climate control and other benefits.
National Companies Offering 24 Hour Access
As we’ve already mentioned, no every facility in a national chain will offer the same level of access to your storage unit. But some companies are more likely to give you the access you need.
iStorage is a business with facilities in 23 states. If you are near one of their locations, they offer 24-hour access, whether you need storage for business or personal reasons. iStorage doesn’t even charge you an extra fee for this service.
If you are a business user, you should get full access to you will unit from both U-Haul and Life Storage. They do charge you an additional fee for this service, however. For example, you can expect to pay $10 per month extra for their 24-hour access from U-Haul.
Even if you are near to one of the national businesses we’ve mentioned, you still need to check that the local facility will give you access carefully. This could mean that you will be better off speaking with a manager to find out if you’ll get the access to your unit you require.
It is important to do your research in order to save money when you’re moving.
Choosing your Storage Provider
When searching for storage facilities, start with the local businesses before moving onto the national companies, and phone them. Find out from the manager whether you can actually get full access to your unit and what arrangements need to be made. Do they have keypad access, or will you need to make arrangements each time you want to access them?
Also, do your research and check what their charges are for this level of service so that you can more accurately compare your options. You are far better off checking out these things in advance instead of assuming that you’ll get the access you need later on.
Hopefully, you have found these tips on finding the best 24-hour storage facility to be helpful. Best of luck!
