AI is transforming self-storage through pricing optimization, real-time sales coaching, and site selection. Safestore CEO Frederick Faccioli's company already uses AI across marketing and property development, but as tools become cheaper, smaller operators will catch up.
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So stuff that we really like is the sophistication that tech is bringing in, in terms of pricing. Now, not only in setting your street rate, and actually whether you give a pound for the first month or 50% off, I don't think that really matters. What really matters is how you keep your customers and how you do that yield management through your ECRI, your existing customer rent increase. And actually, I'll come on to rents in a sec, but quite often people are quite timid And I think tech is going to have a huge opportunity to enable every operator, whether you be a big operator like Shergard or a smaller operator with one store in Middlesbrough, to do really well on your yield management and thinking about how the customer thinks. We've got great data through AI, how are customers thinking and how do you monetize that and how do you try and put your prices up as well. So I think that journey is incredible. How AI is improving sales processes, so we're seeing AI listening to sales calls and prompting sales staff to make sure they're being really effective in what they're doing. How AI is transforming decision-making on real estate. So should you build this new site here, or should you build this new site here? Clearly, you come to Savills because we'll give you that good advice. But actually, there's a lot of information out there as well for you to look at as well. And we'll come on to local markets. And because I'm a real self-storage geek, I read the Safe Store accounts this weekend. It was really exciting. And what he said— this is Frederick Faccioli— and You know, a huge platform across Europe, the biggest operator in the UK, they're in 7 countries across Europe. And I think this sort of encapsulates where we think the industry is going. He said, we accelerated the integration of advanced AI across marketing, pricing, and property development capabilities that smaller operators cannot replicate. Now, I think some of the smaller operators are going to be able to replicate that because the tools will be at your disposal quite soon.
