Full units feel like winning. A facility at 95% occupancy looks like it is doing everything right, and for a while the phone keeps ringing and the units keep going.
But a very full facility is often a cheap one. If you rent units as fast as they come free, the market is telling you something, and it is usually that your rate is too low.
Occupancy is a means, not the goal
What you are paying for is revenue, not a full building. RevPAU is the number that shows it, because it multiplies occupancy by the rent you actually collect. Two facilities can earn the same per unit with very different occupancy.
A worked example
Take a 200-unit facility at 95% occupancy. That is 190 units rented at an average of $100 a month. It collects $19,000 a month and earns $95 per available unit.
Now raise rates on new rentals and on units as they turn over, and let occupancy settle at 90%. That is 180 units rented, at an average that has climbed to $108. The facility collects $19,440 a month and earns $97.20 per available unit.
Ten fewer units are rented, and the facility earns $440 more a month, which is $5,280 a year. These are illustrative numbers, but the shape is real: a few points of occupancy are often worth less than a few dollars of rent.
How to tell if you are too full
Look at occupancy by unit size, not for the whole facility. A facility at 90% overall can have its 10x10s at 98% and its 10x20s at 70%. The sizes at 95% or more are the ones to look at first.
Watch how fast a size fills. If a unit type is rented within days of becoming available, you are probably below what the market will pay. Raise the rate on that size and see whether the pace changes.
Check your rate against the street. If you sit well below your competitors on the sizes that fill fastest, that gap is money left on the table. How to check your competitors' rates shows how to do it in an hour a week.
And when 90% is too low
None of this is an argument for empty units. If you are in the mid-80s or lower, work out why before you touch rates. A unit that sits empty for months earns nothing, and the cause may be price, your online listing, or a competitor that opened nearby. The goal is the occupancy at which your RevPAU is highest. That is different for every market and every unit size, and I do not have a number that fits all of them.
What I would do this week
Pull occupancy for each unit size. Pick the fullest one, raise the rate on new rentals by a modest step, and give it two to three weeks. If it keeps filling at the same pace, you were underpriced and you can step it again. If it slows sharply, you have found the edge and can step back. The ROI calculator shows what a gap like that is worth across the whole facility.
I operate self-storage facilities across the Midwest. The figures above are illustrative, not taken from my own facilities, so check them against your own numbers.