Artificial Intelligence
Using AI To Raise Your Facility's Net Operating Income
Most self-storage facilities we speak with aren’t reaching their full revenue potential.
Units are staying empty longer than they should, and rates are going unchanged while demand shifts in the background.
Facility staff spend their days juggling calls and questions that rarely contribute to long-term growth.
Net Operating Income (NOI) is suffering, not because the business is broken, but because it’s being drained slowly by inefficiencies in everyday processes that waste both time and revenue.
As we are seeing across dozens of facilities, AI is one of the most direct ways to patch those leaks and grow NOI.
Operators are capturing revenue they didn’t know they were losing and saving a ton of time along the way. Teams are setting smarter prices (in real-time without manual intervention) and creating customer experiences that make tenants stick around longer.
Here are three things you’ll know once you’ve finished reading our article:
- The reason nearly half of tenant inquiries never turn into rentals, and how AI fixes it.
- How dynamic pricing beats quarterly rate reviews and puts thousands back into NOI.
- The routine tasks AI can automate tomorrow to slash labor costs.
Stop Missing Calls That Should Have Been Conversions
This is important. Every operator knows how critical the phone is. About 60% of tenants rent from the first facility that answers. Despite this, we are still seeing nearly half of incoming calls go unanswered on evenings, weekends, and even during busy weekday hours.
AI-powered communication can fix this. Instead of having tenants leave voicemails or giving up, you can make sure:
- Calls and chats are answered instantly.
- Gate code requests are resolved right there on the spot.
- Prospects can check availability and reserve a unit without waiting.
So, what does this mean for your net operating income? NOI rises because vacancy loss decreases.
Units are filled more consistently, and staff no longer spend their mornings returning voicemails from the night before, only to learn those tenants have already booked elsewhere.
You Need Pricing That Responds Faster Than Your Team Can
Operators often think of pricing as a static process. The reality is, reviewing competitor rates once a quarter, adjusting a few numbers, and hoping it balances out isn’t enough anymore.
The issue is that demand doesn’t operate on a quarterly schedule. It never has. When we speak with the facility operators, they tell us that demand is typically shifting week by week.
The only way to respond effectively is with dynamic pricing powered by AI, which allows rates to move in real-time.
When demand spikes for a certain unit type, pricing ticks up. On the flipside, if inventory sits untouched, promotions apply automatically.
The logic runs in the background, meaning rates are always in sync with the market without constant staff oversight.
Over time, this approach smooths out lease-up performance and reduces the peaks and valleys that make NOI unpredictable.
Yes, It’s Possible To Cut Costs Without Cutting Corners
Labor is expensive, and yet much of what staff handle day to day could be automated. Here are just some of the things that come to mind:
- Gate codes
- Balance checks
- Payment reminders
- Move-in instructions
All monotonous tasks that swivl can automate. These aren’t tasks that grow the business, but they’ll take up hours of staff time if you don’t find a way to automate them.
AI is stripping away those routine interactions for many facility teams. Tenants still get answers, but the system delivers them instantly. Staff are left with more bandwidth for tenant interactions that require greater nuance.
The result is that the cost of running your facility goes down, but tenant satisfaction doesn’t. In fact, we see it improve because prospective and existing tenants don’t have to wait around for customer service.
Making Smarter Decisions With Data That’s Already There
We are finding that most facilities are not making the most of their data. Just think about the amount of data flowing through your facility every day. That might include:
- Occupancy rates
- Pricing history
- Inquiry volume
- Churn
You’ve got access to plenty of data, but you don’t really know what to do with it. Luckily, AI does!
AI surfaces patterns that operators might otherwise miss. It can show that 10x10 climate-controlled units are leasing faster than expected and suggest pricing adjustments.
It can show that leads from paid search convert at higher rates than those from social ads, guiding marketing spend.
It can even predict when tenants are likely to move out, giving you a chance to intervene early.
Decisions made with that kind of clarity directly impact NOI, because money isn’t wasted in the wrong places.
NOI Growth Compounds When These Gains Start Stacking
The interesting thing about AI in self-storage is that improvements don’t stay isolated.
You’ll find that better call handling fills units faster, smarter pricing makes sure those units generate more revenue, and lower operating costs keep margins stronger.
Individually, each of these makes a substantial difference to your facility operations. But together, they start to compound. NOI growth becomes less about chasing a single initiative and far more about the system you’ve built to run the facility.
We See A Clear Path Forward For Facility Operators
If you’re not already, you need to take a real look at what AI tools can do for your facility.
You are probably seeing competing facilities using AI to shape tenant experiences. Now’s your time to do the same for your customers.
The operators adopting AI today aren’t doing it for novelty. It’s not about that.
AI touches occupancy, rate management, cost control, and tenant experience in ways that add up to lasting financial impact.
For some facilities, the first step is plugging revenue leaks by answering every inquiry. For others, it’s pricing automation. For multi-site operators, it might be communication across multiple channels.
The entry point doesn’t matter as much as getting started and building momentum.
Net operating income rises when revenue goes up and costs stay controlled. That formula hasn’t changed. What is changing is how operators can influence it.
AI is turning what were once manual processes into automatic systems.
No prospective tenant is lost. That’s the bottom line here. It keeps pricing accurate to the market and frees staff from what we can only describe as low-value work.
We would much rather see your facility team focus on needle-moving tasks than get bogged down in the nitty-gritty of booking units and handing over access codes.
Rather than fall behind facilities that are already answering faster and pricing smarter, you should book a demo to see how swivl can send your net operating income soaring.
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