New and Improved

Dino's Storage's NEW climate controlled building in Elkhorn, NE, is almost completed! We are only days away. We are very excited to once again serve our clients in Western Douglas and Sarpy Counties with climate control storage units as we did in years past. We have sizes ranging from 5x5 to 10x30 in this state of the art, 4-story building. Elevators of course; we'd never ask our customers to climb a flight of stairs with their arms full. This site will continue to offer non-climate drive-up units and parking spaces. The gate and fence are up and operating, the new DVR camera system is recording, and the carts are assembled ready for their first use. Here are a few pictures of what to expect of the new building after the hard work of construction is done and Certificate of Occupancy is in hand. Please come check it out, we guarantee you will be as pleased with the end product as we are!

Elevators Are Not the Enemy

I was out in Elkhorn this morning looking at our new climate control building that is progressing nicely. What is great from a customer-service perspective is we are going to be able to offer our customers drive-up access to non-climate units and climate control units accessed by elevator. Although we’ve seen it done by other companies, we have never, and will never, ask our customer to climb up or down a flight of stairs to move items.

For a puzzling reason, we encounter a lot of people who want to rent on the first floor to avoid elevators, regardless of distance. Think about this: If you can rent a unit on the first floor and it is 150 feet of hallways from the door, or you can rent on the 3rd floor and walk 80 feet- which is closest? People say the elevator takes too long, but does it really?

Our building doesn’t house apartments or shopping areas, so our elevators are used minimally. If you are moving during the first weekend of a summer month, you may have a minute or two wait for the elevator, or share it with someone else. But storage facilities are not highly trafficked places, you can tell that by the number of parking spaces or bathrooms required by the city. Interesting thought, eh?

So if you don’t have to wait for the elevator, it makes sense to rent up or down, not straight across. Especially if the facility charges a premium fee for the most highly sought-after units. No stairs and closer walking distance with a possibility of saving money. In these times of extreme couponing and foreclosures, you may save money by asking: "Do you discount any less-than-ideally located units?" or "Is the price effected by what floor I am on?"

31 days ago

Desired end result

Right now

Self-Storage in Canada

Jennie and I visited our Dino's Storage site in Winnipeg, Manitoba, last week. It was my fourth trip there and Jennie's first. I am frequently asked two questions about this location. First is, "Winnipeg, as in Winnipeg, Canada?" and what comes next is "Why Canada?" The answers are yes, and because Dave liked Winnipeg after visiting a few times.

Winnipeg is not as far as you'd think. Take I-29 straight north for 600 miles and you wind up in the heart of Winnipeg. Winnipeg and Omaha are fairly similar cities when it comes to demographics. It recently acquired the previous NHL team Atlanta Thrashers, now the Winnipeg Jets, adding to its existing array of sports teams for Minor League baseball, Canadian Football League, and World Soccer Academy.

Winter weather may be the only major difference between the Canadian Dino's and the American Dino's. Our self-storage facility in Winnipeg offers the same features as our Midwest sites:

• drive-up units
• parking spaces
• indoor non-climate units
• heated units (different from climate control)
• office hours 6 days a week
• knowledgeable and friendly staff
• moving truck
• keypad and gated access
• packing and moving supplies available

Understanding Liability in Self Storage

Nothing in life is guaranteed. So true in the storage world. Storage facilities can build fences, install gates, require key pad access, build state of the art facilities, and sometimes things just go wrong. Air conditioners break down. The gate freezes open in the winter. Someone cuts a hold in the fence. An outside unit door is frozen to the ground from melting snow. Elevators get stuck with people in them. Cameras stop recording. We never guarantee the safety, security, or condition of anything because we live in a world with sinful people. We are working with machines and computers. In the Pyramid game, this category would be called Things That Break. 99% of the time, everything goes smoothly, but when we are educating our new customers about our self-storage processes, it’s our job to make sure they understand that nothing is guaranteed. There’s no refund when an extra amenity is malfunctioning. Customers are paying for the storage of their goods, not the bonus extras.

Our lease states we aren’t liable for theft, damage, vandalism, dirt, etc. The next sentence is NOT, “unless our gate is broken” or “as long as the plow comes immediately after the blizzard”. If you are going to rent a storage unit ANYWHERE, remember you are responsible for your items and we are responsible for ours. You won’t find a storage facility that accepts liability.

If you don’t have insurance, we offer insurance through Bader Company, a company who specializes in storage insurance at very reasonable rates. Flooding has been a big issue in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa for the last two months. Storage insurance through Bader does not cover flood damage. Always check with your personal home owner’s or renters insurance agent to be sure your policy covers stored items off-premise and that they are covered at the same rate as the items on-premise.