Why Web Rate is Important
In the self-storage industry, it is common for the same unit to have two prices:
Street Rate - the price for someone who comes in person ("off the street"), calls, or walks in. This is the "standard" price.
Web Rate - the price for someone who rents online, usually lower.
Why is the online price lower? Two reasons. First, an online rental is cheaper for an operator - it takes little or no staff time. Second, potential online tenants are more price-sensitive: they compare offers across listing sites and make their decisions based on prices they see online.
When such a customer calls a facility, they expect to get the price they saw online - and this is where a problem can arise. Because they are speaking with staff who do not handle online rentals, staff might offer the Street Rate. The prospective tenant can be disappointed and walk away.
Here is the most common scenario: a prospect sees an online price of $100 (on a facility's website) but, instead of renting online, comes in or calls. If the app could only charge the Street Rate ($120), staff would not be able to honor the price the prospect saw. The prospect is frustrated ("but the website says $100"), and either the deal is lost, or staff make manual, messy corrections.
This is why QuikStor applies a Web Rate alongside the Street Rate. The two prices sit side by side. Staff can decide which price to offer based on the channel the customer came from.
ℹ️ Info: The Tenant Portal is locked to the Web Rate, with no choice. However, selection between the Street Rate and Web Rate happens only on the QuikStor application side.
Where to Enter and Edit Web Rates
The Web Rate can be added and changed in several places in the QuikStor app. The sections below cover each one.
Adding a Web Rate
A Web Rate is added when a unit is created - for one unit on a form, or for many units through a CSV import.
Add Unit - the Web Rate field sits right next to the Street Rate field, both required (red asterisk) and numbers greater than zero.
The Add Unit window, with the Web Rate field
Units CSV template (bulk) - to create many units at once, use the Units import template, which has a WebRate column for each unit.
The Units CSV template, showing the Web Rate column
Editing a Web Rate
An existing unit's Web Rate can be changed in several places - from a single unit up to an entire group at once.
Edit Unit - reopen the unit's full form and change the same Web Rate field used at creation.
The Edit Unit form, with the Web Rate field
Overview → Pricing Details - the Pricing Details section lists both rates; the pencil beside the Web Rate opens a quick inline edit for that single unit.
The Pricing Details section, with the pencil next to the Web Rate
ℹ️ Info: Changing a rate through the Pricing Details section affects only that one unit. Other units keep their own Web Rate.
Units Update CSV template (bulk) - to change many existing units at once, use the Units Update template's WebRate column.
The Units Update CSV template, showing the WebRate column
Revenue Management - adjust the Web Rate for one Unit Group using the pencil on each table row, or change the rate in bulk via the Change Rates via CSV button. Find out more about revenue management in the next steps.
The Revenue Management screen
⚠️ Warning: Changing Web Rates through the Units Update CSV template or through Revenue Management can replace the Web Rate on every affected unit, whether vacant, occupied, delinquent, or with a manually set individual price.
Revenue Management: Determine the Right Web Rates
Revenue Management is not where a unit first gets its price. But it is not pure "viewing" either: this is where prices are adjusted. The difference is between authoring a price (per unit, on the form) and managing a price (at the group or facility level, by strategy). Revenue Management is the second one.
It is the "cockpit" for prices. The question is not "what is the price?" but "what should the price be, given demand and competition"? That is why the table shows not just the price, but the signals used to decide:
Occupancy / Vacancy - how much is full/empty (for example, 39% OCC, 14/23 vacant).
Velocity - the pace of rentals over a period (net of move-outs); it shows whether demand is moving.
Competitors Price (Min / Max / Avg) - competitors' prices.
The logic: a group that is nearly full with high velocity → you can raise the price; many empties and cheaper competition → you lower it to fill.
The Web Rate is adjusted in Revenue Management at the group level, using the same signals (occupancy, velocity, competition).
The price is never inherited from the Unit Group. The Street Rate and the Web Rate are always entered by hand on the unit - choosing a Unit Group only categorizes the unit and never fills in or changes a price. The group is a tool for applying a price to many units at once, not a place where a price lives.
Because a group-level change replaces the rate on every unit in the group (see the warning above), any manually set prices in that group are overwritten.
Lead Source - Where Did the Prospect Come From
Lead Source is a required field at the Move-In step precisely because it is the recorded answer to "where did the prospect come from" - the same criterion staff use to choose Street or Web. The field is required by intention. It pushes staff to select a channel before completing the Move-In and choose the right rate.
Looking at the Lead Source options, they fall into two groups with respect to price:
Online / price-sensitive channel - Tenant Portal, Google Adwords, Google Search (and likely Partner, if that is an aggregator). This prospect has most likely seen an advertised online price → offering the Web Rate makes sense.
Local / "off the street" channel - Drive By, Friend/Relative, Current Tenant, Former Tenant. This prospect, as a rule, has not seen an online price → the price stays Street Rate (the default).
The Move-In Rate Switcher: Apply the Web Rate
The Move-In Rate Switcher lets staff make the pricing decision at move-in. The staff member handling the move-in chooses which rate to charge, following a simple rule. That rule comes down to two questions: where the customer came from, and what price they have already seen.
If the prospect arrived through an online channel, or refers to an online price, staff switch to the Web Rate to honor what the customer saw.
If the prospect came in person or called "off the street," with no online price, the rate stays the Street Rate.
The Move-In Rate switcher, with Street Rate selected by default
Apart from the rule above, two more factors may come into play:
Facility policy - some facilities always match the web price when a customer asks, while others do so only in certain cases. This is a matter of staff training and facility policy, not something the system enforces.
Online special - if an online promotion applies, it is calculated on the Web Rate as its base. So choosing Web is not only about the price itself, but also about which base the discount is calculated from.
ℹ️ Info: The Rate Street is default because most people come in person and should pay the full price (they are less price-sensitive).