The Storage.co.uk Award for Pricing Transparency

Most self storage companies don’t give prices on their website. This allows them to provide customers with an individually tailored quote when they get in touch, and at the same time they can help them work out how much space they need.

Fair enough: this can be very helpful for the customers, many of whom have never used self storage before and need guidance in calculating space and understanding how much it costs.

Yet not all customers ‒ particularly the more experienced ones ‒ have the time to get in touch with different firms. In response to this, a growing number of self storage businesses now display their prices online. Our research revealed that over 30%, nearly a third, of Britain’s self storage companies have started doing this.

This prize is designed to reward the ones who put the most effort into price transparency – the ones who’ve left the fewest unnecessary barriers between the customer and how much they charge. To win, a company had to provide prices that were clearly presented and easy to access on their website.

In the opinion of the judges, the five best ones are:

Arden Self Storage – This independent, Solihull-based firm displays its prices just a single mouse-click away from the homepage. They cover a good range of sizes, and explain in simple terms the period (per calendar month) that the quoted amounts relate to. www.ardenselfstorage.co.uk

East Midlands Self Storage – Another small company, this time in Derby, who provide a straightforward, clear web-page list of prices, presented in a table, with a range of 19 different unit sizes between 6 sq ft and 150 sq ft. www.em-storage.co.uk

Parsons Self Store – A family-run business where the owners live onsite at their farm near Taunton; they offer storage in timber crates under cover, as well as container storage, priced separately, by week and by month. www.parsonsselfstore.co.uk

Strongroom Self Storage – A company with sites in both Southampton and Salisbury, their prices page is illuminated with an excellent graphic explaining how much you can fit in a 160 sq ft unit. They also clearly distinguish between the different prices for warehouse and container storage, and provide a handy link on their prices page for sending them an enquiry. http://strongroomstorage.co.uk

WJW Self Storage – Based in Cwmbran, South Wales, this self storage company provides a wonderfully obvious and straightforward set of prices that also suggests (as a way of judging scale) what type of transport people will need to move their belongings to each type of unit. www.wjwselfstorage.co.uk