Podcast Guests: Martin Wild, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Kinnovis · Louise Stokes, Head of Sales, Kinnovis
Host: Laura Heuer, Sensorberg (Head of Sales & Marketing)
Topic: Data-Driven Self-Storage — Occupancy, Revenue Management, Booking Engines & AI
Episode Overview
In this episode of The Smart Storage Talk, Laura Heuer sits down with Martin Wild and Louise Stokes from Kinnovis to explore how data shapes the modern self-storage operation.
Martin is no stranger to the challenges operators face. He built his own self-storage business in Austria 8 years ago — 8 facilities, all running on Sensorberg — before co-founding Kinnovis to help other operators benefit from the same operational intelligence he wished he’d had from day one. Louise brings a unique perspective: she was the first employee at Swift Storage in Australia, helping grow the business from one site to 15 in just three and a half years, before joining Kinnovis as Head of Sales.
Together, they cover:
- Why gut feeling alone is no longer enough
- What data actually matters — and when
- Why a booking engine is a revenue game-changer, not just a convenience
- How customers use self-storage (and what that means for your operations)
- Where AI is taking the industry next
This episode is essential for operators at any stage — whether you’re opening your first site or managing a multi-location portfolio.
About Kinnovis
Kinnovis is a self-storage management software platform that started from real operational need. Martin and his co-founders built it for their own 8-facility operation in Vienna, then scaled it into a commercial product. Today, Kinnovis serves customers across 18 countries in Europe, helping operators manage bookings, revenue, access control integrations, and reporting from a single platform.
What Is the Real Power of Data in Self-Storage?
Martin: “A good gut feeling is very important — but definitely not everything. You need to combine it with good data. And you need to receive that data through a well-working system that structures it correctly. Without properly structured data, you will never be able to interpret it correctly.”
Data-driven operations aren’t just for large platforms. Even single-site operators benefit from replacing assumptions with evidence. Louise points to the moment this became real for Swift Storage:
Louise: “The owners had been in the industry for many years. They had a lot of assumptions about how a storage facility should operate. With data, we were able to test those assumptions — and take out the guesswork. Some of what they assumed was completely turned on its head. A red flag is when someone says ‘we’ve always done it this way.’ That should always be questioned.”
What Data Should Operators Actually Collect?
The answer depends on where you are in your growth journey.
Early stage: occupancy and sizing
When you open your first site, the priority is understanding demand. Which unit sizes are tenants choosing? What are the seasonal patterns? And critically — do they match what the industry reports say, or does your local market behave differently?
As you scale: revenue management
Once occupancy is stable, the focus shifts to yield. That means tracking your own pricing, your competitors’ pricing, and how to grow revenue per square metre over time.
At portfolio scale: granular attribution
For larger operators with significant marketing budgets, the detail required increases significantly. Martin explains:
Martin: “When you have a Google budget in the tens of thousands of euros, you really need to know every single detail — where each customer came from, who came through the booking portal, who came through a booking made by an employee, who accessed the facility and when. All of that together helps you optimise your spend. You might be wasting a lot of money today without knowing it.”
Louise adds that visualising data is just as important as collecting it:
Louise: “We’re all collecting loads of data — it’s all there. But being able to visualise it in a meaningful way is what makes the difference. At Swift Storage, one of our key metrics was cost per move-in. Simple, but incredibly powerful for monitoring and adjusting our marketing strategy.”
Why a Booking Engine Is a Revenue Game-Changer
Contact forms were never the answer. Laura frames it directly — waiting up to three days for a callback is simply not an option for today’s self-storage customer.
Martin is unambiguous:
Martin: “The major, major change you’ll experience is suddenly realising how many bookings are coming in outside of opening hours. People want transparent pricing. They want to know exactly what they’re signing up to. And many don’t want to talk to anyone. Our generation is the best example — we book flights, we book hotels. Why not self-storage? It’s the same thing.”
Louise’s data from Swift Storage backs this up:
Louise: “60% of our customers booked without ever speaking to us. The 40% just needed a two-minute phone call or a quick web chat. And 80% were on a mobile device — so you need to be operating in a mobile environment, full stop.”
A booking engine also ensures data integrity. When every customer comes through a unified digital funnel — signing their agreement online, completing their ID check — the data stays clean and the operation scales without friction.
Storage Is a Necessity — Customers Need It Now
One of the most important insights from this episode is the nature of storage demand. It’s rarely planned. It’s triggered.
Martin describes it well:
Martin: “People don’t plan much ahead in their private lives. Someone moving apartment on a Saturday evening suddenly realises something doesn’t fit. They need to return their keys by Monday morning. The rental car is only available today. A self-storage that works old school — no digital access, no booking portal — simply is not going to get that deal.”
Louise adds the emotional dimension:
Louise: “Storage is a necessity. People need it when they need it — moving house, moving countries, big life events. You need to be able to find it quickly, do what you need to do, and move on. There’s a million other things to sort out. It’s one less thing to worry about — and the operator needs to make that easy.”
Upselling and Add-On Revenue
A booking engine isn’t just about capturing the rental. It’s a revenue channel in its own right.
Martin identifies the key upsell categories: insurance, premium 24/7 access, cleaning fees, packing materials. The principle is consistent — the more problems you solve for the customer during the booking process, the better.
Martin: “Solving more problems in the booking portal means more revenue. It’s not only about the space — it could also be additional services. The more worries you take away from the customer upfront, the better for everyone.”
How Will AI Shape the Future of Self-Storage?
Both Martin and Louise are clear: AI is already reshaping self-storage, and operators who don’t engage with it will fall behind.
Customer communication
Martin: “AI will help a lot with customer communication. Many operators are reluctant to use technology for customer contact — but they’re equally reluctant to work on a Sunday evening. With AI, you can combine both: serve customers 24/7 and still be a human presence Monday morning.”
AI-powered chat and voice tools are already available and capable of handling routine enquiries in a natural, human-like manner — at any time of day.
Data interpretation
Martin: “Everybody has 15 different reports and it’s super annoying to look at them every month and figure out the right conclusion. AI is amazing at doing this. That’s why we are incorporating AI into literally everything at Kinnovis — because there is so much potential to save time and help operators make better decisions.”
Louise frames AI as a connective layer across the entire tech stack:
Louise: “It’s now possible to pull all your data from all your different sources — your management platform, your access control, your digital marketing — and make sense of it quickly. The PMS is your source of truth, your central station. AI can sit around that and make it actionable. If you don’t embrace that, other operators will. That’s when disruption becomes a risk.”
The human opportunity
Perhaps the most memorable line of the episode belongs to Martin:
Martin: “In the future, we will use humans for human contact. All the admin we’re still doing today, like monkeys at a laptop — all of that is going to be automated. We’ll finally get to where we all want to be: being with humans, talking to humans.”
Louise sums it up: “We can focus on relationships. Human-to-human contact. That’s what it’s all for.”
Key Takeaways
- Data alone isn’t valuable — it needs to be structured, visualised, and acted on
- The type of data that matters changes as you grow: occupancy first, revenue management next, granular attribution at scale
- A booking engine captures revenue that a contact form never will — 60% of customers will book without speaking to anyone
- Storage demand is driven by life events. If your facility isn’t available digitally, you won’t be in the running
- Upselling through the booking process — insurance, access upgrades, packing materials — meaningfully increases revenue per customer
- AI is already transforming self-storage and will only accelerate — in customer communication, reporting, and operations
The operators who win are the ones who stop guessing and start knowing.
