No room at home? Outsource the excess- Bangkok Post

Personal storage now available in Bangkok

NINA SUEBSUKCHAROEN

A service already snowballing in popularity in the West and making strong inroads in several Asian countries has made its debut in Bangkok _ personal storage space, replete with all the high-technology paraphernalia to ensure security of goods you just don't have room for in your home.

The proprietors of Bangkok Self Storage, a 51-49% Thai-Australian concern, certainly got their timing right, with the venture making its appearance just as buyers were lining up to buy premium-grade condominiums costing more than 100,000 baht a square metre

This makes the purchase of residential units in the best areas of the city a very expensive undertaking. Renting a storage unit can help these high-end buyers, reducing the space required inside the home, and ensuring neatness, with all the papers and other old but valued items securely stored _ safe but out of sight.

Darrel Lintott, Bangkok Self Storage's facility manager, said that since the the launch at the end of January, around 30% of the 169 available units have been rented. Sizes range from a tiny 1.5-square-metre cell all the way up to 18 square metres, with rents from 2,200 to 9,000 baht a month respectively _ payment at the start of the month _ plus a deposit equivalent to a one-month rental. The minimum rental period is a month.

The rates are higher than at any ordinary warehouse, but Mr Lintott points out his company is offering a different product.

"There is storage here, but what will happen is that you present a box and it gets on the truck and it gets put somewhere, you don't know where, and if you want access to it you usually have to call in advance, you have to pay a fee and then go and access it. You are paying for the space and then for access to the space as well," Mr Lintott said.

Another difference is that some firms charge by the cubic metre while Bangkok Self Storage sets rates by the square metre.

Access is a snap _ 365 days a year, between 8 am and 6 pm _ and Mr Lintott says arrangements can be made outside these hours if the need arises.

The storage site is in midtown, on Rama IV Road close to Channel 3, so convenience increases cost. Overseas storage sites are generally in suburbs where rates are lower.

The company has attracted a mixed bag of tenants, the majority of which are individuals rather than corporate clients.

"It's a [customer] mix that is quite good. Also, it's a new idea in Thailand, so foreigners might be more familiar with it, and some may even have stored previously when they were in other parts of the world.

"There is more and more Thai interest, which is obviously very good," he said.

The company's corporate clients are mostly small and medium-sized business owners rather than big firms, which generally have the cash to set up their own storage. "From a small business point of view you can see the need for a stock room or something like that. If it's a new business, or something they are trying out, or maybe a second business, then this would be their stock room, otherwise the company is maybe going to be in their apartments where space is limited," he said.

Some might wonder how secure such personal storage sites are, but Mr Lintott assured clients his facilities are at the very top end: "This is the cutting edge of storage." All the units are alarmed and padlocked by the owners themselves and there is closed circuit television watching over the whole 1,400-square-metre complex. If customers go to a unit other than their own, the alarm will go off.

"If any doors are opened, the alarms go off and it registers who is in the building and the time and date of when people come in. It's very easy, if someone comes in accessing their own unit but is actually trying to get into somebody else's unit, they would be caught straight away," he said.

In Singapore and Hong Kong security per unit and CCTV are common at such sites but not all facilities are up to the standard of the new Bangkok facility. Older complexes may not have individual unit alarms, or even CCTV, Mr Lintott said.

It is clear that such secure storage facility could be used by crooks or worse to store. illegal material. Mr Lintott said there is no direct check on what clients store, but they are asked for a general description of the goods being left.

"This is [a matter of] privacy and nobody looks over their shoulders to see what they are storing. It's the same as other storage companies _ it comes in boxes, they don't even ask what it is," he said.

Still, tenants must sign a storage agreement, and any illegal goods seen or found in their units are a breach of contract.

So far the most popular units are the smallest and the largest _ 1.5 and 18 sq m _ with all the small ones already occupied. The next smallest is 3 sq m, at a monthly rental of 3,000 baht.

The most popular item in storage is extra furniture, as people move house to both bigger and smaller premises. "There may be things that are not appropriate to their new de{AAC}cor, but they are things that they don't want to part with," said Mr Lintott.

If the business takes off, Bangkok Self Storage already has plans to add another storey to the current one-floor complex, but management is not thinking about opening another site for now.

"Well, it's growing, it's a new business, it's a new concept in Thailand," Mr Lintott said. "Part of what we are doing is getting the service out there as well, since it never existed and we are starting from nothing. It's almost an educational phase, maybe you have looked for a similar service in the past and not found it and looked for options or used nothing at all. So it's progressing nicely."