Extra Space Storage

The customer service is exceptional. We just moved. No complaints!

Beware, I almost agreed to store property at this facility but the lease they provided permits the company to amend the terms without any agreement of the renter. This seems to grant the company the right to raise rents whenever it chooses. Their manager Juan informed me that they may exercise this right usually after 3 – 4 months of rent. I asked to edit this provision and was informed by both Juan and a member of the MD corporate office that the lease is «as-​is» and no edits are permissible. There are other issues that influenced me not to agree to their lease, including certain disclaimers of responsibility for property damage and that they require renters to obtain insurance. Based on these reasons I will bring my business elsewhere.

They are not cheap… but wow! Their customer service is on point. Everyone working here is friendly, happy to help, and professional. I would recommend this service to anyone who wants to have quick, simple, and efficient access to well-​located storage.

This is essentially a criminal enterprise. They slap you with rent increases every few months because they know it is a pain in the neck to move stuff out, and that you need the storage otherwise you would never have rented space.
They have been horrible for many years to me, and I should have moved out long ago, but I get busy and delay it. The last rent increase, however, should be the last straw. They did not even notify me that they had increased the rent, and then they started slapping late fees on me. No amount of arguing or explaining works.
I still don’t have the time to deal with these crooks; but I am very interested in suing them now. Anyone else want to go in with me for a lawyer who might make this a class action?

Great place for storage. Only drawback is that they are not 24/​7, their office hours are regular hours, 9am to 5pm or 9am to 6pm. Secure facility, clean and well maintained. It is on the expensive side for the space. The employees are very nice and efficient.

I was attended by Latasha in the office. She was waiting for my arrival and gave a very personal customer service since the day I called asking for a unit. She was very kind and showed the elevators and helped me find my unit. I had no problem finding carts, I used 4 which were parked in the entrance of the alley door. They provided a lock with combination and were willing to facilitate it to my movers if I could not physically be there. The storage was very clean, just painted and is in a great location. We could access with the truck and used the ride in cargo. My 8×10 unit had a light bulb which worked. This was a great begining. Thank you Extraspace DC and NY for your service during my interstate moving!

Great service from Tristan this weekend. Easy to access the storage unit and simple to rent. And easy to get in and out from U Street.
Bonus– it is a historic building that has been a storage space since 1900. Very cool.

As David L. said in his review: «Decent in the beginning, but ***beware*** if your stuff is stored for more than a couple of months. Our initial experience was pretty good, much as others have reported: not very good hours, and on the expensive side, but clean building and central location, and also a decent move-​in special (I think we got 1 month free initially). Most of the other reviews here mention this.»
This nails it. They basically will increase your rent every couple of months. I figured I had locked in a 12 month rate, but the fine print says otherwise. Wish I would’ve known beforehand. Not sure if they even do it, but I would strongly push for a 12 month rate lock in or only consider using them for 3 – 4 month storage.

Decent in the beginning, but ***beware*** if your stuff is stored for more than a couple of months. Our initial experience was pretty good, much as others have reported: not very good hours, and on the expensive side, but clean building and central location, and also a decent move-​in special (I think we got 1 month free initially). Most of the other reviews here mention this.
What the other reviews *don’t* mention are the problems you run into if your stuff is there for more than 4 or 5 months. They literally increase rent every 4 or 5 months, and every time they do it, it’s by 5 to 10%. We just got another rent increase: in less than 2 years, our rate has increased 27%. Yes, 27% in less than 2 years. And it isn’t because we were below-​market before, either. We are now paying *more* for an 8×22 unit than a brand new customer would pay for a 10×22 unit.
If you google «Extra Space storage rent increase,» you’ll find that they have a reputation within the self-​storage industry for repeatedly increasing rents until people move out. The reason they have good move-​in specials is because they have to: they keep forcing people out with their increases. Once you’re in, they slap price increases on you as if you are at their mercy. We kept tolerating the increases only because it was too much hassle to move. But this time, the second price increase this year (it’s only May), they’ve pushed us too far. We’re moving our stuff out. (And no, if you threaten to move out, they don’t negotiate. Which is foolish because they end up having to re-​rent at a lower price.)
Their business model is exploitative — rather than even attempting to retain long-​term customers, their M.O. is to take advantage of people who either can’t move their stuff again or don’t notice the price increases.
Summary: if you need SHORT-​TERM storage (less than 4 months), then sure, go for it. But if your stuff might be there a year or more, prepare to get reamed.
POSTSCRIPT: This was initially a 1-​star review. But I forgot that one of the guys who works there (Edmond) was actually very helpful when we ran into problems with shards of broken glass entering our unit from the adjacent one (there is a clearing between the walls and the ceilings that allows stuff to jump the wall). Even though it was right before they were going to close, he jumped right on the problem and came up with a pretty smart solution. So, Extra Space gets an extra star for Edmond.

Rented a 10“x10″ space for 3 moths due to location. As a storage facility they did what they are supposed to and items were secure for 3 months so I can’t complain!
Just some negatives that others have mentioned:
— hours are limited
— loading/​unloading can be tricky due to other people moving items.
— ALWAYS check first that they are open before scheduling a move. The day I decided to move in they were closed for a meeting until noon and this was not on their website.

I find the staff at the location good. The only good thing about the facility is the location. I commend Extra Space management by requiring all issues be dealt with at the store level. Unfortunately with that responsibility does not come the authority to deal with issues.
This building is about 10 stories tall and full of storage units. They have only a handful of carts. I’ve complained to local management about it and they say that people leave them in upper floors (which is not my problem). I’ve said that they need more carts because my quick in/​out trips takes 2 – 3 times as long because I have to find a cart. They reply that they have asked for more carts but have been denied the rest. The manager told me that he moved three carts down the night before (this was about 10:30am on a Monday).
Three carts for hundreds of storage units? This company makes a killing off of this location but they invest nothing in it. You pay a premium amount for the location but they don’t follow up with the service. This isn’t a hit on the local team — they all do fine. The issue is that they aren’t provided the funds to properly service the facility.
When asked if I could speak to the District Manager I was told no. I was told calling corporate wouldn’t work because they’d just be routed back to the store. So it’s a waste of time to try to resolve the issue since you can only speak to the store staff and they aren’t empowered to solve the problem.
Note that my visit was at 10:30am on a Monday. Mine was the fifth vehicle. Two of the others were staff. There were no carts available. I walked through six floors of the building trying to find a cart.
I would advise against this location until they either hire the staff to walk the floors collected the supposed carts that are left (which I couldn’t find) or until they buy 10 or so more carts. Finding a cart should not be a problem in a facility of this size.

Was hesitant to deal with this company as the reviews online were really not that great.
In addition, I decided to call the main number to find out about pricing etc. and found the sales rep to be very pushy, to the point where I chose not to go ahead with it because of the unpleasant experience on the phone.
Shortly after, someone from the U street location called me and invited me to come in and take a look around the facility, and said I could sign up directly with them at the location if I liked it, instead of dealing with the phone reps.
Went in and was greeted by the new manager, Danny. He showed me around the facility and gave me options of units I could have. Was very helpful and friendly.
I signed up right there and then and have been moving my things in since.
The only negative I have so far about the facility is that where I am located, on the 2^nd floor, air flow isn’t that great, so it’s hot and can be a little stifling.
But overall, I feel safe in there, building appears to be well maintained, and alot of people use this facility, there are several people there when I am there. Which hasn’t caused a problem with the elevators yet, but i prefer the place to be busy than lonely.
So far, if you live in NW DC area, I would recommend.

We have used this storage company for at least 10 years. These new owners are very friendly and keep the place clean, clean, clean. The drive through drive way with parking makes this a super easy place to get in and out of.

The location couldn’t be better, that is why I am giving them the 2^nd star. Unfortunately the staff are less than friendly, the hours of operation are lousy.
Lastly, they increased my monthly fee by quite a bit this month. I’m starting to wonder if I should bother to move my items to another storage facility or just part with them.

My experience with Extra Space started out with a lot of great potential. They have an excellent location on U Street, between 14^th and 16^th. I was able to reserve online and take advantage of a special for a free first month.
That was the last thing that went well.
I was moving from Portland, Oregon to DC and I was driving the whole way in a moving truck. I was about 20 minutes out of the city at 5:30 that day (a Saturday) and called ahead to be sure someone would be able to stay in the office so I could finish the paperwork and then unload the truck into my unit.
I learned then that when they close at 6pm, they don’t just lock up the office. The entire building is on lockdown and no one is allowed in or out. Forget 24-​hour access to your unit. They are open 9 – 6 M-​F, around that on Saturdays and only 10 – 3 on Sundays. You’d better hope you can always plan to visit them during those hours if you want a unit here.
That was frustrating, but I had extra time before my new job started, so I went on the following Monday to finish everything up. My unit was a 5×10 and was as clean as I might have expected it to be. The trouble? No light. I learned that, because the building wasn’t originally constructed to be a storage facility, there are not lights in every unit. The smaller the unit, the less likely it is to have a light. For more fun, basic low-​level lighting permeates every floor (enough for liability and that’s about it) and if you want more, you have to turn on a timer by the elevator. That timer maxes at 30 minutes, so you’ll have to hit it a second time if you need more than a half hour.
They have 9 floors full of units. To accommodate this, they have a secured-​access (via keypad) tunnel that goes in the front, just off of U St and comes out the back side of the building in an alleyway (It’s easy enough to get back onto U st. from there). The problem with it is that it’s tall enough for me to walk in (I am 6’4″) but I do not think an Explorer with a roof rack would fit into the tunnel. My moving truck certainly did not.
They have 2 loading docks. The problem here is that one faces the alleyway so you’ll block it completely if you back a truck up to it, and (worse) you won’t be able to fit a truck there that is longer than about 14 – 16 feet. The other loading dock shares pavement real estate with the staff parking area. When I moved in, there were cars parked two deep in front of it, so no chance of using that one. We pulled the truck alongside the building, put the ramp down, walked everything to the dock and then loaded it on carts inside.
There are carts available, but they are often left on whichever floor of the building a careless individual left them on and it’s not a quick trip to hunt one down. The office staff has a stable of 0 – 3 carts and they’ll let you take one if you leave ID with them as collateral (in case you steal the cart, I assume). Between the office and the car access tunnel there is an 8 in step up that you will have to manhandle the cart over. I am seriously glad that I am not confined to a wheelchair. I may have been able to get around in there, but it would be a nightmare.
Once you have your possessions inside, you have the choice of a single freight-​sized elevator, which you are not allowed to hold open long enough to fully load, or a regular-​size elevator which can hold about 2 people and one loaded cart. These two are the only way to get large objects to the upper floors (my unit was on the 8^th).
When I set up my unit, I thought I’d also set up auto-​pay from my credit card to them for every month following the free one. When I arrived to get my things and move them to my new apartment, there was an Extra Space lock on the door and they’d slapped one of their stickers onto my lock. I visit the office to discover that my card was never charged and I am now 6 days past-​due. I had not received an email to remind me that the payment date was coming or one to warn me that I was late. Nor had I received a phone call about this. I was weakly informed that they «were going to call me today» because it had just hit 6 days past due and the lock had been put on this morning.
This visit was actually only because they were closed yesterday for Easter. Easter is not a holiday that they have posted on their list of «holidays we close down for,» but when I arrived yesterday, the lights were off and there was a sign on the door indicating they were closed.
Despite the fact that the location is supposed to be locked down when they close, the doors were completely unlocked and I got most of the way inside, looking for staff, before I found a sign posted to indicate they were going to be closed. This morning, I was told that it was basically zero notice and they had been told the day prior to Easter that they’d be closed for it. Needless to say, having renting a truck already, I was fairly upset.

The folks at Extra Space on U Street are really helpful and professional. I have worked with a few of the other companies and would say that as far as professionalism and facilities are concerned, Extra Space U St. is in its own league.

I have had a unit at Extra Space Storage on U Street for a little more than a year. Yes it is not cheap and no the hours are not so convenient. BUT, the staff are friendly, and nothing crazy has happened to my stuff. After reading reviews of other storage places in DC, I figured if I wanted to ever use the stuff I had in storage again, this was just about the only Metro accessible place worth doing business with. There is a way to make arrangements for after hours access; if I knew what it was I would tell you!
As far as the neighborhood, it’s fine. Some people won’t ride the Metro because they think it’s scary. Those folks might want to use PODS or U-​box.

The people here were really nice and competent. I was moving over the weekend, so I didn’t have issues with the access hours. Yes, they do close early, so before you sign up for a unit, make sure that’s OK with you!
I also signed up online and got my first month free… and since I’ll only be there for about 1.5 months AND they’ll prorate my second month’s fee, this worked out great for me.

Location is awesome, but their hours simply suck. If you have a day job you will not be able to get there — they open at 9:30am and close at 5pm, and on the weekends they close at 5pm on Sat and 2:30pm on Sun. These are the gate hours, which are the ones that matter — they won’t let you in even if the office is still open. On the other hand, the two in Arlington (about a 15 minute drive) are open all week 6am-​10pm.
The area is sketch after dark which I am sure why they close with the office, but they could extend gate hours by extending the office hours or getting a security guard.
I’ll add that all Extra Space Storage franchises bump your rates regularly. They says its due to increasing costs, but really it’s a scheduled bump they do for everybody. It’s something like 6 months after you move in, then 6 months after that, then every year after that.

The staff was friendly and helpful. They even admired my 2005 cell phone. However, the only reason I came here was to buy boxes, not to make new friends. They were all out of small and medium boxes. Although they tried being helpful by offering a «moving kit» which included these size boxes, I didn’t need any more large and extra large boxes or bubble wrap and was not in the mood for dropping $ 50 on such a kit. I find it a bit annoying that they technically had these size boxes and I could not have them, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt that these kits were pre-​arranged and could not be opened.
Customer service gets them three stars.