refinish to reline bathtub?

[Sasha Fukuda]

So i have a unit that i rent out to an town government department that takes care of disabled residents. They've moved the current residents out and in a week, they've going to be moving some new ones in. In the meantime, they've asked me to do some repairs. One of the issues is that the paint on the (i think it's cast iron) bathtub has chipped. At first i was thinking of hiring a company to reline the tub. There's a company called Bathfitter that does it and offers a lifetime warranty. It's supposed to be something like $400 though. Then i was thinking, maybe i could remove the paint and refinish it myself. However, i'm having no luck scraping it off. Judging from youtube videos, it seems that some people can get it off using citristrip. However, most need to use really hazardous chemicals while wearing a respirator and using a machine to ventilate the fumes out of the building. And then even after they've removed the old paint and refinished it with new paint, there's quite a few people who report that the new paint doesn't last. I try to do as much work on my houses myself as i can, but i'm feeling a little out of my depth here, and wondering if i should just hire this out? I was curious what other people do when they have this issue?