Tick and Flea Infestation

[Conner Olsen]

I have a STR horror story to share today. I manage someone's STR in Austin and a mother kitten got into their crawl space and gave birth beneath the house to 6 kittens. The guests found the kittens, brought them inside, and put them in crates until someone came to take them to a shelter. Two weeks later we find the house is infested with fleas and ticks. We learned from pest control that it is going to cost $350 to fumigate and then someone needs to vacuum every day for 2 weeks. The cleaners are charging $40/day to vacuum up the house and a $225 deep clean so around $800 as an extra cleaning expense. All this and no revenue for the next 3 weeks. This will probably cost a total of $5,000 this month.

You can make a lot with STR's, but they can be a lot of work and the income can be unreliable.