The best cities I've done it in are actually the more expensive one's because there's more willing of a seller to let me buy deep(as they're likely owning the house mortgage free) and every fix I do makes more than a 1x on it simply cause of the neighborhood.

I agree, it's hard to compete against the deep-pocketed all inclusives so they might as well not try.

If its a new building then its sometimes more if the banks are breathing down their necks.

We pad our cleaning costs a bit to the guests to pay for future deeps cleans and for incidentals.

In my mind sponsors of these deals need to have some deep experience were as the last 3 to 5 years rising tides raised all boats.. like you said what happens in a hiccup.

My recommendation would be to do a deep dive into your deal analysis and see if the numbers truly make sense. 

Get a deep understanding of what the income and expense for the properties are and try to identify future capital expenditures that might need to be reserved for.

I did a deep analysis on over 100 rental property opportunities.

Breathe there big guy.  

Pick a market drill deep into that market, learn the market and success will follow.