If you’re a landlord, and especially if you provide short term furnished rentals, you have to rise to a new standard for health safety in light of COVID-19.

You need to address the emotional toll the Coronavirus crisis has had on our society.

Advertising a germ-free home is something that will catch a tenant’s eye. How can you guarantee your rental is virus-free? You can give it an ozone treatment.

Two hours of running this generator that puts out 10,000 mg/hour of ozone will cover up to 2,000 sf, according to the manufacturer.

Does the Ozone Generator Really Work?

Ozone has been used for years as an inexpensive disinfectant for both air and water. An ozone generator creates a free radical that does a bunch of nerdy stuff that I haven’t thought about since graduate school. 

Essentially, ozone attacks organic compounds and speeds up their decay (via an oxidation reaction) and ruins their ability to grow.

Ozone is a dependable disinfectant in dry environments. You need to only document that you did the treatment, and then you can advertise a virus-free home.

 What Are the Financial Benefits?

On the financial front, using this portable ozone generator is a lot cheaper than having your cleaner take additional time to disinfect items after they’ve been cleaned. The machine saves them time which in turn saves you money.

As I hinted to earlier, you should brag about your virus-free home in your marketing materials. Doing so will help you stand out from your competition. This will help you reduce vacancies and maybe even justify a higher monthly rent.

Also, if you don’t currently accept pets because they leave behind odors….well, good news… ozone breaks down those smell too! So, go ahead and start accepting pets and start collecting pet rent (possibly $50/month/pet) as well.

This ozone generator only costs a little more than $100. It’s one of the cheapest assets you can get.

Click HERE to use my affiliate link to purchase an ozone generator.

 What Can an Ozone Generator Do? 

 Ozone generators can:

1 – Eliminate cigarette and marijuana smells. This is great news. I don’t suggest you that you encourage people to smoke in your rental, but if they do, you now have a solution up your sleeve. 

 2 – Kill viruses. After the 1990 SARS outbreak, several studies tested the effectiveness of ozone on viruses. Scientific reports find that ozone concentrations of 2.5 ppm (151 mg/CF in air at room temperature) were >93% effective at killing the SARS version of the Coronavirus. This is well within the ability of a 10,000 mg/h Ozone Generator recommended for property owners.

3 – Kill mold and mildew. Once you’ve cut off the source of moisture that allows mold and mildew to thrive, ozone will kill off the living spores.

4 – Kill bacteria. Yep, if your ozone generator produces a sufficient amount of ozone per hour and your space is less 1,000 sf, you can rest assured that the bacteria will be dead after the treatment. You’ll still need to remove the bacteria, so the area still needs to be cleaned. It’s just that the bacteria will have lost the ability to reproduce. This is an important point. Ozone kills things, but it doesn’t get rid of the bodies.

 5 – Kill bedbugs, spiders, roaches, flies, fleas, and ants. The generator uses up the oxygen in the room as it creates ozone. Some pests aren’t able to run for safety and, if they can’t get away, they will perish. Here’s a tip: schedule time to sweep and vacuum up dead insects after your ozone treatment. 

6 – Create a fresh-smelling home. I like scented rooms but when I’m scrutinizing a place that I plan to live in, I don’t want any perfumes around. I want to know what I’m getting. A fresh-smelling home, fresh like the smell after a thunderstorm, tells my subconscious not to worry.

7 Best Practices

Here are some tips to help you use an ozone generator more effectively:

1  – Remove all people, pets, and living plants before turning the machine on.

2  – Run your HVAC, ceiling fans, or a box fan to circulate the ozone during the treatment.

3  – Place the ozone generator 3- to 4-feet above the floor. Note: ozone is heavier than air. 

4  – Perform your ozone treatment before you bringing in your cleaning staff.  Let them clean up the dead insects that will result from lack of oxygen. Note: the generator converts oxygen (O2) into ozone (O3) which pests can’t breathe.

5 – Run a dehumidifier along with your ozone generator if you’re in a humid climate.

6 – Strip the bed so ozone can get to the mattress. You want to kill off any bedbugs left behind. Open cabinets and garbage cans too.

7 – Open windows and run exhaust fans to remove all the ozone before you begin working in there. Don’t breathe in ozone.

The New Norm

There are so many benefits to running an ozone generator between tenants that it doesn’t make sense not to do so. Just the fact that you can kill bedbugs is reason enough.

Simply put, if you’re a rental owner, and especially if you’re a furnished rental provider, you need to get one. But get a generator that produces enough ozone to properly fill your rental.

You can always get a smaller machine that’s appropriate to treat the inside of a car and treat one small portion of your rental at a time. But when it comes to killing viruses, you need to produce a high enough dose to be effective (2.5 mg/L). That’s why I recommend you use a machine that produces at least 10,000 mg/hour.

 We are at the beginning of a new era. Let’s be quick to take action and adapt to the new norm.

Have you had good or bad luck with an ozone generator? Let me know in the comments section below.

And by the way, if you’re looking for other ideas on how to increase the net income of your rental so you can earn more with fewer headaches, check out 40 Ways to Increase the Net Income of Your Rental Property.