They are way too guest centric and often leave owners hanging.VRBO and AirBNB should be all you use in addition to looking at direct booking as well.You can rent an ozone machine which should take care of the smoke smell.

Hire a top notch management company who specializes in student housing.

It is better to seek recommendations or call companies that do not follow the traditional model.We do not follow this model due to the pit falls.

Get more bees with honey as the saying goes, give someone a decent place to live and treat them well they are more apt to better take care of the place and stay as a tenant longer which definitely leads to better gains long term 

I run a small property management company in a small town, and I’m looking to refine our advertising strategy.

This includes making sure that the home meets all of the regulatory requirments to qualify to be a care home. 

Quote from @Mark Soreco: I don't have any data on this company, but I will give you some insight on a story I heard from a guy who built a PM company across the nation to 5,000 units then sold it to a tech company that thought they were going to do a ton of great stuff on adding in tech and everything else.

You cannot do what you're trying to do and limit yourself to one company. 

All this to say I would go with the local company. 

If I have a travel health care worker I verify the professional license, call previous LL, but those are room rentals, single occupancy.