What does a Portland cancer survivor’s treehouse have to do with short-term rental insurance? A lot.

Updated on May 7, 2023

What does a Portland cancer survivor’s treehouse have to do with short-term rental insurance? A lot.

When Josh Brenneman was 5 years old, he was facing a tough battle for anyone, let alone a kid: an Ewing’s Sarcoma tumor on his C6 vertebra at the base of his neck, a rare type of cancer that occurs in bones or the soft tissue around them.

As he underwent aggressive chemotherapy and radiation, he wished for a treehouse in the backyard of his Portland home. The Make-A-Wish foundation, however, had to deny his wish, saying it was against policy to grant any request that added significant value to the family’s home.

So instead, neighbors, members of their church, and other Portlanders who had heard his story jumped in to make it happen.

That was in 2005, but the magic of seeing his treehouse dream come true stuck with him long after.

“I remember when the treehouse happened, visiting and seeing it being put together, and I was just astonished by what was going on in my backyard,” the then 17-year-old Josh said in August 2017 during an interview for StoryCorps. 

And the community was building him not just your average treehouse. More like a guest house for grownups, the 500-square-foot house has full doors and windows, a porch, a garage, and even a spiral slide – something special not just to Josh, his parents, and his four siblings, but to all of Portland.

“We had people from all over donating supplies, windows, doors, siding, et cetera, volunteering their time,” said Josh’s mother, April.

After a year of aggressive treatment, Josh beat cancer, and meanwhile, his dream treehouse, built around some pine trees and animated by the story of his health ordeal, remained a Portland novelty featured in news articles and podcasts. In 2015, April turned it into a short-term rental to earn extra income to support their family of seven.

Monsters under in the bed

In an itchy, creepy turn of fate, however, April unknowingly hosted some unwelcome critters that probably tagged along with one of her human guests in September 2017.

The bedbugs that had infested the 500-square-foot treehouse couldn’t have come at a worse time. Josh’s father, Don, had recently lost his job at a nonprofit. Consequently, income from renting out the treehouse and another studio in their house had become paramount to earning a living for the couple and their five children.

As soon as April reported the bedbugs, Airbnb suspended both of April’s listings, per company protocol.

Out on a limb

At first, the online travel agency offered no help with the infestation. So, April turned to her friend, Debi Hertert, co-founder of Host2Host, a Portland-area trade association for independent short-term rental hosts, to ask for advice.

Bedbug extermination was going to cost the Brennemans thousands of dollars, and April’s homeowners insurance policy didn’t cover it. If that weren’t enough, every day that the treehouse and studio stood empty meant lost income for the family.

“I started thinking I probably would not have bedbugs if I didn’t have guests coming in,” April said. So, she persisted in asking Airbnb for help.

“I kept calling them and saying you need to cover this,” she said. “This is a risk that should be covered under the [Airbnb] insurance because this could happen to anybody, and it shuts you down. You lose income, and you’re paying for the treatment and all of the cleaning.”

Rooted in community, short-term rental hosts come to the rescue

Portland hosts, led by Debi, rallied around April. Many Portlanders remembered the story of how the treehouse was built and why.

Host2Host immediately started a GoFundMe page to raise money for the family to pay for the extermination and offset some of their lost income.

But Debi felt disquieted by the lack of support for April from her insurance company and from Airbnb. Like April said, a bedbug infestation could happen to any host; it was just a matter of time.

Debi phoned two business members of Host2Host – Country Financial Insurance and Proper Insurance – to ask if they would consider adding bedbug coverage to their short-term rental insurance offerings.

“This is unacceptable,” Debi told them. “Insurers don’t need to replace furniture, but really, the cost of extermination should be covered.”

Darren Pettyjohn, co-founder of Proper Insurance, was responsive to Debi’s concerns. He told her that he was going to meet with representatives of Lloyds of London and would look into the feasibility of offering bedbug coverage, she said.

The canopy cover grows

A couple of months later, Debi called Proper Insurance to follow up on her request and found out that the bedbug coverage was in the works. “I was so happy that he did that,” Debi said of Darren. “To be able to respond to something like this which helps the entire industry is really awesome.”

In January 2018, Host2Host held a meetup where April told the story of her bedbug predicament, and a representative from Proper Insurance explained their new nationwide bedbug coverage.

“Short-term rental insurance is all that we do here at Proper, and this allows us to pay special attention to the needs of our market,” said Justin Broden, the company’s director of marketing.

Since Proper introduced bedbug protection, other insurance companies have followed their lead.

The dream lives on

“Debi is an amazing woman,” April said. “She was thinking even bigger than just holding Airbnb accountable.”

After repeated requests from April, the platform eventually agreed to pay for the extermination costs at the treehouse, and April was able to reopen the treehouse and studio space to guests about a month after the infestation.

Josh still struggles with some of the aftereffects of his cancer treatment at such a young age. Now 21 years old, he has embraced his independence, attends classes at Portland Community College, and lives on his own.

April continues to rent out the studio at the Brenneman house, but the treehouse is off the short-term rental market. It is now April and Don’s bedroom.

“I love sleeping in the treehouse,” April said during an appearance on Debi’s Hosting Your Home podcast in 2016. “It has a feeling of love and compassion, a message of love to my family and myself. I love sharing it with other people so when I have guests, I always tell them the story.”

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