Episodes
The Boutique Hotel Mistake Killing Your Occupancy (And the Fix That T…
Most boutique hotel operators are leaving serious money on the table, not because of bad locations or bad products, but because of bad marketing fundamentals that nobody told them about. In this episode, you'll hear exactly h...
From $50 in His Bank Account to a 140-Key Hotel in Italy | Emanuele P…
What happens when you find a deal that could change everything, but you've drained your bank account just to close it? In this episode, you'll hear exactly how one operator went from cleaning parking lots to owning the building, and what that journey taught him about risk, focus, and building a bus…
This Contractor Built a $6M Hospitality Brand With $90K and Zero Outs…
Most people assume you need outside investors, a big budget, or a prime location to build a profitable hospitality brand. This episode proves otherwise. In this episode, you'll learn exactly how one builder went from working ...
Stop Deferring Your Joy: How High-Performing Leaders Stay Sharp Witho…
You hit your targets. You built the business. So why does it still feel like something's missing? In this episode, you'll discover why deferring your happiness until the next deal, the next promotion, or the next milestone is quietly destroying your leadership, your team culture, and your returns. …
How 2 Women Turned a $1.2M Zillow B&B Into a $4M Treehouse Hotel (No …
What if you bought a rundown bed and breakfast on Zillow, moved in the next day, and turned it into Colorado's first luxury treehouse hotel, all without raising a single dollar from outside investors? That's exactly what Ashl...
The $600K Treehouse Earning $200K a Year | Dustin Feider E79
In this episode, you'll discover how a single ultra-niche lodging unit can outperform a full hotel on cash-on-cash returns and what that signals for boutique investors paying attention. A treehouse designer whose work has been featured in the New York Times, Architectural Digest, and HGTV joins us …
The Hotel-to-Apartment Strategy That Turned $8.5M Into $18.9M in 19 M…
What if the most overlooked apartment deal in your market is already built, it's just flagged as a hotel? In this episode, you'll discover how a valuation gap between hotels and multifamily creates forced equity of 40 to 50% before you change a single wall, and why most investors completely miss it…
What a $75M Commercial Investor Wished He Knew Before Opening His Fir…
Experienced real estate investors make the jump into hospitality every year. Most of them underestimate what they're getting into. In this episode, you'll hear what it actually looks like when a seasoned commercial operator b...
An STR operator's $4 million bet on building a boutique hotel in Colo…
What does it actually cost to build a boutique hotel from scratch in a foreign country? More than you think, and not just financially. A short-term rental operator running 220+ properties across 40 cities is now three years i...
Under $1.5M in Revenue? You Don't Own a Business, You Own a Job | Gre…
Most people who buy their first hospitality property don't realize they just bought themselves a 90-hour-a-week job. The difference between owning a business and being trapped inside one comes down to a single number most investors never bother to calculate before they sign. In this episode, you'll…
The Revenue Expert Managing $125M Says You're Leaving 40% on the Tabl…
Jasper Ribbers went from trading equities on Wall Street to traveling to 100 countries as a digital nomad, funding it all from a single Airbnb apartment in Amsterdam. Today, he manages pricing strategy for over $125 million i...
What Hotel Investors Can Steal From a Land Investor Who's Done 400 De…
What does a land investor who's done 400+ deals have to teach hotel investors? More than you'd expect. In this episode, you'll discover how the same principles behind finding off-market sellers, creating value through entitlements, and building passive income apply directly to hospitality investing…
An Overlooked Strategy That Makes $7M Hotel Deals Actually Pencil | B…
Fear of making the wrong move is why most aspiring hotel investors never get started. And ironically, that hesitation is costing them more than any mistake ever would. In this episode, you'll learn how one developer went from...
Former Hotel Analyst Built AI to Fix the Problem He Lived Every Day |…
If you're still tracking your hotel pipeline in Excel and spending two hours screening each deal, you're working harder than you need to. Ziggy Hallgarten lived with that frustration as an analyst, so he built the solution. In this episode, you'll get fresh market insights from the ALIS Conference,…
How to Scale to 4 Hospitality Properties Without Raising Millions in …
What if there's a way to scale a hospitality portfolio without having to own the real estate? For operators looking to grow quickly without raising millions in equity or navigating complex bank financing, the OpCo-PropCo model offers a compelling alternative path. In this episode, you'll discover h…
This 3-Step System Automated His Real Estate Business to 4 Hours a Mo…
Most investors think they're building a business, but they're actually building themselves a job. The truth? If you died tomorrow, your "business" would die with you. A real estate investor who scaled from 80-hour weeks to just 4 hours per month reveals the exact automation framework that freed him…
How Small Hotels Use Staff Content to Drive Direct Bookings | Scott E…
Most hotel owners think the only way to reduce OTA dependency is to throw more money at Facebook ads or hire expensive marketing agencies. But the real solution isn't more budget, it's leveraging what you already have: authen...
How an Ex-Space Force Engineer Bought a $2.45M Motel With 10% Down | …
Most first-time motel buyers don't lose money on the purchase price. They lose it by underestimating CapEx, guessing on underwriting, and assuming they can "market" their way to higher occupancy. That's how people get smoked. In this episode, you'll learn a simple, real-world way to sanity-check a …
How a Pilot Bought a $10M Hotel Without Managing a Single Employee | …
Think you need hotel operations experience to invest in boutique hotels? That belief may be the only thing standing between you and building serious commercial real estate wealth. In this episode, you'll discover how a Gulfst...
Securities Attorney Reveals Why Most Hotel Syndicators Are Breaking t…
Most first-time hotel syndicators are already breaking the rules; they just don't know it yet. If you've ever taken money from friends and family without the right structure, you may have accidentally sold securities. And if you're paying someone just to raise capital? That's another violation wait…
Stop Treating Your Front Desk Like An Expense. It's A Profit Center |…
Stop treating your front desk like an expense; it's costing you hundreds of thousands in property value. The biggest mistake boutique hotel owners make isn't about the property itself. It's ignoring the untapped revenue sitting right at your check-in counter. In this episode, you'll discover how to…
Why Most Investors Never Buy Their First Hotel (And How You Actually …
Why do so many people dream about buying a hotel but never actually close one? In this episode, Michael sits down with Brian Resendez, CEO of SVN Northwest Hotel Advisors. Brian has been involved in hundreds of hotel transactions across the Pacific Northwest and brings rare insight into what separa…
Global Resort Design CEO: Stop Wasting Capex on the Wrong “Upgrades” …
Boutique hotel investors often lose money in the same place: they renovate what’s visible, and ignore what actually drives guest behavior. In this episode, we talk about design as a business tool, not a decoration budget. The...
The 3 Distress Signals That Make the Next 12 Months a Buyer’s Market …
Is now a terrible time to buy a hotel, or the best buying window you will get this decade? In this episode, Michael sits down with Suraj Bhakta, CEO of NewGen Advisory, a national hotel brokerage that has closed deals in 44 states. Suraj explains what he is actually seeing in today’s market, from t…