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The Hotel Investor Playbook
Welcome to The Hotel Investor Playbook, hosted by real estate investor and hospitality operator Michael Russell. Michael is the co-founder of Malama Capital and Howzit Hostels, and has built a personal real estate portfolio exceeding $20 million.
With an operator-first mindset, Michael brings a practical perspective to hotel investing. On the show, he breaks down what it actually takes to scale from short-term rentals into boutique hotels, covering deal sourcing, operations, capital strategy, and risk.
Each week, Michael shares real lessons from the field as he builds toward a $400 million real estate business, giving listeners an honest look at the decisions, challenges, and strategies behind the growth. Subscribe and follow along as he documents the journey in real time.
Episodes
70 episodes
This 3-Step System Automated His Real Estate Business to 4 Hours a Month | Mark Podolsky E69
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 pe...
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34:21
How Small Hotels Use Staff Content to Drive Direct Bookings | Scott Eddy E68
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: authentic stories and sta...
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51:52
How an Ex-Space Force Engineer Bought a $2.45M Motel With 10% Down | Jordan Malara E67
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 epis...
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1:06:35
How a Pilot Bought a $10M Hotel With Zero Hotel Experience | Curt Marker E66
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 Gulfstream pilot ra...
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55:24
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Attorney Reveals Why Most Hotel Syndicators Are Breaking the Law | Bethany LaFlam E65
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 someo...
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1:00:52
Stop Treating Your Front Desk Like An Expense. It's A Profit Center | Geoffrey Toffetti E64
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 ch...
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40:42
Why Most Investors Never Buy Their First Hotel (And How You Actually Can) | Brian Resendez E63
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 transacti...
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46:13
Global Resort Design CEO: Stop Wasting Capex on the Wrong “Upgrades” | Scott LaMont E62
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 goal is ...
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49:49
The 3 Distress Signals That Make the Next 12 Months a Buyer’s Market | Suraj Bhakta E61
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 ...
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42:00
7 AI Tools To Help You Buy and Operate Hotels (With No Staff and No Time) | Jake Heller E60
Click here to start your free 7-day trial of the AI for CRE Collective.Most boutique hotel investors are running lean. No analyst te...
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59:00
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The Private Island Resort Built With Sweat, Not Millions | Odis Martin E59
Turning an international hospitality dream into reality sounds exciting, until you’re standing on a swampy patch of land in Belize, wondering how many years it will take to shape it into something guests will love.That’s where today’s gu...
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41:17
How to Get Brokers to Send You Deals | Hunter Johnson E58
Most hotel investors struggle to get brokers to take them seriously. The result is the same handful of buyers getting the first look at every good deal while everyone else fights over leftovers.In this episode, Michael sits down with Hun...
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47:03
The Husband and Wife Duo that Scaled from 5 Airbnbs to 2 Boutique Hotels (Without Burning Out) | E57
Want to know what it’s like to go from short-term rentals to owning boutique hotels while still maintaining a healthy relationship?This week on the Hotel Investor Playbook, Michael Russell sits down with Mitch Ehly and Katie Wanzer, the ...
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47:21
Hotel Technology You Can Install To Boost NOI | Sue Graves E56
Looking for hotel technology that can actually increase profit and reduce expenses without hiring an IT department?This week on the Hotel Investor Playbook, Michael Russell sits down with Sue Graves, founder of Experience Al...
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43:49
How to Replace a Six-Figure Job with Boutique Hotel Investing | Tim Ensmann E55
Ever dreamed of quitting your six-figure job to build real wealth through hotels? This episode shows you what it actually takes.Tim Ensmann, founder of the T.C. Hotel Fund, shares how he went from tech sales to owning a multi-mi...
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50:15
Real Estate Syndications 101: How Investors and Operators Actually Get Paid | Michael Russell E54
Ever wonder where the money actually goes in a hotel deal?In this episode, Michael Russell breaks down real estate syndications in plain English. How investors and operators really get paid, what fees are fair, and how to ...
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24:26
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What It Really Takes to Buy Your First Hotel in 90 Days | Jacobo Hernandez E53
When most people say they want to buy a hotel, it’s just talk.Jacobo Hernandez sold his entire $10M short-term rental portfolio, packed his car, and hit the road for 90 days to find one.He toured 35 hotels, underwrote 2,000 deals,...
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54:41
Building a Lifestyle Hotel Brand in Costa Rica | Bill Graf E52
We’ve all dreamt of quitting our bland corporate jobs to buy a hotel in Costa Rica… well, today’s guest did that.After leaving a private equity career in San Francisco, Bill Graf traded suits for surf towns and founded Onda, a hospitali...
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58:57
The “Hotel Guru” on Where to Invest Next & How to Fund Deals | Bob Rauch E51
The hotel industry is changing: costs are rising, AI is here, and investors are getting more selective.This week on the Hotel Investor Playbook, we sat down with Bob Rauch, better known as The Hotel Guru. From starting out as a dishwashe...
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57:26
Why 2026 Looks Rocky for U.S. Hotels And Where Smart Investors Can Hit Big | Jan Freitag E50
Where is the hotel market headed in 2026, and how can investors succeed in a challenging environment?This week on the Hotel Investor Playbook, we sat down with Jan Freitag, National Director of Hospitality Analytics at CoStar. With over ...
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46:51
How to Craft a Hotel People Will Actually Remember | Bashar Wali E49
The most powerful part of a hotel stay isn’t the design or the amenities, it’s the feeling guests take home.That’s the philosophy of Bashar Wali, one of the most candid and creative voices in hospitality, who's spent 30+ years building, ...
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1:03:06
What Makes a Hotel Succeed or Fail? | Naveed Khan E48
How do you turn a struggling hotel into a profitable asset?This week on the Hotel Investor Playbook, we sit down with Naveed Khan, co-founder of London Rock Partners, a hotel management and advisory firm that oversees everything...
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49:09
From CEO of Days Inn to Launching Marriott’s Autograph Collection | Richard Kessler E47
Few people have left a mark on hospitality like Richard Kessler.He started his hospitality career by helping scale Days Inn into a household name as the early CEOThen he founded the Kessler Collection, one of the leading boutique...
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1:06:00
How To Use Social Media To Raise Capital And Find Deals | Soli Cayetano E46
What if your first hotel deal could be funded almost entirely through Instagram?This week’s guest, Soli Cayetano AKA lattes.and.leases on Instagram, went from barista to building a $13M real estate portfolio in just four years. After exi...
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55:55
Building Hotels That Last the Test of Time | Brandon Gore E45
Most hotel investors default to syndication — raising capital from dozens of limited partners and layering in complex waterfalls. But what if there’s a smarter, simpler path?This week’s guest, Brandon Gore, is building The Outlier Ho...
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51:35
