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August 13, 2026Episode 110 min
Why A Fast Reply Won't Save Your Airbnb Reviews | HelloHost
Episode 11 Releasing in an HOUR! On this episode, I said the part nobody wants to hear: speed is not the win. A fast reply that sends the wrong info or does not actually solve the problem just gets you a bad review faster. I run all my guest messages on HelloHost, and the difference was not just speed. It answers to what the guest actually needs, so they stop second-guessing and just confirm and book. My response rate went up and my reviews went up right along with it, because guests feel taken care of instead of handled.
August 13, 2026Episode 1156 min
Annie of HelloHost: AI Guest Messaging That Answers Your Airbnb Guests 24/7
Guest messages never stop. Check-in times, the wifi password, is there a blow dryer, the door code, something is broken, and it all lands on you at the worst possible hour. That was my life for years, and it is the exact problem Annie set out to kill. Annie is the co-founder of HelloHost, and before she built it she answered more than 10,000 guest messages herself while running a 16-unit retreat in Ontario. So this is not a founder guessing at what hosts need. She lived it. HelloHost is a team of AI agents that answer your guests in your own voice, around the clock, and quietly pull the maintenance tasks out of those conversations so nothing slips through. What sold me was not that it replies fast. It is that it replies well. Her team got the error rate down to 0.01 percent, and when they studied 1,800 guest reviews, almost none of them could even tell an AI was answering. It knows about 80 percent of your property from day one with no training, and it asks you before it guesses on anything it is unsure of. If you run rentals and your phone still buzzes at 2am with a guest asking how to get in, this is the conversation that shows you the way out. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Intro and who Annie is 0:41 - From management consultant to Airbnb host 2:25 - What HelloHost actually is 2:40 - The 16-unit retreat and 10,000 guest messages 5:42 - Why she went all in on AI guest communication in 2023 6:51 - What makes the message quality stand out 8:27 - The multi-agent system and the edge cases 9:56 - How it learns and asks before it guesses 17:01 - The 1,800 review study 23:10 - Getting the error rate down to 0.01 percent 26:42 - Setting your own confidence level 33:48 - 80 percent ready on day one, no training 35:25 - The 30 day free trial and 2 day setup 45:10 - Why Rafa calls it a no-brainer 59:07 - Where to find HelloHost and Annie Tools I use to run my STR business: Hospitable (Get your 15% Discount on your first 30 Days!): hospitable.com/partners/rafael HelloHost (AI guest communication): https://www.hellohostai.com/rafa The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff. Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. Wondering how and where to start your STR journey? Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.
August 6, 2026Episode 1051 min
How Airbnb Revenue Management Really Works with Dan Rivers (Synergy Stays)
Dan Rivers and I are in the same mastermind, and his team runs the pricing on some of my own properties, so this one is personal. He came up blue collar in Brockton, got thrown into managing 600 units with zero experience, and built Synergy Stays into one of the sharpest revenue teams in short term rentals. But the part that stuck with me was not the business. Most people treat their nightly price like a slow cooker, set it and walk away. Dan makes the case that in 2026 that is exactly how you quietly lose money, because the platforms change the rules every month and an algorithm nobody is watching will happily underprice your best weekends. Then he flipped the whole conversation. He asked what feeling your goal is actually chasing, and once he started building toward calm and presence instead of a number, everything got clearer. I have hit numbers that meant nothing the day I reached them. Dan put words to why. CHAPTERS 0:00 Meet Dan Rivers 1:56 His first big break: 600 units, zero experience 3:28 Two open-heart surgeries and his second chapter 11:48 The breakfast meetup that rewired how he thinks 20:03 Thinking 100K a year meant he had made it 22:12 You only learn when you start losing (the 150K lesson) 24:38 Why he killed 6 businesses to focus on one 31:58 What Synergy Stays actually does 35:35 Why set it and forget it pricing is dead 39:47 The client who netted 38K more in a year 43:35 Goals vs feelings: the reframe that made the episode 50:00 Why he will never retire 51:52 Where to find Dan and Synergy Stays Tools I use to run my rentals that saved me 10 hours a week: Hospitable: hospitable.com/partners/rafael - 15% OFF your first 30 days! HelloHost: https://www.hellohostai.com/rafa Want to learn how I actually use AI in my short-term rental business? Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about 🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff. 📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. 🔔 New episodes every Thursdays! subscribe so you don't miss them
August 5, 2026Episode 100 min
Dan Rivers: Why Doing Seven Things Made Him Fail At All Of Them
Dan Rivers was running seven businesses at once and slowly bleeding money. The fix was not working harder. It was cutting six of them and going all in on the one thing he was already great at.
July 30, 2026Episode 91 hr 9 min
How To Get Into Real Estate When You're Starting With Nothing | Carl Dumesle
Carl Dumesle survived the 2010 Haiti earthquake at 15, then raised his three younger brothers before he ever touched real estate. I wanted him on because he builds at a level most people call impossible, and he treats it like it is nothing. That is the thread through this whole conversation. Carl runs his development, architecture, construction, and management all under one roof, and the reason is not ego, it is control. Every piece he brought in-house was a failure point he refused to hand to someone else. If you have ever had a deal die because a contractor vanished or a permit dragged an extra year, this is the mindset that fixes it. The part that stuck with me was not the buildings. It was how he handles hard things. When you have watched your school fall floor by floor in 50 seconds, a late permit stops feeling like a problem. Most people build a giant mental gap between where they are and where they want to be. Carl came in with no ceiling because he never knew one existed. We also get into the two F's, feelings versus facts, the cleanest decision filter I have heard on this show, and why owning fewer, higher-quality assets with low leverage beats chasing doors you will spend years wishing you could offload. CHAPTERS 0:00 Who is Carl Dumesle 2:30 Surviving the 2010 Haiti earthquake at 15 7:00 Becoming head of household for his brothers 9:16 Why he still does not feel successful 11:00 The first thing you have to predict is yourself 14:00 Why business problems are not real problems 16:13 The slingshot, the deeper the low the higher the launch 17:41 You are closer than you think 20:16 From a student-housing startup into development 22:55 The 25 percent margin rule 26:00 What actually makes a deal work 28:23 The two F's, feelings versus facts 31:00 How he flies under the radar on approvals 34:49 Controlling every pillar in-house 44:00 Partnerships, hire slow and fire fast 59:00 Extreme ownership with investors 1:03:47 Own less, hig her quality, lower leverage 1:07:00 The takeaway Connect with Carl Dumesle: https://www.instagram.com/carldumesle/ Tools I use to run my rentals that saved me 10 hours a week: Hospitable: hospitable.com/partners/rafael - 15% OFF in your first 3 months! HelloHost: hellohost.com/partners/rafael Want to learn how I actually use AI in my short-term rental business? Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about 🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff. 📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. Wondering how and where to start your STR journey? 🔗 Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about 🔔 New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them
July 23, 2026Episode 81 hr 8 min
Patryk Swietek: How To Run 150 Airbnbs Without Owning A Single One
Most investors chase the wrong kind of income. They buy a door, watch a couple hundred dollars trickle in every month, and wonder why the freedom never shows up. Patryk ran that math and made a hard pivot. He walked me through the moment it clicked. He owned a rental he bought for 306 thousand that was worth 465, with a pile of equity just sitting in it, netting him around a thousand a month. Then he looked at buying a co-hosting business for 165 thousand that was throwing off close to fifteen thousand a month. Same money out the door. Completely different life. He bought the business, kept buying more, and now runs 150 properties he does not own a single one of. We get into how he found and bought those companies, why he still works in the business even though it runs without him, and what he plans to do with the money now. I have built the operator side of this for years and this conversation still made me rethink where I put the next dollar. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Intro 0:57 - From corporate tech to short-term rentals 3:46 - Why he could never work for someone else 4:42 - Buying the co-hosting company in Joshua Tree 5:04 - Why passive income was never going to be enough 17:28 - Scaling the company and what happens next 19:15 - Why he still works in the business by choice 24:05 - The math that changed everything 36:44 - The takeaway that stuck with him 58:42 - Why he gave his team equity 1:05:17 - His big break moment 1:12:43 - What he actually wants to do with the money 1:13:32 - Where to find Patryk CONNECT WITH PATRYK Patryk Swietek, Owner of The Cohost Company Instagram: @patryk_swi Here's my Tool stack i use for my STR Business: Hospitable (Get your 15% Discount on your first 30 Days!) : hospitable.com/partners/rafael HelloHost (AI guest communication): HellohostaiHelloHost | Rafa Recommended The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff. Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. Wondering how and where to start your STR journey? I build and share my STR strategies by implementing AI and test them out for a free trial without spending anything for a week! Join my community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.
July 16, 2026Episode 71 hr 3 min
The HR Expert Behind Tim Bratz: Why Your Top Performers Leave | Scott Hanis
Most operators do not lose their business to the market. They lose it to a team that was never set up to win. In this episode Rafa sits down with Scott Hanis, co-founder of Fortitude HR Solutions and the man Tim Bratz brought in to build the structure behind his company. Scott has scaled organizations, run HR for over a thousand employees, and spent years fixing the exact team problems that quietly stall real estate operators. Rafa gets honest about blowing up his entire virtual team, and Scott breaks down why that almost always traces back to the leader, not the people. They get into the first hire you should actually make, how to know when you can afford it, why culture and values are worthless until you live them out loud, and the two lines from this episode that will stick with you. People live up or down to your expectations. What you permit is what you promote. If you are trying to grow past doing everything yourself, this is the conversation that shows you where it really breaks and how to fix it. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Intro 0:50 - Who Scott is and what Fortitude HR does 5:06 - How Tim Bratz convinced him to go all in 9:03 - Why he walked away from a corporate HR salary 11:52 - The first hire every operator should actually make 15:04 - When you can really afford to hire full time 19:29 - Rafa: why I blew up my entire team 21:41 - What culture and values really mean 27:03 - Mission and vision, and why most people skip it 29:51 - The three solutions rule 33:38 - People live up or down to your expectations 39:10 - Setting expectations in your personal life 47:05 - How faith shapes hiring and firing 51:25 - How to actually become a better leader 54:52 - What you permit is what you promote 56:34 - How AI is changing HR and where it gets dangerous 1:01:43 - Where to find Scott CONNECT WITH SCOTT Fortitude HR Solutions: https://fortitudehrsolutions.com 🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff. 📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. just a note please add this tmoving forward for podcast description: Tools I use to run my rentals: Hospitable: hospitable.com/partners/rafael - 15% OFF in your first 3 months! HelloHost: hellohost.com/partners/rafael Wondering how and where to start your STR journey? 🔗 Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about 🔔 New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.
July 9, 2026Episode 61 hr 0 min
AI Agents That Runs Your Entire Airbnb Business with Jan Sahagun (Trellis, Y Combinator)
Most people think running an Airbnb is passive. You list it, go to the beach, and the money shows up. Anyone who actually does it knows the real job is the coordination. The messages that never stop, the maintenance that has to get scheduled, the vendor who has to be found and called, and the ten different tools that somehow have to talk to each other. In this episode Rafa sits down with Jan Sahagun, co-founder of Trellis, a Y Combinator company building autonomous AI agents for short-term rentals. Trellis is not another chatbot. It sits on top of the tools you already use, pulls all your operations into one place, and runs AI agents that actually do the work. The agent talks to your guest, figures out the problem, and if nobody on your team can fix it, it picks up the phone, calls an outside contractor, and gets it scheduled. You just approve it. Jan went from professional ice hockey in Europe to building one of the most talked about AI companies in the short-term rental space. He and Rafa get into how you keep an AI agent from going rogue, how much work it really takes to train it on your business, the first thing smart operators should automate, and why you cannot just vibe code a real software business. If you own or manage rentals, this is the conversation that shows you where the next few years are going. CHAPTERS 0:00 - Intro 2:06 - Meet Jan and what Trellis actually is 3:20 - From pro hockey to short-term rentals 5:51 - Why he built an AI that runs the business itself 8:03 - What happens when you plug your rentals in 15:39 - The agent that actually calls your vendors and staff 17:14 - How they keep the AI from going rogue 19:37 - How much work it takes to train it 22:44 - The first thing smart operators automate 23:38 - Zero to 3,000 listings in under three months 38:12 - What AI will replace and what it won't 50:40 - Why you cannot vibe code a real software business 56:09 - Jan's story: a broken ankle that changed everything 59:26 - Where to find Jan and try Trellis TRY TRELLIS Website: https://trellistech.com Connect with Jan on LinkedIn: Jan Sahagun Apps that i use for my Airbnb Business: Hospitable: https://hospitable.com/partners/rafael HelloHost: https://hellohost.com/partners/rafael If you want to apply AI in your business to save time and earn more.. Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about Follow Rafa on Instagram: @itsrafaloza The Big Break Show drops new episodes every Thursday. Follow the show so you never miss one.
July 2, 2026Episode 558 min
Why Owning More Airbnbs Is a Trap
Blake Anthony Carter is back on The Big Break Show for round two, and this one is a full playbook. He breaks down why he sold his co-living business to go all-in on short-term rentals, how he scaled his management company to around 90 quality units, and the exact systems that let it run without him. If you want to co-host, manage, or buy STRs, this is the episode to take notes on. We get into the real numbers: how a management company actually sells, the sliding scale he uses to fire bad clients, the minimum revenue he needs to say yes, and how he wins deals with agents by giving away free help. Then we go deep on the stuff most operators skip: building a VA team, using AI for guest messaging, and running the whole business on EOS. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Welcome back, Blake (second time on the show) 1:05 What changed in 3 years, and why he sold the co-living business 1:33 Going all-in on short-term rentals 4:36 How he actually sold the company (the earn-out model) 7:12 Why you structure a sale with an earn-out 8:34 What a co-living or co-hosting company really sells for 9:50 Arbitrage, then co-host, then buy: the right order to start 10:47 How to actually get co-hosting clients (agents and BiggerPockets) 13:55 Referral fees and winning agents with free consulting 15:32 The furniture talk: why cheap clients quit in 4 months 19:40 How to fire bad clients using a 1 to 5 sliding scale 24:30 The minimum revenue rule: $70K or it is not worth it 26:02 The underwriting stack: Rabbu, AirDNA, and PriceLabs 27:53 The pitch to homeowners: cashflow, flexibility, and the STR tax loophole 34:15 Should you buy a management company? Best, not biggest 36:35 Building the team: local ops, QC, maintenance, and VAs 38:43 Using AI for guest messaging (HelloHost and Hospitable) 42:06 The experiential hotel: a stadium-seating pool, weddings, and full buyouts 47:08 EOS explained: how to actually run your business 50:28 When you should implement EOS 55:10 What is next for Blake: 120 units and $10M in bookings 58:06 The takeaway: run EOS even as a short-term rental operator Here's my Tool stack i use for my STR Business: Hospitable (Get your 15% Discount on your first 30 Days!) : hospitable.com/partners/rafael HelloHost (AI guest communication): https://www.hellohostai.com/rafa If you're wondering how I scaled my 7 figure business through Systems and AI Operations, Join my Skool community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about Connect with Blake: Blake Anthony Carter on all platforms (his free Skool is linked in his Instagram). Subscribe to The Big Break Show for more real conversations with operators who are actually doing the deals. New Episodes every Thursday!
June 26, 2026Episode 41 hr 2 min
How To Buy Multifamily Real Estate Without Partners or Investors
Trevor B West is a multifamily real estate investor, faith-based entrepreneur, and one of the most in-demand event emcees in the real estate mastermind world. Before real estate, he spent his career as an Air Force special-forces intelligence analyst, building target packages alongside teams like SEAL Team Six and Delta Force. A snapped leg on a rugby field and twenty thousand dollars in debt forced a reset that pushed him into investing. Seven years later he owns more than 80 multifamily units across 17 buildings in Ohio, and he owns almost all of them outright, with no syndication and no partners. He now teaches the playbook on his YouTube channel, Trevor B West (@bettertrevor on Instagram). In this episode, Rafa and Trevor break down: Why multifamily is getting crushed in 2026, and the contrarian way he positioned to BUY the distress instead of becoming it. Over $160 billion in multifamily loans come due this year, and the operators sitting on five-year syndication debt are the ones being forced to sell. Price over location. Why his mentor threw out "location, location, location" and replaced it with "price, price, price," and how buying far below market gives you room to survive every mistake. Why he owns 100% of his portfolio with no partners and no investors to bail out when the loan resets, and the honest case for when a partnership is actually worth it. The $940K deal. How he bought a 28-unit portfolio for $940,000, renovated it, and refinanced at $1.9 million, building a million dollars of equity with the BRRRR method (buy, renovate, refinance, repeat) in 14 months. The shiny-object trap that quietly cost him tens of thousands in dead earnest money, and why picking one strategy and putting his blinders on changed everything. Why a single property replaced the entire retirement he would have earned from 20 years in the military, and the mindset shift that comes with owning your first door. How an intelligence analyst vets a deal like a target package, so he never wires money into a trap. Why he turned the whole business over to God, and the one verse (Psalm 37:23) that has guided every move for two years. ───────────────────────────────────── TIMESTAMPS ───────────────────────────────────── 0:00 - Intro 2:08 - Meet Trevor B West 3:19 - From Air Force intelligence analyst to 80+ units 7:11 - $20K in debt, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and the first deal 10:38 - The shiny-object trap that cost him tens of thousands 16:27 - Why multifamily is getting crushed in 2026 (and why he chose it) 18:54 - Price over location: the rule that beats the market 20:10 - The syndication trap and the 2026 maturity wall 23:17 - The $940K, 28-unit deal that built $1M in equity 26:35 - The real numbers: cash flow, equity, and $200 per door 32:01 - Why he owns 100% with no partners 39:11 - Leverage and delegation without losing control 42:05 - Rich Dad Poor Dad and why timing decides who it changes 43:20 - Faith, focus, and turning the business over to God 51:13 - Psalm 37:23: God cannot bless steps you never take 53:40 - How one property replaced a 20-year pension 56:44 - His big break: the feather, the hammer, and the train 60:25 - Where to find Trevor 🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff. 📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. Wondering how and where to start your STR journey? 🔗 Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about 🔔 New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.
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