Brittany Blackman spent 14 years in vacation rental property management in Destin, Florida. She helped grow one company from 42 properties to 115, then started Breathe Easy Rentals from scratch, built it to 30 properties in four years and sold it in 2024. She now coaches business owners and their teams through Discover Freedom. She joins Ray and Silvia to talk about building a hosting business you can sell, and what being on call for 14 years taught her.

Silvia opens with this week's topic: claiming money from guests for extra cleaning or damage. She and Ray walk through what happens when a guest refuses to pay, how an AirCover claim is assessed, and why short-term rental insurance still matters. Brittany's advice from the property manager's side: document everything up front.

In this episode

• Claiming for damage and extra cleaning: receipts, time-stamped before and after photos, and the 14 day window
• Why AirCover can give hosts a false sense of security
• How Brittany fell into the industry as a reservationist and stayed for 14 years
• What has changed: technology, co-hosts, more competition and private equity
• Collaboration over competition in a crowded market, and why your name is all you have
• Why hosting can be a lonely business, and how to build a network around you
• Selling a business: getting yourself out of the day to day, and the identity crisis afterwards
• Giving a team its "why", including the magazine vision board exercise she ran with her staff
• Burnout, turning your phone off, and why you do not have to reply to every guest immediately
• The personal reasons behind her decision to sell
• Moving into coaching and working towards her PCC credential with the International Coaching Federation
• Her advice for new hosts: connect with people, inside and outside the industry
• Automation, AI and keeping the human side of hospitality

Connect with Brittany

• Discover Freedom website
• Brittany on LinkedIn
• Discover Freedom on Instagram: @discoverfreedom.life
• Discover Freedom on Facebook

Stay with Ray and Silvia

• Ray's properties
• Silvia's Sydney Airbnb

Follow the hosts

• Ray on Instagram: @rayzworld
• Superhosts Down Under on Instagram

Follow Superhosts Down Under for more conversations with hosts across Australia and beyond.