# How Michael Russell Turned a Distressed Maui Motel Into an Award-Winning Hostel

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-lights-on-podcast-7759126/how-michael-russell-turned-a-distressed-maui-motel-into-an-award-winning-hostel
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-lights-on-podcast-7759126/how-michael-russell-turned-a-distressed-maui-motel-into-an-award-winning-hostel.md
Podcast: [The Lights On Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-lights-on-podcast-7759126)
Published: 2026-06-25T06:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://ea25c55f-2258-48f1-bd3b-7f245055ea08.libsyn.com/how-michael-russell-turned-a-distressed-maui-motel-into-an-award-winning-hostel
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/ea25c55f-2258-48f1-bd3b-7f245055ea08/Lights_On_-_Michael_Russell.mp3?dest-id=5310465
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-lights-on-podcast-7759126/episodes/how-michael-russell-turned-a-distressed-maui-motel-into-an-award-winning-hostel
Duration seconds: 4183

## Resource

Michael Russell is Co-founder of Howzit Hostels and Malama Capital, where he focuses on hospitality investing, hostel operations, boutique lodging, and experiential real estate. He has experience across short-term rentals, commercial real estate, and hospitality assets, with a focus on acquisitions, repositioning, operations, and portfolio growth. During COVID, Michael acquired a distressed one-star motel and transformed it into Howzit Hostels, growing annual revenue from $500,000 to $2.4 million and earning Hostelworld's 2024 award for #1 Small Hostel in North America. He also hosts The Hotel Investor Playbook , where he shares practical insights on scaling hotel investments. In this episode… Turning an overlooked property into a resilient hospitality business is rarely about the asset. It comes down to seeing value where others see risk, then operating with discipline through thin margins and shocks. During COVID, Michael Russell bought a distressed one-star Maui motel for $800,000 with seller financing and grew it into Howzit Hostels, a $2.4 million brand that earned Hostelworld's 2024 award for the #1 Small Hostel in North America. Kin Sio sits down with Michael on The Lights On Podcast to unpack how he did it. Michael, co-founder of Howzit Hostels and Malama Capital in Maui, walks through the full arc: a W-2 sales job in Hawaii to stack capital, buying single-family homes below construction cost coming out of the Great Recession, then jumping into short-term rentals in 2015 when Airbnb was still new. Each phase funded the next, and the through-line is a single question he keeps asking: where can I find value where others are not looking? That contrarian habit is what led him to a one-star motel nobody wanted and the design-forward hostel model he borrowed from bra…

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