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
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