Owner-operator at Top Care Cleaning in Grand Rapids, MI (family business since 1980 — interior, exterior, and Christmas-light services). Founder of Hosted Brands, building the Hosted Stack of tools for local service businesses in public. Hosted Reviews is the SMS review collection product I built first, because that's the workflow I needed at Top Care before I needed any other software.
Credibility, not credentials.
- Owner-operator at Top Care Cleaning, Grand Rapids, MI — a family cleaning company in business since 1980.
- 400+ Google reviews collected and managed for Top Care, the same workflow Hosted Reviews automates.
- $2k–$6k/mo in Google Ads spend on the local service side, which is how I learned what review economics actually do to cost-per-lead.
- Live SaaS since 2026 — Hosted Reviews, Hosted Proof, Hosted Reach, with Presence in build.
Full bio, all projects, and contact info live at the hub → hostedbrands.com/about.
Articles by Alex Host on Hosted Reviews
- How to Find Your Google Place ID (And Why You Probably Need It)
- NiceJob vs Hosted Reviews: The Closest Direct Comparison, Written Honestly
- SMS vs Email for Review Requests: Open Rates, Response Rates, and Real Numbers from a 50-Tech Operation
- How to Embed Google Reviews on Your Website (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, Elementor)
- The SMS Review Request System: How to Ask for a Google Review by Text and Actually Get One
- Review Request Templates: SMS, Email, and In-Person Scripts That Work (One for Each Vertical)
- How to Make a QR Code for Your Google Review Link (Free, No Email Required)
- How to Find Your Google Review Link in Under 60 Seconds (4 Methods)
- Best Review Management Software for Local Service Businesses: All 6 Vendors Compared
- How to Get More Google Reviews for Your Local Service Business
- The Google Review Link Toolkit: Find It, Create It, Share It, Embed It
- The Local Service Reviews Playbook: Why Reviews Matter, What Good Looks Like, and How to Build a System That Compounds