Estimated annual owner earnings
A reasonable manager-run range for a modeled 100-room U.S. Howard Johnson hotel is approximately $347,000 to $743,000 per year, with a base scenario near $552,000. This is an independent pre-tax EBITDA-style estimate, not an earnings figure reported by Howard Johnson International, Inc. Item 19 reports hotel revenue-performance metrics—especially RevPAR—but does not report franchisee profit, owner compensation, distributions, or net income.
Data basis. Legal franchisor: Howard Johnson International, Inc. Immediate parent: Wyndham Hotel Group, LLC. Ultimate parent: Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. FDD issuance date: March 31, 2026. Item 19 measurement period: January 1 through December 31, 2025. Applicable offer: U.S. franchised guest lodging facilities, including new-construction and conversion formats. Item 19 population: 133 U.S. Chain Facilities at December 31, 2025; the ADR, Occupancy Rate, and RevPAR table uses 60 Qualified Chain Facilities. The profitability proxy is the 2024 U.S. hotel-industry ratio of EBITDA per available room to total revenue per available room reported by CoStar/STR. The owner-operator labor value uses the 2025 BLS lodging-manager median wage for Accommodation. Checked July 19, 2026.
FDD references in this article are plain-text citations because no matching public FDD hosted on the official franchise-controlled domain was verified. Official brand context is available on the Howard Johnson by Wyndham franchise development page.
LIMITED. The current same-brand FDD supplies strong 2025 RevPAR, ADR, occupancy, contribution, fee, and outlet-population evidence, but it does not disclose franchisee operating profit or owner earnings. The final earnings range therefore depends materially on a broad U.S. hotel EBITDA benchmark, a 100-room modeling convention, and an analytical revenue-and-margin spread. A central comparability limitation is that Howard Johnson RevPAR reflects gross room revenue, while the benchmark margin denominator is total hotel revenue per available room, which may include non-room revenue.
What does Howard Johnson Item 19 actually measure?
Officially, Item 19 measures room-revenue performance—not annual owner income. For 2025, Howard Johnson International, Inc. reports Average Daily Room Rate, Occupancy Rate, RevPAR, competitive-set and economy-chain-scale RevPAR indexes, and reservation-system contribution for U.S. franchised hotels. It does not report Operating Profit, EBITDA, Net Income, Cash Flow, Owner Compensation, salary, draw, or distributions.
| Official Item 19 metric | Average | Median | Met/exceeded average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Daily Room Rate | $111.14 | $92.00 | 16 of 60 (26.7%) |
| Occupancy Rate | 55.0% | 51.6% | 25 of 60 (41.7%) |
| RevPAR | $61.11 | $43.72 | 18 of 60 (30.0%) |
| Competitive-set RevPAR Index | 103.5% | 108.7% | 31 of 60 (51.7%) |
| Economy chain-scale RevPAR Index | 126.0% | 101.7% | 43 of 133 (43.0%) |
Source: Howard Johnson International, Inc. 2026 FDD, Item 19, pages 82–85. “RevPAR” is gross room revenue per available room. Item 19 states that all represented Chain Facilities were franchisee-operated during the measurement period.
The cohort also requires caution. Only 60 of 133 U.S. Chain Facilities qualified for the primary ADR, Occupancy Rate, and RevPAR table. A Qualified Chain Facility had to remain in the system at year-end, have at least ten aggregated social reviews in 2025, achieve an average review score of at least 3.5 out of 5, and have received a quality-assurance inspection. Item 19 excludes 11 Chain Facilities that left the system during 2025. Item 20 reports that the U.S. system declined from 139 to 133 franchised outlets during 2025 and had no company-owned U.S. outlets. These filters limit how representative the 60-hotel table may be for a new buyer.
How is the annual owner-earnings range calculated?
The range is an estimated 2025 manager-run result for a 100-room U.S. hotel. Revenue is derived from Howard Johnson RevPAR, while the earnings conversion uses a broad 2024 U.S. hotel EBITDA benchmark. The 100-room convention matches the FDD’s Item 7 examples but is not presented as the typical Howard Johnson room count.
Earnings formula: modeled annual room revenue × scenario EBITDA margin.
Base margin: $51.88 U.S. hotel EBITDA PAR ÷ $209.67 TRevPAR = 24.7436%, rounded to 24.7% for publication.
- Conservative revenue: official median RevPAR of $43.72. Conservative margin: benchmark margin minus 3 percentage points, or 21.7%.
- Base revenue: official average RevPAR of $61.11. Base margin: the 24.7% CoStar/STR EBITDA-to-total-revenue ratio.
- Upside revenue: 120% of the official average RevPAR because Item 19 provides no upper quartile. Upside margin: benchmark margin plus 3 percentage points, or 27.7%.
- The 120% revenue factor and ±3-percentage-point margin band are editorial sensitivity assumptions, not FDD-reported probabilities or expected outcomes.
| Scenario | Revenue anchor | Modeled room revenue | Margin | Manager-run earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $43.72 RevPAR | $1,595,780 | 21.7% | $347,000 |
| Base | $61.11 RevPAR | $2,230,515 | 24.7% | $552,000 |
| Upside | $73.33 modeled RevPAR | $2,676,618 | 27.7% | $743,000 |
How much does the manager-run scenario produce?
Estimated annual pre-tax EBITDA-style owner earnings for a modeled 100-room hotel
Interpretation: The spread is driven by both RevPAR and margin sensitivity; it is not a probability forecast. Source: Howard Johnson International, Inc. 2026 FDD, Item 19, pages 82–85; CoStar/STR 2024 U.S. hotel P&L metrics. Calculations use full precision and are rounded to the nearest $1,000.
How does owner involvement change the result?
An active owner who genuinely replaces a paid lodging manager could add about $67,110 of labor value to each scenario. This is an estimated owner-operator benefit, not pure business profit. Howard Johnson Item 15 allows an owner not to manage personally, but a non-operating owner must hire a qualified individual manager or management company; the franchisor may require an approved third-party manager in specified circumstances.
What is the estimated owner-operator effect?
Manager-run residual compared with owner-operator benefit using the 2025 BLS lodging-manager median wage
Interpretation: The $67,110 difference compensates the owner for lodging-management labor; it should not be described as passive profit. Source: Howard Johnson International, Inc. 2026 FDD, Item 15, page 74; BLS Accommodation industry wage data for 2025.
Actual labor value may be higher or lower by market, hotel size, experience, hours, benefits, and management-company pricing. The BLS figure is wage compensation, not a complete employer-cost estimate. An owner who retains a manager while also working in the hotel should not add the full wage to residual profit.
Which fees and variables move Howard Johnson owner earnings most?
RevPAR, labor, distribution costs, insurance, property tax, repairs, and financing are likely to move annual cash outcomes more than any single fixed fee. This is an analytical interpretation for a current U.S. Howard Johnson hotel; the fee amounts themselves are official 2026 FDD terms. Core recurring charges begin with an 8.5% rate on Gross Room Revenues, while reservation, loyalty, technology, and channel costs can add materially depending on booking mix and service use.
| FDD charge | Official amount | Owner-earnings relevance |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | 5.0% of GRR | Directly scales with Gross Room Revenues. |
| Room Sales Charge | 1.5% of GRR | Core reservation-system charge; subject to stated change provisions. |
| Marketing Contribution | 2.0% of GRR | Core system marketing burden. |
| Loyalty Program Charge | 4.25%–5.5% | Applies to amounts on which members earn program currency, not automatically all GRR. |
| Reservation/channel fees | $2.08 per reservation | GDS, third-party-channel, and internet-booking charges vary with booking volume. |
| Agency commissions | Up to 20% of GRR | Applies to qualifying consumed reservations, not the hotel’s entire revenue base. |
| PMS support/service | $734–$1,050 monthly | Base recurring technology expense for specified PMS levels; premium OPERA pricing differs. |
| Wyndham Connect Plus | 3.5% of applicable GRR | Applies to reservations booked through the service. |
Source: Howard Johnson International, Inc. 2026 FDD, Item 6, pages 28–40. GRR means Gross Room Revenues as defined by the FDD. The table does not imply that every variable charge applies to every room dollar.
Booking mix matters because Item 19 reports an average 84.5% Central Reservation System contribution and a 52.4% Wyndham Rewards contribution across all 133 U.S. Chain Facilities in 2025. These are gross room-revenue contribution percentages, not profit shares. A high contribution can support demand while also increasing exposure to reservation, loyalty, agency, and digital-distribution costs.
Financing can materially reduce owner distributions even when hotel EBITDA is positive. No debt-service estimate is included because the FDD does not establish one universal financed amount, interest rate, amortization period, property value, or capital stack. Personal income taxes are also excluded because they depend on entity structure, jurisdiction, deductions, and owner circumstances.
What should a buyer verify before relying on this range?
A buyer should replace every broad scenario input with property-specific evidence before underwriting a purchase or development. This is a verification framework—not an official or derived earnings result—for the modeled 100-room U.S. hotel and the 2025 performance period. The highest-priority checks are the complete Item 19 substantiation, the target hotel’s trailing financial statements, local wage and insurance quotes, management terms, and the actual debt and renovation schedule.
- Request the written substantiation supporting the 2025 Item 19 ADR, Occupancy Rate, RevPAR, RevPAR Index, and contribution results; the FDD states that substantiation is available on reasonable request.
- Ask why 73 of 133 U.S. facilities were outside the 60-hotel Qualified Chain Facilities cohort and how excluded hotels performed.
- For an existing hotel, reconcile at least three years of room revenue, other operating revenue, payroll, utilities, repairs, insurance, property tax, franchise fees, channel commissions, management fees, and capital expenditures.
- Confirm the hotel’s room count, seasonality, competitive set, quality-assurance status, social-review score, renovation obligations, and expected opening or conversion ramp.
- Interview current and former franchisees listed in Item 20 about manager compensation, owner hours, technology charges, loyalty economics, online-travel-agency mix, insurance increases, and replacement reserves.
- Separate operating earnings from financing interest, principal amortization, owner-level overhead, capital calls, and personal taxes.
The Federal Trade Commission’s franchise buyer guide emphasizes that gross sales do not establish profit and that buyers should examine the source, limitations, assumptions, sample size, and typicality of Item 19 claims. That distinction is especially important here because Howard Johnson Item 19 reports room-revenue performance rather than owner income.
Decision-useful synthesis. The strongest defensible annual range is approximately $347,000 to $743,000 for a modeled 100-room, manager-run U.S. Howard Johnson hotel, with a base scenario near $552,000. The range is scenario-based, not an official franchisor earnings disclosure. RevPAR is the most important modeled driver; the largest unresolved uncertainty is whether a broad U.S. hotel EBITDA margin accurately represents Howard Johnson’s specific operating, franchise-fee, property-cost, and capital-expenditure profile. Before relying on the range, a buyer should verify the Item 19 substantiation, obtain actual property-level financials, and test the assumptions through current and former franchisee interviews.