Estimated manager-run owner earnings for a modeled 100-room U.S. Ramada range from about $82,000 in the Conservative scenario to $295,000 in the Upside scenario. These figures are before personal income taxes, interest, financing principal, depreciation and capital expenditures.
Estimated owner-operator benefit: about $149,000–$362,000. This higher measure includes the modeled value of replacing one paid lodging manager, so it is not passive business profit.
This range is an independent analytical scenario, not an Item 19 financial performance representation by Ramada Worldwide Inc. It combines the 2026 FDD’s 2025 median RevPAR and recurring-fee disclosures with an IRS traveler-accommodation margin benchmark, a BLS lodging-manager wage benchmark and explicit scenario assumptions. Actual results can differ materially by location, room count, hotel format, rate, occupancy, labor, occupancy costs, channel mix, financing, owner involvement, property condition and execution.
Legal franchisor: Ramada Worldwide Inc. FDD guarantor: Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. FDD: issued March 31, 2026. Item 19 period: January 1–December 31, 2025. Population: franchised U.S. Chain Facilities; the RevPAR table covers 100 Qualified Chain Facilities out of 247 facilities in the system at year-end. Benchmark sources: IRS Statistics of Income, Tax Year 2023, and BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024. Date checked: July 16, 2026.
Room revenue per available room for 100 Qualified U.S. franchised facilities.
Year-end 2025 Item 20 count; the system reported no company-owned U.S. facilities.
5.0% royalty plus 3.5% System Assessment Fee on Gross Room Revenues.
Derived from 2023 IRS sole-proprietorship travel-accommodation tax data.
BLS 2024 median annual wage in traveler accommodation, used for role sensitivity.
Item 19 reports hotel revenue-performance metrics, not owner profit or compensation.
What does Ramada’s Item 19 actually measure?
Officially, Item 19 measures room-rate and room-revenue performance—not annual owner earnings. For 2025, the 2026 Ramada FDD reports Average Daily Room Rate, Occupancy Rate, RevPAR, RevPAR Index and reservation-channel contribution for franchised U.S. facilities. It does not report operating profit, EBITDA, net income, owner compensation or cash flow.
RevPAR means gross room revenue per available room. It is useful because it combines rate and occupancy, but it remains revenue. A hotel can report strong RevPAR and still produce weak owner economics after payroll, utilities, insurance, repairs, property taxes, distribution expenses, franchise fees, management cost, interest and capital spending.
| 2025 Item 19 metric | Average | Median | Facilities meeting or exceeding average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Daily Room Rate | $107.62 | $96.38 | 35 of 100 (35.0%) |
| Occupancy Rate | 52.1% | 57.7% | 62 of 100 (62.0%) |
| RevPAR | $56.04 | $52.69 | 43 of 100 (43.0%) |
| RevPAR Index versus U.S. midscale chain scale | 100.5% | 94.5% | 43 of 100 (43.0%) |
Source: 2026 Ramada Worldwide Inc. FDD, Item 19, pp. 92–94. The official Ramada development page also presents rounded 2025 RevPAR Index and central-contribution figures.
The reported median RevPAR of $52.69 converts to about $1.92 million of annual room revenue for a 100-room hotel operating 365 days. That is the model’s central revenue anchor—not an owner-income figure. Food, beverage and other ancillary revenue are not included in this room-revenue calculation.
How was the annual earnings range calculated?
The estimate starts with official median RevPAR, converts it to annual room revenue and applies a clearly labeled industry-margin sensitivity. The model uses the 100-room standard Ramada format shown in Item 7 as a practical unit size. Item 19 does not state that its reporting facilities averaged 100 rooms, so room count is an editorial modeling assumption.
$52.69 median RevPAR × 100 rooms × 365 days = $1,923,185
Room revenue × scenario margin − $66,880 manager wage
- Revenue spread: Conservative, Base and Upside use 80%, 100% and 120% of the $1.923 million central room-revenue figure. This is an analytical spread, not an FDD-reported distribution.
- Margin spread: 9.7%, 12.7% and 15.7%, centered on the derived IRS benchmark and moved by three percentage points in each direction.
- Owner-operator treatment: the IRS sole-proprietorship benchmark is treated as an owner-benefit measure because an owner’s draw is not a deductible wage. A manager-run scenario subtracts one BLS lodging-manager wage.
- Excluded items: personal income taxes, interest, financing principal, depreciation, replacement reserves, renovations and other capital expenditures are outside the published range.
| Scenario | Modeled room revenue | Owner-operator benefit | Manager-run owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $1,538,548 | $149,000 | $82,000 |
| Base | $1,923,185 | $244,000 | $177,000 |
| Upside | $2,307,822 | $362,000 | $295,000 |
Annual dollars for a modeled 100-room U.S. Ramada, before interest, financing principal, personal taxes, depreciation and capital expenditures.
Interpretation: the $66,880 gap in every scenario is the modeled market value of one lodging manager. It represents labor performed by an active owner, not an increase in the hotel’s underlying operating profit.
Sources: 2026 Ramada FDD, Items 7, 15 and 19; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Lodging Managers, May 2024 wage data; independent calculations rounded to the nearest $1,000.
Why is the confidence rating limited?
The largest weakness is that the FDD supplies room revenue performance but no Ramada-specific operating-cost or profit statement. The scenario therefore uses the closest official broad benchmark located: IRS Tax Year 2023 income-statement data for sole proprietorships in travel accommodation, including hotels, motels and bed-and-breakfast inns.
That IRS group reported approximately $5.896 billion of business receipts and an aggregate net loss of about $681.8 million. Adding back approximately $910.4 million of depreciation and $520.7 million of mortgage and other interest produces a derived pre-interest, pre-depreciation margin of 12.7%. The formula is:
(−$681.8m net income less deficit + $910.4m depreciation + $520.7m interest) ÷ $5.896bn receipts = 12.7%
This benchmark is not Ramada-specific, not franchise-only and not limited to 100-room hotels. It also uses total business receipts, while the FDD revenue anchor is room revenue. Ancillary hotel revenue and its associated costs are therefore omitted from the model. Those definition mismatches are why the article does not present the Base scenario as the most likely result.
Official benchmark source: IRS Nonfarm Sole Proprietorship Statistics, 2023 Table 2.
Each cell shows annual manager-run owner earnings after subtracting the $66,880 manager-wage assumption.
Interpretation: revenue and cost control interact. At the central revenue level, moving the operating margin from 9.7% to 15.7% changes manager-run earnings from about $120,000 to $235,000—before debt and capital spending.
Source: independent sensitivity analysis using 80%, 100% and 120% of FDD-anchored room revenue; IRS-derived 12.7% margin with ±3 percentage-point assumptions; BLS manager wage.
Can a Ramada owner be absentee or manager-run?
Yes, the FDD does not require the owner to participate personally in direct hotel operations, but a qualified manager or management company is required when the owner does not manage. Item 15 says Ramada recommends owner participation; an owner who does not personally manage must hire an individual manager or management company with significant lodging-management experience, and the general manager must complete required training.
The owner-operator figures therefore combine two economic components: residual operating benefit and the labor value of performing the manager’s job. The model uses the BLS median annual wage of $66,880 for lodging managers in traveler accommodation. It does not include employer payroll taxes, benefits, bonuses, housing, regional wage premiums or a management company’s fee, so the manager-run residual may be overstated in higher-cost markets.
Official wage source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Lodging Managers.
An active owner does not automatically make the hotel $66,880 more profitable. The higher owner-operator benefit reflects compensation for management labor. A buyer should compare that labor value with the owner’s required time, experience and opportunity cost.
Which Ramada fees materially affect owner earnings?
The core recurring burden is 8.5% of Gross Room Revenues: a 5.0% royalty and a 3.5% System Assessment Fee. The System Assessment consists of a 2.0% marketing contribution and 1.5% basic reservation fee. Gross Room Revenues generally cover guest-room rental revenue and exclude food-and-beverage charges and taxes.
| Recurring obligation | FDD amount | Owner-earnings relevance |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | 5.0% of GRR | Applies from opening through expiration or earlier termination. |
| System Assessment Fee | 3.5% of GRR | Includes 2.0% marketing and 1.5% basic reservation fee. |
| Loyalty Program Charge | 4.25%–5.5% | Applies to amounts on which Wyndham Rewards members earn points or other program currency. |
| Distribution and technology fees | Variable | May include agency commissions, channel fees, pay-for-performance commissions, PMS fees and other program charges. |
The scenario does not subtract these fees a second time from the IRS-derived margin because the IRS result is an all-in tax-return benchmark after business deductions. That treatment avoids mechanical double counting, but it does not prove that the broad IRS population carried Ramada’s exact fee structure. A property-level operating statement is necessary to replace this proxy.
Source: 2026 Ramada Worldwide Inc. FDD, Item 6, pp. 30–41.
How representative is the 2025 Item 19 sample?
The RevPAR sample covers 100 of 247 U.S. facilities, or about 40.5% of the year-end system. To qualify, a facility had to remain in the system through December 31, 2025, satisfy the stated quality-assurance condition and achieve a Comparable Social Review Score, including at least 10 reviews and an average score of 3.5 out of 5 or higher.
The disclosure excludes 22 facilities that were open on January 1, 2025 but left the system by year-end. Item 20 reports five U.S. franchised openings and 22 facilities that ceased operations for other reasons during 2025, reducing the year-end count from 264 to 247. There were no company-owned U.S. facilities. These exclusions and system changes matter because surviving, quality-qualified hotels may not represent every operating outcome.
What the sample supports
Historic 2025 ADR, occupancy, RevPAR, RevPAR Index and channel-contribution measures for the defined franchised populations.
What the sample does not support
A claim about typical owner salary, hotel EBITDA, after-debt cash flow, personal take-home pay or the economics of facilities that left the system.
Only 35% of the Qualified Chain Facilities met or exceeded the average ADR, and 43% met or exceeded the average RevPAR. The median is therefore a more defensible central anchor than the average for this scenario, but it still does not reveal the lower and upper tails of owner profit.
What should a buyer verify before relying on this range?
A buyer should replace the broad benchmark with property-level evidence wherever possible. The 2026 FDD says written substantiation for the Item 19 representations is available on reasonable request, and Item 20 identifies current and former franchisees for due-diligence interviews.
- Item 19 substantiation: request the written support for ADR, occupancy, RevPAR, RevPAR Index and contribution calculations, including definitions and monthly reporting treatment.
- Comparable property P&Ls: obtain room revenue, ancillary revenue, payroll, utilities, insurance, property taxes, repairs, supplies, distribution expense, franchise fees and management cost for hotels similar in room count, service level and market.
- Owner-role cost: verify local general-manager compensation, payroll burden, benefits, bonuses and management-company pricing rather than relying only on the national BLS wage.
- Debt and lease obligations: model interest, principal, rent and lender reserves separately. Debt service can materially reduce or eliminate the pre-debt residual shown here.
- Capital requirements: quantify furniture, fixtures and equipment replacement reserves, property-improvement plans, deferred maintenance and periodic renovation spending.
- Channel mix: reconcile central reservations, Wyndham Rewards, online travel agencies and direct bookings with all related commissions, loyalty charges and transaction fees.
- Franchisee interviews: speak with current and former operators about actual owner workload, management structure, renovation burden and cash available after debt and capital spending.
The Federal Trade Commission’s Franchise Rule materials explain the disclosure framework and the role of the 23 FDD items. The FDD’s Item 19 substantiation and Item 20 contacts remain the more brand-specific evidence.
What is the strongest defensible Ramada owner-earnings range?
For a modeled 100-room U.S. Ramada, the strongest defensible published range is approximately $82,000–$295,000 in manager-run annual owner earnings, or $149,000–$362,000 in owner-operator benefit. Both are independent, pre-interest, pre-tax, pre-depreciation scenarios—not Ramada Item 19 profit figures.
The most important driver is room-revenue productivity, especially RevPAR, combined with labor and operating-cost control. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the property’s true all-in expense structure, including management cost, channel fees, debt service and capital spending. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify Item 19 substantiation, obtain comparable hotel P&Ls and test the range against interviews with current and former franchisees.