Hotel Franchise Fee Calculator Debuts at www.HotelMotel.com
CLEVELAND, Sept. 18 / The monumental task of shopping for a hotel franchise just got much easier. Thanks to Hotel & Motel Management and HVS International, Mineola, N.Y., investors can now go online to calculate the cost of operating any of 86 franchised hotel brands.
Using the Hotel Franchise Fee Calculator, site visitors can calculate costs ranging from initial fees, to reservation fees, to marketing fees. Using data supplied by HVS, H&MM has created and built the lodging industry's most robust and interactive online tool. It can be accessed at
"Using the rich treasure trove of HVS data coupled with Hotel & Motel Management's Web development capabilities allows users to access powerful number-crunching models," said Mike Malley, publisher and editorial director of Hotel & Motel Management. "Potential franchisees will be able to better predict and forecast revenue opportunities specific to them."
The Hotel Franchise Fee Calculator includes data on 30 economy brands, 33 Mid-Rate brands and 23 considered to be First-Class. Second only to payroll, franchise fees represent one of the largest operating expenses for most hotels. Data for each brand was obtained by HVS through a Federal Trade Commission disclosure statement known as a Uniform Franchise Offering Circular.
"The calculator allows prospective franchisees to develop an estimate of the actual cost of owning a hotel franchise over a 10-year period," said Stephen Rushmore, president and founder of HVS International. "Everything is taken into account. It's quick and easy to use, very intuitive and gives you highly accurate results. Hundreds of hours went into developing the model to do this."
"The Hotel Franchise Fee Calculator will allow you to tailor your parameters and compare various brands at a click of a button," said William D. Lee, consulting and valuation analyst, HVS International.
The calculator includes four pages. The first page includes an introduction to the tool and detailed instructions. The second page -- the "Select Hotel Brand" page -- includes the list of 86 hotel brands separated by segments. A calculator user is taken to the third page after clicking on one of the brand names.
The third page presents the option to provide data for a hotel in the following categories: room count; average room rate (year one); room rate growth (per year); occupancy in years one, two and three to 10; percentage of rooms occupied by frequent travelers; percentage of rooms occupied by third- party reservation travelers; and percentage of rooms occupied by Internet reservation travelers.
After entering data for a hotel and clicking on the "calculate" button, the user is taken to a results page that includes the following: total 10-year franchise fees, franchise fees as a percentage of 10-year gross rooms revenue, initial fee, royalty fee, reservation fee, marketing fee, frequent traveler fee and miscellaneous fee (training, commissions, etc.).
Rushmore said the calculator not only will be a valuable tool for prospective franchisees; it also will allow franchisors to evaluate their competitors.
Founded in 1875, Hotel & Motel Management magazine has earned the reputation as the hospitality industry's leading source of information. Published 21 times with a global circulation of 60,000 with the largest U.S. distribution, the magazine provides the most timely and insightful coverage of industry news and events. HMM's
Both Hotel & Motel Management and
HVS International was created in 1980 to satisfy the growing demand for reliable and well-documented hotel market studies and feasibility reports. With 11 offices worldwide, HVS offers a vast range of services including valuations, strategic analyses, development planning, litigation support, executive search, waste management, gaming and restaurant consulting, asset management, and operation and management strategy development.