Comfort Inn

Comfort Inn's affiliation fee is $50,000 for new franchises (calculated at $500 per room, $50K minimum). Transfers and renewals cost $65,000 minimum ($750 per room). That's meaningfully higher than SureStay ($25K) and Best Western's SureStay Collection, reflecting the brand's established position and distribution value.

The upfront cost stack beyond the affiliation fee includes: $5,000 application fee (credited toward affiliation), $6,000 for the 'Brand in a Box' pre-opening kit, $8,750 for choiceADVANTAGE property management software and training, $3,800 for hardware, and $1,395 for orientation training. Total pre-renovation commitment is roughly $75K before any property work begins.

The total investment range of $319K to $2.35M is almost entirely driven by how much renovation the property requires. A well-maintained, recently renovated property entering the system can be at the low end; a full FF&E replacement and renovation pushes toward $2.35M. The three-month operating fund isn't broken out separately in the extraction, but the $75K–$150K inventory and operating equipment line suggests significant working capital requirements.

Ongoing: 6% royalty plus 3.5% marketing fund — 9.5% total. Plus Choice Privileges rewards program fees, airline partner fees, GDS fees per reservation, third-party distribution fees per booking, and technology fees. Hotel fee stacks are genuinely complex — a Choice Hotels franchisee's effective fee burden including all per-booking costs can reach 12–14% of gross room revenue in high-OTA-mix markets.

Comfort Inn does include Item 19 data based on approximately 1,600 properties, but the extraction captured the sample size (1,600) without the specific revenue figures. Choice Hotels typically discloses ADR (average daily rate), occupancy percentage, and RevPAR (revenue per available room) across performance tiers — top quartile, median, and bottom quartile.

For context: the midscale hotel segment generally targets RevPAR in the $45–$70 range. A 100-room Comfort Inn at 65% occupancy and $75 ADR generates approximately $1.78M in annual gross room revenue. At 9.5% fee burden, that's $169K annually to Choice Hotels, before OTA commissions. Operating margins in midscale hotels typically run 20–30% of gross revenue before debt service, depending heavily on labor, property taxes, and insurance costs.

Buyers must request the full Item 19 exhibit from Choice Hotels directly, as the specific performance data wasn't captured in this extraction. The FDD should show performance broken out by age of affiliation and by geographic region — both are material for any acquisition decision.

Comfort Inn is exceptionally stable for a mature brand. The system has held between 1,645 and 1,664 units from 2021 to 2023, with consistent 45–63 openings per year against 36–50 closures. Net growth of 9 units in 2023 on a 1,664-unit base is essentially flat — this is a brand in equilibrium, not decline.

The 107 transfers in 2023 (6.4% of the system) indicate active secondary market trading. When a hotel brand has high transfer volume with stable unit counts, it means underperforming locations are changing hands and getting new operators rather than closing — a healthier dynamic than the situation at Checkers or Steak 'n Shake.

Choice Hotels International is a publicly traded company (NYSE: CHH) with a diverse brand portfolio including Cambria Hotels, Clarion, Quality Inn, Sleep Inn, and EconoLodge. This breadth provides financial stability and allows shared distribution infrastructure. The Comfort Inn brand specifically benefits from Choice Hotels' 50+ million member loyalty program (Choice Privileges) and integration with major GDS channels.

The termination liquidated damages clause is one of the most punitive in hotel franchising. If Choice Hotels terminates your agreement, liquidated damages are assessed — and separately, intellectual property liquidated damages are charged 'per day' for continued use of brand elements after termination. The exact formula wasn't captured in this extraction, but buyers must understand the termination math before signing a 15–20 year agreement.

The Property Improvement Plan (PIP) requirement is the hidden cost in every hotel franchise transfer or renewal. The $3,000 PIP fee is just the assessment cost — the actual renovations required can be $50K to $500K+. When buying an existing Comfort Inn, always require a current PIP assessment before closing. The previous owner may have deferred renovations, leaving the new franchisee with an immediate six-figure capital requirement.

The cybersecurity fee (CrowdStrike, billed monthly) is unusual and worth noting as an ongoing cost that grows over time. As Choice Hotels' technology platform evolves, mandatory software and security fees will likely increase. The FDD discloses these as current rates, but hotel franchisees on 10–20 year agreements should anticipate technology fee growth of 5–10% annually based on industry trends.