Verified — real FDD extraction
Not found in the SBA Franchise Directory under this name — though SBA loans to its franchisees exist; verify eligibility with your lender
TRAVEL LEADERS
Other · independent · est. —
Travel Leaders is a travel agency franchise network providing booking tools, supplier relationships, and marketing support to member agencies. A franchisee runs a travel agency, often home-based or a small office, planning and booking trips for leisure and corporate clients.
TRAVEL LEADERS net unit count grew +2.2% from 2023–2025 per its FDD Item 20.
New to franchising? Start here
A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.
Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
- Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
- Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Proven & steady
Distress
A real track record with an unremarkable region of the ledger: neither the growth nor the exits stand out, for better or worse. The standout in the record: owner turnover is low.
Exit rate · latest year
4.3%
fiscal 2025, per Item 20
Cost to open
$2K–$18K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
Too few resolved
12 loans exist; too few resolved to rate
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2023–2025
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2025, 8 of 188 franchised outlets left the system — a 4.3% annualized exit rate. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 187 | 184 | 190 |
| Opened | 7 | 11 | 7 |
| Transfers | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 7 | 2 | 3 |
| Outlets at end | 184 | 190 | 188 |
| Net change | -3 | +6 | -2 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 12 SBA-backed loans to TRAVEL LEADERS franchisees since 1999. Most are still open, so there is not yet a resolved cohort large enough to rate.
—
7 resolved · too thin to rate
—
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
—
default rate × loss severity
$919,250
what recent franchisees borrowed
51 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
—
distinct banks lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO TRAVEL LEADERS BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $3K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $2K–$18K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes no earnings claim (Item 19) — ask current and former franchisees for real numbers.
To open (Item 7)
$2K–$18K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$3K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
—
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — this brand discloses no Item 19 earnings; validate with current & former owners.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$0
0% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$0
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for TRAVEL LEADERS with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 3 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $20K in back wages for 42 workers. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
3
Back wages owed
$20K
Employees affected
42
Since 2020
0
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual TRAVEL LEADERS franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not TRAVEL LEADERS itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2015.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
The public record puts this brand toward the riskier end of the systems we score — but the evidence is thin, so treat it as a range, not a number.
Risk percentile (range)
69–93 / 100
Directional
Modeled SBA charge-off
17.7%
Observed SBA charge-off
28.6%
Top drivers: Investment ceiling (log) (raises) · Item 3 litigation (log) (raises) · Net unit growth (raises) · Item 20 exit rate (lowers). Thin loan history — treat this as a range, not a number. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for TRAVEL LEADERS. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing TRAVEL LEADERS's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →TRAVEL LEADERS franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of TRAVEL LEADERS franchises closed last year?
In TRAVEL LEADERS's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2025), 8 of 188 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 4.3%. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a TRAVEL LEADERS franchise cost?
Per TRAVEL LEADERS's 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $3K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $2K–$18K (Item 7).
Does TRAVEL LEADERS disclose earnings (Item 19)?
No — TRAVEL LEADERS's 2026 FDD makes no financial performance representation in Item 19. That is legal and common, but it means the franchisor publishes no earnings claim; ask current franchisees for real numbers.