Verified — real FDD extraction
SBA-eligible · directory code S1952 since 2017
Wyndham
Other · independent · est. —
Wyndham is an upscale hotel brand within the Wyndham Hotels & Resorts portfolio. A franchisee owns and operates a full-service or select-service hotel under the flag, serving business and leisure travelers and paying royalties for the brand and reservation system.
Wyndham net unit count declined -4.3% from 2017–2019 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
Showing strain
Distress
The disclosed record shows weakness — shrinking units, elevated exits, or churn — worth reading closely before going further.
Exit rate · latest year
15.4%
fiscal 2019, per Item 20
Cost to open
$1.4M–$69.2M
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
2.6%
vs 14.8% avg across rated brands
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
2017–2019
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2019, 4 of 26 franchised outlets left the system — a 15.4% annualized exit rate. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 21 | 23 | 26 |
| Opened | 5 | 4 | 0 |
| Transfers | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Outlets at end | 23 | 26 | 22 |
| Net change | +2 | +3 | -4 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 212 SBA-backed loans to Wyndham franchisees since 2007. Of the 76 that have resolved, 2.6% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 576 rated brands.
2.6%
2 of 76 resolved defaulted
46.6%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
1.2%
default rate × loss severity
$3,101,532
what recent franchisees borrowed
167 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
37 vs 39
distinct banks still lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO WYNDHAM BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Gbank
15.0% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 1.9% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
71.6%
first-time franchise owners
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.
Does experience help here?
+3.1pp
multi-unit vs single-unit owners
Owners of multiple units default at 5.0%; single-unit owners at 1.9%.
Computed from 212 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to Wyndham franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $55K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $1.4M–$69.2M (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$1.4M–$69.2M
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$55K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
5%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$50K
5% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$500K
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 Wyndham with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 147 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $784K in back wages for 1,483 workers, including 4 child-labor cases. Some of these cases are recent, not ancient history. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
147
Back wages owed
$784K
Employees affected
1,483
Since 2020
45
4 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 5 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual Wyndham franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not Wyndham 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 2026.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand looks safer than 65% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
35 / 100
Measured
Modeled SBA charge-off
10.6%
Observed SBA charge-off
2.6%
Top drivers: Investment ceiling (log) (lowers) · System size (log units) (raises) · Item 3 litigation (log) (lowers) · Net unit growth (raises). 50+ resolved loans and complete disclosure data — the score is checkable against the brand's observed rate. 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 Wyndham. 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 Wyndham's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →Wyndham franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of Wyndham franchises closed last year?
In Wyndham's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2019), 4 of 26 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 15.4%. 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 Wyndham franchise cost?
Per Wyndham's 2020 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $55K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $1.4M–$69.2M (Item 7).
What royalty does Wyndham charge?
Wyndham charges an ongoing royalty of 5.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2020 FDD.
Does Wyndham disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — Wyndham makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2020 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.
How often do SBA loans for Wyndham franchises default?
Across 212 SBA-backed loans to Wyndham franchisees since 2007, 2 of the 76 that have resolved were charged off — a 2.6% default rate, versus about 14.8% across all rated franchise brands. This is the lender's-eye view of franchisee failure, drawn from public SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA data and independent of the franchisor's own disclosures.