Motel 6

Franchise fee: $25,000 flat (no range — fixed for all properties).

Royalty: 5% of Gross Room Revenues (GRR) monthly. In addition, a Reservation Fee of 1% of GRR is charged monthly for the Motel 6 reservation platform. IT Services Fee: $300/month plus $3.05 per authorized guest room per month — for a 100-room property, that's roughly $605/month in technology fees.

Total investment: $195,259 to $8,239,350. The low end reflects a conversion of an existing economy hotel with minimal renovation; the high end is new construction of a full-size property. Most Motel 6 franchisees are converting existing limited-service hotel properties, so the relevant range for most buyers is $500K–$3M in renovation and conversion costs.

Motel 6 does not disclose revenue in dollar terms. Item 19 provides hospitality performance metrics for 1,107 franchised motels that were active all 12 months of 2024:

All franchised Motel 6 properties: average occupancy 57.01%, average daily rate (ADR) $70.19, average RevPAR $40.01. Median occupancy 55.62%, median ADR $65.48, median RevPAR $36.46.

Top-performing subset (527 properties with A or B quality ranking, 47.6% of system): average occupancy 66.85%, average ADR $74.69, average RevPAR $49.92.

To translate RevPAR to annual revenue: at $40.01 RevPAR and 100 rooms, annual gross room revenue is approximately $40.01 × 100 × 365 = $1,460,365. At 5% royalty, annual royalty is ~$73,000 on this base. The quality ranking (A/B vs. C/D) has a dramatic 36% impact on RevPAR — brand standards compliance is directly linked to financial performance.

Motel 6's US system declined from 1,208 units in 2023 to 1,195 in 2024 — a net reduction of 13 properties. The brand has been undergoing a quality improvement initiative (eliminating C/D rated properties) that may account for some of this shrinkage. The parent company (Blackstone acquired Motel 6 in 2012 and has since repositioned toward quality improvement over unit count growth) is driving brand standard enforcement.

The budget hotel segment faces structural challenges from short-term rental platforms (Airbnb, Vrbo) that offer comparable price points with kitchen access. However, Motel 6's core customers (road travelers, extended-stay workers, cost-conscious families) have different booking patterns than typical Airbnb users — the overlap is less direct than the headline competition suggests.

The quality ranking system (A through D) is consequential. Properties rated A or B outperform C and D properties by 36% on RevPAR ($49.92 vs. $36.46). If you acquire an existing Motel 6 property with a C or D rating, you're stepping into below-average performance with an obligation to improve to maintain the franchise. Failing to upgrade can result in termination — and the brand investment in a C/D property is already underwater.

The investment range ceiling of $8.2M reflects new construction, which is unusual for a budget brand and typically not the business case for Motel 6. Most franchisees convert existing properties. Confirm whether the specific property you're evaluating requires a Property Improvement Plan (PIP) and what it costs — Motel 6 PIPs for acquired properties can run $1M–$3M that are not fully reflected in the FDD investment table for new franchisees.

Budget hotel franchising is operationally intensive with thin margins. Labor is your largest variable cost, and the budget segment has the highest turnover. Absentee ownership is difficult; most successful budget hotel operators are owner-operators or have on-site managers they trust completely.