CruiseOne / Dream Vacations Franchise Cost, Revenue & Review 2026
- Investment
- $13K – $21K
- Disclosed sales
- $588K
- gross sales, not profit
- SBA charge-off
- Under 10 loans (6)
Data from FDD filing + SBA 7(a) records
Analysis by FranchiseVerdict Research · Methodology
Dream Vacations (formerly CruiseOne) is a home-based travel-agency franchise specializing in cruises and vacation packages. Franchisees work from home earning commissions on bookings, with no storefront or inventory.
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2026
A CruiseOne / Dream Vacations franchise requires a total initial investment of $13K – $21K, including a $495 – $11K franchise fee and an ongoing 1.5% royalty[2]. Per the 2025 FDD, average unit revenue was $588K[2]. FranchiseVerdict grade: A (Strongest tier), an editorial assessment, not investment advice. Run a live ROI scan →
Sources, dates and evidence
FDD issued: · Data extracted: · Last cited check: · Staleness risk: medium - issued 12 to 24 months ago; a newer filing is likely on file
Evidence: strong✓ Investment (Item 7)✓ Item 19 status✓ Units and owners (Item 20)✗ SBA loan coverage✓ Litigation (Item 3)✓ Financial statements (Item 21)✓ Franchisor identityhow this is scored6 of 6 headline figures on this page cite a page of the filing.
Overview
- Investment
- $13K – $21K
- 5th pct Business Serv…
- Avg gross sales
- $588K
- 7th pct Business Serv…
- Royalty
- 1.5%
- 1st pct Business Serv…
- Units
- 2,175
- 65th pct Business Serv…
- SBA charge-off
- N/A
Quick verdict · Business Services · color = vs category peers
Green = favorable by >10% vs Business Services median · No shading = within ±10% · Red = unfavorable by >10% · Source: FDD filings + SBA 7(a)
Data from public FDD filings and SBA records. Not financial advice. Methodology
Bottom line
- COSTTotal investment $13K – $21K including a $11K franchise fee, 1.5% ongoing royalty.
- RETURNSAverage unit revenue of $588K/year.
- RISKVerdict A (Strongest tier), verdict score 100/100 (higher is better).
- GROWTHPositive: net +221 franchised outlets in the latest year (378 opened, 161 closed) (Item 20).
- GROWTHSystem growing at 27.6% CAGR over 3 years with 2175 total units. Strong expansion trajectory.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Corporate structure & franchisor financials
- Legal entity
- CruiseOne, Inc.
- Parent company
- World Travel Holdings, Inc.
- FDD Item 1, page 9 of the 2025 FDD
- Predecessor
- We do not have a predecessor
- Prior franchisor entity
- CEO title
- Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer
- Bradley Tolkin / Jeffrey Tolkin
- CEO experience
- 18 yrs
- Years in role or industry
- Incorporated in
- FL
- HQ
- 1201 W Cypress Creek Rd, Suite 100, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 33309-1955
- Auditor
- RSM US LLP
- Audited financials
- Franchisor revenue
- $26.5M
- vs $23.0M prior year
- Management churn noted
- Frequent turnover
- Item 2 disclosed frequent executive changes
Overview
About
- CEO
- Bradley Tolkin / Jeffrey Tolkin
- Headquarters
- FL
- Founded
- 1992
- FDD year
- 2025
- States available
- 51
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost runs 87% below the typical business services franchise.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 5–7
Full Item 7 breakdown12 line items
Initial investment breakdown
| Line item | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial franchise fee | $11K | $11K | |
| Training expenses | $250 | $475 | |
| Additional Signatories/ Associates Training and Travel | $745 | $1K | |
| Office Equipment and Furniture | $0 | $350 | |
| Initial Office Supplies | $50 | $275 | |
| Computer Hardware/Software Equipment | $0 | $2K | |
| Insurance, Legal, and Accounting | $150 | $2K | |
| Permits, Franchises, Bonds, & Memberships | $150 | $500 | |
| Initial Promotion and Advertising | $250 | $1K | |
| Criminal and Civil Background Check | $0 | $50 | |
| Additional Funds (3-month initial phase for full-time franchisees) | $500 | $3K | |
| Financing Application Fee | $0 | $75 | |
| Total initial investment | $13K | $21K |
Line items extracted from FDD Item 7. Ranges reflect the franchisor's stated low and high per line. Total is the sum of line-item lows / highs — actual costs may fall outside this range depending on market and build-out scope.
Item 7 · what it costs to open + operate
The Vitals
- Total investment
- $13K – $21K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Liquid capital req'd
- $500 – $3K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Franchise fee
- $495 – $11K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Royalty
- 1.5%
- Tiered by sales volume · typical 6–8%
- Ad fund
- No national marketing fund or advertising program current…
- Total fee load
- 1.5%
- vs 9–13% typical
Ongoing fees · Item 6
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 1.5% of gross sales |
| Technology fee | $150 |
| Training fee | $495 |
| Transfer fee | $4K |
| Total fee load | 1.5% of rev |
A 1.5% total fee load is unusually lean. More of each revenue dollar stays with the franchisee.
What do units actually make?
Average unit sales run 14% below the business services norm.
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 19
Single-unit · not modelled
Returns at a glance
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit, and the operating costs that turn one into the other are in no filing. We publish no modelled return for CruiseOne / Dream Vacations until someone supplies them — yours, in the models below.
—
Not modelled yet
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for ad fund rate, COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
Total invested capital · disclosed
$18K
Item 7 initial investment plus working capital, as filed — the one figure here that needs no assumption.
ROI & LBO modelsSingle-unit · 25-unit portfolio · editable
What one unit earns on your invested capital
Model A · Single-Unit Return
Computes unlevered return on invested capital (ROIC) for a single franchise unit, read against the 30–60% reference band · Yale SOM, Post-MBA Path Exhibit 2 (2023). Below that band a passive index fund likely outperforms; above it the franchisor has pricing power you're subsidizing.
Note: Item 19 revenue is what the franchisor discloses, and it is the top line only — gross sales are not profit. No FDD discloses the operating costs that turn one into the other, so those fields start empty and nothing is modelled until you supply them from your own lease quote, labor market and build-out budget.
Returns model · single-unit ROIC
What would one CruiseOne / Dream Vacations unit return on the cash you put in?
Illustrative category typicals — not sourced to any filing, survey or sample. Replace them with figures from franchisee validation calls before you rely on the output.
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
Your modelled return on total invested capital, before any debt financing.
—
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for ad fund rate, COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
What 25 units return when you use SBA financing
Model B · Return on Equity: Debt-Financed Acquisition
Models a 25-unit portfolio acquisition financed with an SBA 7(a) loan. Shows equity IRR (your return on cash invested), DSCR (how safely the cash flow covers debt service), and the capital stack (SBA + seller + equity breakdown).
This is the “search fund” or “entrepreneurship through acquisition” scenario: you buy an existing multi-unit operator, use leverage to amplify returns, and either operate or hire management. The 25-unit size is the typical minimum for an SBA-backed franchise portfolio acquisition to pencil as a full-time income.
What “return on equity” means here: if you put in $500K of your own cash and the business generates enough EBITDA to pay down debt and grow, your equity IRR is the annual return on that $500K, including the value created when you eventually sell. Target IRR for a search fund is typically 25–35%.
Not modelled yet
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for ad fund rate, COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
A 25-unit return is built on a per-unit EBITDA. Fill in the operating costs in Model A above and this model runs on that figure, or take the whole scenario to the full ROI workbench, where the portfolio and LBO models accept your own per-unit economics directly.
These models are for research and scenario planning only. Not investment advice. Actual results depend on your specific location, management, and market conditions. Consult a franchise attorney and accountant before signing any franchise agreement.
Item 19 · Source: 2025 FDD
Financial Performance
- Avg gross sales
- $588K
- Per unit, per year
Gross sales are revenue before expenses — not profit. Actual owner earnings depend on rent, labor, royalties, marketing fees, and debt service.
- Item 19 type
- historical sales by sales level group
- Sample size
- 1,357 outlets
- vs category median 37 · large
- Range (low → high)
- $25K→$31.9MCited, not corroborated — printed on page 46 of the 2025 FDD. Nothing else in our record independently restates or re-derives it.
- Cohort dispersion (min → max)
- Reporting year
- 2024
- Fiscal year the figures cover
- Source filing
- FDD 2025
- Disclosed in the 2025 filing, covering 2024
- Transparency
- 4 / 10
- vs category median 3 / 10 · above
Compared against 296 Business Services brands
Revenue is 35.0x the investment midpoint. At typical franchise margins, this suggests a payback under 3 years.
Operator outlook
What the numbers say
Data-driven interpretation of this brand's financial disclosures, fee structure, and system trajectory.
Unit economics
Average unit generates $588K/year in gross sales. Revenue-to-investment ratio: 35.0x.
Fee burden
Total ongoing fee load of 1.5% — below the Business Services median of 9.0%.
Disclosure
Transparency score 4/10 — this franchisor discloses detailed breakdowns (quartiles, segments, or cohort data). Buyers can model unit economics with higher confidence.
Operator retention
System expanding at 27.6% CAGR over 3 years across 2,175 units — operators are staying and new ones are joining.
Multi-unit rate
Only 6% of franchisees own multiple units. Could indicate challenging economics or a young system where operators haven't had time to expand.
Source: FDD Item 19 financial performance representations and publicly filed FDD data. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Verify all figures with the franchisor and current franchisees before making any investment decision.
vs Business Services medians
How CruiseOne / Dream Vacations Compares
Category median of published Business Services brands that report the figure; the middle half spans the 25th to 75th percentile and n counts the brands behind it. Medians are used because a few very large systems pull an average far from the typical brand. Revenue is disclosed gross sales, not profit.
Is the system healthy?
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 20
Unit growth
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
- Total units
- 2,175
- Opened
- 378
- Last reporting year
- Closed
- 161
- Turnover rate
- 7.4%
- Company-owned
- 0
- Corporate units in the system
- % franchised
- 100%
- vs corporate-owned
- Multi-unit owners
- 5.6%
- Net growth (3-yr)
- +27.6%
- Net unit change over 3 years
- 3-yr CAGR
- +27.6%
- Compounded over last 3 years
Last fiscal year · Item 20 exits and transfers
- Transfer rate
- 0.9%
- Owners selling to other franchisees
- Termination rate
- 6.1%
- Franchisor-initiated terminations
- Ceased ops
- 7.4%
- Units that stopped operating
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 12 · 51 states reported
The Territory Map
FDD Item 12 reports the state count, but the specific list isn't in our current data. The map will appear once we re-extract from the FDD or enough franchisee contacts are available.
51
states with franchisees (per FDD Item 12)
SBA loan performance
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA loan disclosures. This brand has only 6 7(a) loans on file; statistical reliability is limited below 10 loans.
- Total loans
- 6
- Loan volume
- $1.6M
- Median loan
- $147K
- 50th percentile
- Charge-off rate
- Under 10 loans (6)
- Insufficient SBA coverage: 6 loans, rate hidden below 10
Historical SBA 7(a) lending data, not predictive of future performance. How SBA charge-off rates are calculated
- Repayment rate (PIF)
- Under 10 loans (6)
- 5-yr charge-off
- Under 10 loans (6)
- Loans approved 2021+
- Active lenders
- 6
- Defaults
- N/A
Explore lender portfolios on Bank Reports or regional data on State Reports.
What could kill this investment?
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA · FDD Items 3, 21
Risk analysis
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 4, 8, 16, 21
Risk & Legal
Commission-dependent travel franchise with opaque profitability, unprotected territories, and aggressive growth masking structural vulnerabilities in an economically-sensitive industry.
Litigation (Item 3)
Subject: officers or affiliates. The franchisor is not a named party in these cases.
No litigation required to be disclosed
Bankruptcy (Item 4)
None disclosed
Audited financials (Item 21)
Yes · RSM US LLP
Franchisor revenue (Item 21)
Franchisor entity revenue (not unit-level)
FY2024 total revenues comprise royalties from travel sales, net of $21,488,636 and franchise and other fees of $5,053,648. Net income $5,620,130. Audited by an unnamed CPA firm (signature in Boston, MA, dated March 31, 2025; firm name not captured in OCR). 2,175 franchised outlets, zero company-owned, as of Dec 31, 2024.
Supplier relationship · Items 8 & 16
- Franchisor sells you products: Yes
- Kickbacks from required suppliers: No
- Must buy proprietary products: Yes
- Restricted to system-approved products: Yes
- Can negotiate own supplier terms: No
Score breakdown · what drove the 100 / 100 verdict
- 01MINORNo net income disclosure (Item 19) prevents ROI validation and profitability assessment
- 02MINORUnprotected territory creates direct competition risk with 2,175 other franchisees in system
- 03MINOR11.3% YoY unit growth masks potential quality issues; expansion rate outpacing market demand
- 04MEDWide royalty range (1.5%-3.0%) suggests inconsistent commission structures and unclear earning formulas
- 05MEDCommission-based revenue model creates volatility; travel industry highly susceptible to economic shocks
- 06MINORLow franchise fee ($10,500) may indicate low barriers to entry/exit and higher failure rates
- 07MINOR5-year term is relatively short; high renewal/replacement churn expected
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
What are you signing up for?
Ongoing fees run about 1.5% of sales (royalty + ad fund), before rent and labor.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 11, 12, 17
FDD Items 12, 15, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
| Initial term | 5 years |
|---|---|
| Renewal term | 5 years |
| Allowed renewalsℹ | 0 |
| Territory type | No territory protection |
| Protected territory | No |
| Exclusive territoryℹ | No |
| Online sales rightsℹ | Granted |
| Franchisor can compete | Yes |
| Hire a manager? | Allowed |
| Owner-operator | Required |
| Non-compete (years)ℹ | 1 year |
| Non-compete (miles)ℹ | 50 mi |
| Right of first refusalℹ | Yes |
| RoFR response window | 30 days |
| Transfer requires consent | Yes |
| Termination notice | 30 days |
| Curable defaultsℹ | 2 |
| Mandatory arbitration | No |
| Arbitration location | Broward County, Florida (mediation) |
| Jury trial waiver | Yes |
| Governing law | FL |
| Litigation count | 0 |
View Item 3 litigation summary
No litigation required to be disclosed
Items 10, 11
Training & Operations
- Classroom training
- 88 hrs
- On-the-job training
- 0 hrs
- Training location
- Broward County, Florida area (on-site); Online (virtual and self-study)
- Ongoing training
- Required
- Franchisor financing
- Offered
- Item 10
- POS system
- MyCruiseControl
- Operating tech stack
Items 5 & 11
Franchisor Support
Technology: MyCruiseControl
Item 20 · call current owners
Franchisee Contacts
2,405 owners to call
Name · phone · city · state. Extracted from FDD Item 20
Frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to open a CruiseOne / Dream Vacations franchise?
The total investment to open a CruiseOne / Dream Vacations franchise ranges from $13K – $21K, with an initial franchise fee of $11K. This includes real estate, equipment, inventory, and working capital as disclosed in their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
What do CruiseOne / Dream Vacations franchise owners earn?
According to Item 19 of the CruiseOne / Dream Vacations FDD, the average gross sales per unit is $588K. Note: this is gross revenue, not profit. Actual owner earnings vary based on location, operating costs, and management.
Who owns CruiseOne / Dream Vacations?
CruiseOne / Dream Vacations is franchised by CruiseOne, Inc.. Its parent company is World Travel Holdings, Inc.. Source: FDD Item 1, 2025 filing.
What is Item 19 in the CruiseOne / Dream Vacations FDD?
The FDD section where a franchisor may disclose financial performance of its outlets. Disclosure is optional and formats vary; figures are typically gross sales, which is revenue before expenses, not profit. FranchiseVerdict extracts these figures directly from the CruiseOne / Dream Vacations FDD and qualifies whose outlets they describe.
What is CruiseOne / Dream Vacations's franchise failure rate?
SBA 7(a) loan charge-off data is not available for CruiseOne / Dream Vacations (fewer than 10 loans on file). Charge-off rates are one way to gauge franchise risk, but not all franchise loans go through the SBA program. We recommend reviewing turnover and closure data in the FDD and speaking with current franchisees.
How many CruiseOne / Dream Vacations franchise locations are there?
As of their most recent FDD filing, CruiseOne / Dream Vacations has 2,175 total units in the United States, including 2,175 franchised units and 0 company-owned units. 378 new units were opened in the latest reporting year.
Is CruiseOne / Dream Vacations a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict rates CruiseOne / Dream Vacations as a A-grade franchise with a verdict score of 100 out of 100 (higher is better). The grade is a deterministic score built from six weighted dimensions — financial health, unit economics, unit growth, scale, legal, and transparency — then calibrated against SBA loan charge-off rates and FDD age. Transparency is one of the six, so a filing that discloses less scores lower on that dimension than one that discloses more. Our rating is based solely on publicly available FDD and government data; we recommend speaking with current franchisees before making any investment decision. This is not investment advice.
Data sourced from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) FOIA records. Not financial advice.
For franchisors
Are you the franchisor?
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Data extracted from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) loan disclosures (FOIA). This information is provided for research purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Verify all figures with the franchisor's current Franchise Disclosure Document before making any investment decision.