Spark By Hilton Franchise Cost & 2026 FDD Data
71/100
Strongest tier
71 this brand65 Lodging medianlikely 63–79: narrower with more SBA loans (high confidence)
Higher is better · an editorial assessment, not investment advice
#479 of 3,068 graded brands
Why an A: Helped by scale and legal record. See all six factors
- Total investment
- $3.3M – $5.9M
- excl. real estate
- Avg gross sales
- not extracted
- SBA charge-off
- 18 loans: too few to judge
Data from the FDD filing + SBA 7(a) records. Analysis by FranchiseVerdict · Methodology · Website · Report an error · Franchisor? Claim this listing
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2026 FDD
Per the 2026 FDD, a Spark By Hilton franchise requires a total initial investment of $3.3M – $5.9M, excluding real estate, including a $75K franchise fee. Once open, the ongoing royalty is 5.5%. The 2026 FDD on file does not yield a unit-revenue figure we can publish. Verdict grade: A (Strongest tier), an editorial assessment, not investment advice.
Sources: 2026 FDD · What one unit could make and lose →
Sources, dates and evidence
FDD issued: · Last cited check: · Staleness risk: low (issued within the last 12 months)
Evidence for the headline figures: thin✓ 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 scored4 of 5 headline figures on this page cite a page of the filing; the rest are marked “Not cited” beside the figure.
Overview
Quick verdict · vs Lodging median
Top edge: green = better than the Lodging median by more than 10%, red = worse by more than 10%, gray = within 10% or no benchmark. Source: FDD filings + SBA 7(a).
Data from public FDD filings and SBA records. Methodology
Bottom line
- RETURNSNo Item 19 gross sales figure is on file for this brand. We have not established what its FDD discloses.
- GROWTHIn the latest Item 20 year, the number of franchised outlets grew by 119.
AT STAKEOne unit at the Item 7 midpoint: $593K a year in payments on assumed SBA 7(a)-style terms.You put in about $916K of your own cash and personally guarantee a $3.7M loan. Assumptions are labeled in Sales; not investment advice.See what one unit could make and lose
Things to check before you sign (1)
- Limited data: this page holds only part of the filing. Read the FDD itself before relying on any figure here.
Checked and clear: no auditor doubt that the franchisor can keep operating and no net loss of franchised outlets in the latest Item 20 years. Not on file here, so ask: pending litigation, SBA charge-off rate against the category median, competition inside your territory, jury-trial waiver, supplier rebates and owner-operator rule.
What to do next
Step 1: Read the FDD itself.
Free: the franchisor must give it to you at least 14 days before you sign or pay. Or look it up in a state registry (Wisconsin, Minnesota, California). What to read first.
Step 2: Talk to current and former owners.
Free: Item 20 of the FDD lists every current owner and those who left last year, most with a phone number. Questions to ask.
Step 3: Talk to an SBA lender.
Free: the SBA's Lender Match, or the lenders already lending to this brand in the SBA section. Ask what you would personally guarantee and what the monthly payment would be. If you plan to use retirement savings, ask a CPA about the rules for that first.
Step 4: Have a franchise attorney review the FDD and agreement.
Free: your state bar's lawyer referral service can name franchise lawyers, and many offer a short first consultation. Bring the checks listed above.
Research steps, not investment or legal advice.
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost (the Item 7 midpoint) is 46% below the Lodging median ($8.5M).
Source: FDD 2026 · Items 5–7 (fees and startup costs)
Do you qualify? The filing states no minimum net worth or liquid capital. Ask the franchisor and your lender what they require, and keep living costs for the first year outside the deal.
Full Item 7 breakdown20 line items
Initial investment breakdown
| Line item | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franchise Application Fee | $75K | $75K | |
| Property Improvement Plan | $10K | $10K | |
| Construction/Renovation and Leasehold Improvements | $1.3M | $2.8M | |
| Designer and Engineering Fees | $52K | $112K | |
| Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment | $900K | $1.2M | |
| Inventory and Operating Equipment | $150K | $275K | |
| Signage | $36K | $60K | |
| Computer Hardware and Software Systems | $38.6K | $92.9K | |
| Guest Internet Access System | $51.1K | $73.2K | |
| Connected Room System | $24.6K | $29.4K | |
| Digital Payment System | $750 | $1.5K | |
| Required Pre-Opening Training | $5K | $15K | |
| ADA Consultant Fee | $2.5K | $10K | |
| Renovation Extension Fees | $0 | $10K | |
| Organizational Expenses | $20K | $65.7K | |
| Permits and Licenses | $0 | $40.5K | |
| Miscellaneous Pre- Opening and Project Management Expenses | $150K | $250K | |
| Contingencies | $130K | $280K | |
| Additional Funds | $300K | $500K | |
| Other Required Pre- opening Services Fees | $6K | $6K | |
| Total initial investment | $3.3M | $5.9M |
Line items extracted from FDD Item 7. Ranges reflect the franchisor's stated low and high per line. The total row is the total as printed in Item 7. Actual costs may fall outside this range depending on market and build-out scope.
Item 6 · what you pay once you are open
Ongoing fees
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 5.5% |
| Marketing / ad fund | 3.5% |
| Total fee loadnear the Lodging median of 8.5% | 9.0% of sales |
Items 6 (other fees), 7 (startup costs) and 19 (sales and earnings) · assumptions labeled
What you could make and lose: one unit
What one Spark By Hilton unit would ask of you, from the filing's Item 7 total and labeled assumptions.
How these figures are worked out
- Loan (assumption): 80% of the $4.6M Item 7 midpoint is a $3.7M loan, paid over 10 years at 10.5%: $593K a year. SBA 7(a)-style terms on a long-term rate; your lender sets yours. Spark By Hilton's past SBA 7(a) loans averaged 9.3% at approval; 7(a) rates move with the prime rate, so 10.5% is a current-rate assumption, not this brand's history.
What you put at risk
Your own cash in: about $916K Assumption (the part the loan does not cover of the $4.6M Item 7 midpoint), plus whatever anything Item 7 leaves out (its notes say what). The loan is $3.7M.
Personal guarantee. SBA 7(a) loans require a personal guarantee from anyone who owns 20% or more of the business. If the unit cannot pay, the lender can collect from you personally, which can include your savings and your home. The worst case is losing the cash you put in and still owing the rest of the loan.
Gross sales are not profit, and none of these figures is take-home pay until tax and every operating cost are paid. The assumptions are ours, not the filing's. Not investment advice.
Returns modelOne unit · several units · editable
No Item 19 gross sales figure for Spark By Hilton is on file. The return models need one gross sales figure to start from, plus the operating costs that turn gross sales into a profit. Enter your own and the calculator runs on your assumptions; nothing here is modelled until you do.
Returns model · one unit
What would one Spark By Hilton unit leave you each year after the loan payment?
Not disclosed in Item 19. Enter your own gross sales assumption
Gross sales, not profit: the costs below decide what is left.
No Item 19 figures are on file for this brand. Enter your own costs from a lease quote, a payroll plan and calls with current owners.
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.
Item 7 midpoint of $3.3M to $5.9M
Item 7's additional-funds line is already in the total
Left after the loan payment · per year
The unit's EBITDA minus the assumed loan payment. Before tax, depreciation and any cost your inputs leave out (insurance, accounting and legal, licenses, technology fees): not take-home pay.
Gross sales are not profit. Neither the filing nor a stated assumption on this page supplies annual revenue, direct costs, labor, rent / occupancy and other operating costs. Enter your own (a lease quote, owner calls) and the model runs on it.
Loan of $3.7M at 10.5% over 10 years, an assumption, not a quote. Return and payback are before tax, depreciation and the costs above. The loan usually needs your personal guarantee.
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: 2026 FDD
Financial performance
We have not established what this franchisor's Item 19 says. The FDD on file either has no locatable Item 19 or could not be read, so no figure is published here.
vs Lodging medians
How Spark By Hilton compares
Category median of published Lodging 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.
Who are you contracting with?
Item 1 of the filing names the franchisor and its parent; we have not extracted them for this brand yet. The FDD itself is the source.
Is the system healthy?
+202 franchised outlets between the first and last year-ends Item 20 prints (8 to 210).
Source: FDD 2026 · Item 20 (outlets opened, closed and transferred)
Item 20 (outlet counts) · unit dynamics
The growth chart
- Company-owned
- 0
- Corporate units in the system
Item 20 · franchised units at year end
Franchised units rose from 8 in 2023 to 210 in 2025
Axis does not start at zero.
Source and method
Government records
SBA loan data
Matched to this brand from SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA loan records.
- Loans on file
- 18
- SBA 7(a) loans matched to this brand, incl. those still being repaid
- Loan volume
- $55.5M
- Average loan
- $3.1M
- loan volume divided by loans
- Charge-off rate
- 18 loans: too few to judge
- Limited SBA coverage: 18 loans, rate hidden until 10 have resolved and loans reach 2% of franchised units
- Paid in full
- 18 loans: too few to judge
- Recent-loan charge-off
- 18 loans: too few to judge
- Lenders
- 9
- Average interest rate
- 9.3%
- Jobs reported
- 219
- Lender concentration
- 28%
- top lender's share
Cumulative: every 7(a) loan matched to this brand in the SBA’s FOIA files, approved FY1991 onward. Historical lending data, not predictive of future performance. How SBA charge-off rates are calculated
Borrower mix: of the 18 loans with a recorded business age, 5 (28%) went to startups or businesses under two years old and 13 (72%) to established businesses or ownership changes.
Explore lender portfolios on Bank Reports or regional data on State Reports.
Full SBA lending reportlenders · charge-off rate · trend
Lender network · SBA 7(a)
SBA Lending Report
Lender, state and yearly detail for Spark By Hilton from SBA 7(a) FOIA loan records.
- Average SBA guarantee
- 75%
- Average interest rate
- 9.3%
- Lender concentration
- 28%
- Jobs reported
- 219
Top 10 SBA lenders by loan count
| Loans | Volume | Charge-off |
|---|---|---|
| GBank | ||
| 5 | $19.0M | Not on file |
| Climate First Bank | ||
| 4 | $7.1M | Not on file |
| First Western SBLC, Inc | ||
| 3 | $5.1M | Not on file |
| Hanover Community Bank | ||
| 1 | $5.0M | Not on file |
| United FCU | ||
| 1 | $5.0M | Not on file |
A lender’s rate counts only its resolved loans, the loans that have finished (paid in full or charged off); a 0.0% often means few of its loans have finished. Under 10 resolved loans, the rate reads “Too few”.
Charge-off rate by state (top 10 by loans)
| State | Loans | Charged off | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| IN Indiana | 3 | 0 | Too few0 resolved |
| MO Missouri | 3 | 0 | Too few0 resolved |
| MS Mississippi | 2 | 0 | Too few0 resolved |
| NC North Carolina | 2 | 0 | Too few0 resolved |
| CT Connecticut | 1 | 0 | Too few0 resolved |
| GA Georgia | 1 | 0 | Too few0 resolved |
| KY Kentucky | 1 | 0 | Too few0 resolved |
| NJ New Jersey | 1 | 0 | Too few0 resolved |
| NY New York | 1 | 0 | Too few0 resolved |
| PA Pennsylvania | 1 | 0 | Too few0 resolved |
Rate: charged-off loans over resolved loans (paid in full plus charged off), shown from 10 resolved loans. "Too few": under 10 resolved. The Loans column counts every approval in the window, including loans still being repaid.
SBA 7(a) loans approved per year
Borrower profile
The SBA's own business-age labels (4)
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA loan-level data, matched to the brand by FranchiseVerdict.
What are the risks?
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA · FDD Items 3, 21
Verdict grade + FDD Items 3 (litigation), 4 (bankruptcy), 8 (required suppliers), 16 (what you may sell), 21 (audited financials)
Risk and legal
Grade A: Strongest tier, 71/100 (category median 65); the full grade is at the top of the page.
How the grade is built
Why an A, factor by factor
- Financial health NeutralNo going-concern doubt
- Unit economics NeutralNo Item 19 sales figure to set against the investment, so neutral
- Unit growth Neutral+202 franchised outlets between the first and last year-ends Item 20 prints (8 to 210); growth is not graded below a 10-outlet starting base
- Scale Helps210 franchised units
- Legal HelpsLitigation not read
- Transparency NeutralItem 19 status not confirmed (neither credit nor penalty); no franchisor financial figures on file
- Adjustments after the six dimensions (-1 point)Rounding: the score is kept as a whole number, which moved it by 1 point.
From the six scored dimensions, an editorial assessment, not investment advice. How the score is built
What are you signing up for?
Ongoing fees run about 9.0% of sales (royalty + ad fund), before your own operating costs.
Source: FDD 2026 · Items 11, 12, 17
FDD Items 12 (territory), 15 (owner participation) and 17 (renewal, termination and disputes)
Contract and territory detail
Franchisee contacts
We hold no owner list for this brand. Item 20 of the FDD lists the current and former owners; the free FDD is the source.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to open a Spark By Hilton franchise?
Per the 2026 FDD, the total investment to open a Spark By Hilton franchise ranges from $3.3M to $5.9M, with an initial franchise fee of $75K. This is the Item 7 total in the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD): the startup costs the franchisor lists, such as build-out, equipment, inventory and working capital. The filing says these totals do not include real estate.
What do Spark By Hilton franchise owners earn?
No average owner earnings figure for Spark By Hilton is on file. Item 19, where a franchisor may disclose what its outlets earn, is voluntary under the FTC Franchise Rule, and we have not established what this brand's FDD says. Item 20 of the FDD lists current and former franchisees; asking them directly is the standard way to fill this gap.
What is Item 19 in the Spark By Hilton 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 Spark By Hilton FDD and qualifies whose outlets they describe.
What is Spark By Hilton's franchise failure rate?
There is no published franchise failure rate, and Spark By Hilton has too few resolved SBA 7(a) loans on file (fewer than 10) to show an SBA charge-off rate that would mean anything. The SBA charge-off rate is the share of a brand's resolved SBA 7(a) loans to its franchisees that the SBA wrote off, including purchased guarantees. Resolved means paid in full or charged off; active loans are excluded because their outcome is not yet known. It is a lending outcome, not a count of closed businesses. Review the turnover and closure figures in Item 20 of the FDD and speak with current and former franchisees.
How many Spark By Hilton franchise locations are there?
Per the 2026 FDD, Spark By Hilton has 210 franchised units and 0 company-owned (210 in all). In the latest year, the number of franchised outlets grew by 119.
Is Spark By Hilton a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict gives Spark By Hilton an A Verdict grade (Strongest tier) with a verdict score of 71 out of 100 (higher is better), an editorial assessment, not investment advice. Helped by scale (210 franchised units) and legal record. The “Why an A” section on this page lists all six dimensions and any adjustment. Speak with current franchisees before making any investment decision.
Other Lodging franchises
Similar investment first, then by grade
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.