Best Western franchise failure rate: what SBA loan defaults show
Best Western franchisees have taken 778 SBA 7(a) and 504 loans since fiscal 2010, totalling $1.76 billion disbursed. This page reports how many of those loans failed, how Best Western compares with every other franchise system in the SBA files, and where the failures were.
Charge-offs well below the franchise-wide rate. Ranks at the 36th percentile of 104 brands with 30 or more resolved loans (higher percentile = more charge-offs).
- 8 of 272 resolved loans approved FY2010-2019 were charged off (2.9%), versus 9.5% for all franchise-coded SBA loans in the same cohorts (0.31x).
- Dollars charged off equal 1.2% of dollars disbursed in those cohorts, versus 2.7% franchise-wide.
- 0 charge-offs so far among 166 loans disbursed since FY2022; most of these loans are still open, so this figure will rise.
Best Western SBA lending at a glance
Program split since FY2010: 7(a): 522 loans, 504: 256 loans. Loan status as published by SBA: paid in full 347, charged off 9, still open 315, cancelled before disbursement 88.
Charge-off rate by approval year
How much SBA lending Best Western attracts each year
Unit turnover from the franchise disclosure document
Not available. The Item 20 outlet tables in the current FDD for Best Western have not been extracted and verified yet; this section is filled in only when the published table reconciles arithmetically. The SBA loan figures above do not depend on it.
Where Best Western SBA loans are, and where they failed
Top 8 of 46 states by loan count since FY2010. The top three states hold 32% of the loans.
| Project state | Loans | Charged off | Charge-off rate (resolved) | Approved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TX | 133 | 3 | 5.1% | $347.5 million |
| CA | 87 | 0 | 0.0% | $270.2 million |
| GA | 30 | 0 | 0.0% | $63.1 million |
| WA | 29 | 0 | 0.0% | $102.9 million |
| OH | 28 | 0 | n<10 | $59.0 million |
| IN | 27 | 0 | 0.0% | $61.4 million |
| MI | 27 | 0 | 0.0% | $49.1 million |
| IL | 27 | 1 | 8.3% | $60.2 million |
Recent loans, FY2022 to FY2026
196 loans approved since FY2022, $525.2 million disbursed, 0 charged off so far. These loans are young; the rate here will rise as they age and should not be compared with the matured cohorts above.
Among loans that were charged off since FY2010, the median time from approval to charge-off was 70 months, and 11% failed within three years (9 dated charge-offs).
The full Best Western SBA loan report
Everything on this page plus the parts that let you check the numbers yourself: the loan-level file, the lender-by-lender record, and the largest charge-offs by name.
- Every Best Western SBA loan since FY1991: 1,324 records with borrower, city, state, lender, amount, approval date, status, and charge-off amount (CSV)
- Charge-off rate by approval year, 2010 through 2026, in loans and in dollars
- All 141 lenders with their Best Western charge-off record
- All 46 states, with rates
- The 10 largest charge-offs: borrower, city, lender, amount, date
- Median months from approval to charge-off, and the share that failed inside 36 months
- New-business versus existing-business mix, 7(a) versus 504, and loan terms
- Printable PDF plus the source-file citations for every figure
Get the Best Western report, $49 See a sample report
Questions this page answers
What does the Best Western franchise failure rate on this page measure?
The share of SBA 7(a) and 504 loans to Best Western franchisees that were charged off, meaning SBA wrote the loan off as a loss after default. It measures loan failure, which is the closest public, brand-level proxy for business failure: a franchisee who repays the loan generally stayed in business, and a charge-off almost always follows a closure or sale at a loss.
Is a charge-off the same as a Best Western location closing?
No. A charge-off means the lender and SBA took a loss on the loan. Most charge-offs involve a closed or sold unit, but a unit can close with the loan repaid, and a loan can be charged off while the unit changes hands. Treat the rate as a screening signal, not a census of closures.
Does this cover every Best Western location?
No. It covers only units financed with an SBA 7(a) or 504 loan that the lender coded to the Best Western franchise. Units financed with cash, conventional bank loans, or franchisor financing are not in the data. For Best Western that is 1,324 loans since FY1991.
Why compare only loans approved FY2010 to FY2019?
Loans need years to resolve. A loan approved in 2023 has mostly not had time to fail or be repaid, so including it would understate the rate. Cohorts approved FY2010-2019 have had at least six and a half years as of June 30, 2026, which is long enough for most failures to appear. Later cohorts are shown separately and labelled immature.
Where do the numbers come from?
Every figure is computed from the SBA's public 7(a) and 504 FOIA loan files, as of June 30, 2026, downloaded from data.sba.gov. The methodology page lists the exact files, the fields used, and the franchise names matched to Best Western. Nothing is estimated or modelled.
How current is this?
SBA republishes the files quarterly, about a month after each quarter closes. This page was generated on September 3, 2026 from the June 30, 2026 files and is regenerated when SBA publishes the next quarter.
Method, in brief
Failure rate = loans with status charged off divided by loans with status charged off or paid in full, for loans approved FY2010-2019. Loans still open are excluded from the denominator because their outcome is unknown; cancelled and undisbursed loans are excluded because no money moved. The franchise-wide benchmark uses the same formula over every loan in the SBA files that carries a franchise code (39,850 resolved loans). Loans were matched to Best Western by the SBA FranchiseName field, covering these spellings: BEST WESTERN INN (887); BEST WESTERN - BEST WESTERN PLUS - BEST WESTERN PREMIER- EXECUTIVE RESIDENCY BY BEST WESTERN- @HOME BY BEST WESTERN - GLO - AIDEN - MEMBERSHIP AGREEMENT (437). Full detail on the methodology page.
Other hotels franchises
- Quality Inn Low
- Comfort Inn & Suites Low
- Super 8 Low
- Days Inn Low
- Motel 6 Low
- La Quinta Low
All 50 brands covered
- Subway
- The UPS Store
- Anytime Fitness
- Quality Inn
- Dairy Queen
- Jimmy John's
- Comfort Inn & Suites
- Super 8
- Ace Hardware
- Days Inn
- Best Western
- Culver's
- The Goddard School
- Primrose Schools
- Servpro
- Sport Clips
- Firehouse Subs
- Dunkin'
- Little Caesars
- Domino's Pizza
- Motel 6
- Jersey Mike's
- Tropical Smoothie Cafe
- HOTWORX
- Kiddie Academy
- Marco's Pizza
- Orangetheory Fitness
- La Quinta
- Holiday Inn Express
- Smoothie King
- Red Roof Inn
- Econo Lodge
- Home Instead
- Massage Envy
- European Wax Center
- Hampton by Hilton
- The Learning Experience
- FASTSIGNS
- Budget Blinds
- Scooter's Coffee
- Cold Stone Creamery
- Baymont
- Dickey's Barbecue Pit
- Nothing Bundt Cakes
- Meineke
- Holiday Inn
- Naturals2Go
- Crumbl
- Great Clips
- Edible Arrangements