Comfort Inn 2004 Annual Report Download - page 13

Management analyzes its business based on franchise revenues, which is total revenues excluding marketing
and reservation revenues and hotel operations, and franchise operating expenses that are reflected as selling,
general and administrative expenses.
Franchise Revenues: Franchise revenues were $203.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2004
compared to $187.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2003. Royalty fees increased $15.9 million to
$167.2 million from $151.3 million in 2003, an increase of 10.5%. The increase in royalties is attributable to a
combination of factors including a 5.2% increase in the number of domestic franchised hotel rooms, a 5.1%
increase in RevPAR and an increase in the effective royalty rate of the domestic hotel system to 4.04% from
4.01%. Domestic initial fee revenue, included in initial franchise and relicensing fees caption above, generated
from executed franchise agreements increased 17.7% to $13.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2004
from $11.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2003. The increase reflects domestic franchise agreements
executed in 2004 of 552 compared to 470 agreements executed in 2003. Relicensing fees increased 23.6% to $6.8
million for the year ended December 31, 2004 from $5.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2003.
Relicensing fees are charged to the new property owner of a franchised property whenever an ownership change
occurs and the property remains in the franchise system. Other revenues declined from $5.8 million for the year
ended December 31, 2003 to $4.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2004, primarily as the result of
reduced termination awards revenue, which are generated when franchises exist the system prior to contractually
agreed-upon dates. Other revenues for the year ended December 31, 2003, included approximately $1.7 million
of liquidated damages received from Sunburst for the termination of certain franchises.
The number of domestic rooms on-line increased to 309,586 from 294,268, an increase of 5.2% for the year
ended December 31, 2004. For 2004, the total number of domestic hotels on-line grew 5.4% to 3,834 from 3,636
for 2003. International rooms on-line declined slightly to 94,220 as of December 31, 2004 from 94,350 as of
December 31, 2003, a 0.1% decline. The total number of international hotels on-line also decreased from 1,174
to 1,143, a decline of 2.6% for the year ended December 31, 2004. As of December 31, 2004, the Company had
460 franchised hotels with 35,652 rooms either in design or under construction in its domestic system. The
Company has an additional 109 franchised hotels with 9,515 rooms under development in its international system
as of December 31, 2004.
Franchise Expenses: The cost to operate the franchising business is reflected in selling, general and
administrative expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses were $69.7 million for the year ended
December 31, 2004, an increase of $6.8 million from the year ended December 31, 2003 total of $62.9 million.
As a percentage of revenues, excluding marketing and reservation fees and hotel operations, total SG&A
expenses were 34.2% for the year ended December 31, 2004 compared to 33.6% for 2003. The increase is
attributable to increased costs associated with performance based incentive compensation for sales and other
management personnel, costs related to retirement of a board member, adoption of the fair value method of
accounting for stock compensation and increased professional fees related to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts.
Marketing and Reservations: The Company’s franchise agreements require the payment of franchise fees,
which include marketing and reservation fees. The fees, which are based on a percentage of the franchisees’
gross room revenues, are used exclusively by the Company for expenses associated with providing franchise
services such as central reservation systems, national marketing and media advertising. The Company is
contractually obligated to expend the marketing and reservation fees it collects from franchisees in accordance
with the franchise agreements; as such, no income or loss to the Company is generated.
Total marketing and reservations revenues were $221.3 million and $195.4 million for the years ended
December 31, 2004 and 2003, respectively. Depreciation and amortization attributable to marketing and reservation
activities was $9.1 million and $12.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2004 and 2003, respectively. Interest
expense attributable to reservation activities was $1.5 million and $1.3 million for the years ended December 31,
2004 and 2003, respectively. Marketing and reservations activities provided positive cash flow of $19.7 million and
$24.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2004 and 2003, respectively. As of December 31, 2004 and 2003,
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