Massage & facial franchise finance
Averan read the 2026 FDDs of the seven massage and facial brands.
The median brand here reports average revenue of $1,090,390 an unit. Percentage fees at the median brand come to 11.5% of sales. The median cost to open runs $524,989 to $864,729.
Find a massage & facial brand
7 brands in this guide, each from its own 2026 FDD. Open one, or pick two and compare them.
The brands in this group
Each brand has its own business model breakdown, with every figure set out against the brand’s disclosure document it comes from.
- Elements Massage Revenue by group · Membership conversion disclosed by tier, explaining the whole revenue range
- FACE FOUNDRIÉ Full P&L · Corporate P&L by location, isolating occupancy cost as the deciding line
- Hand & Stone Full P&L · Self-selected expense sample tested against the population it excludes
- Heights Wellness Retreat Full P&L · Revenue per member flat across the system, so size is a member-count problem
- Massage Envy Revenue by group · Revenue range tested against square footage, which accounts for none of it
- MassageLuXe Revenue by group · Conversion identical across quartiles, so the gap is traffic times yield
- The NOW Massage Full P&L · Profit curve that turns in year three and then flattens completely
The figures, brand by brand
| Measure | Median | Brands | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average sales per unit | $1,090,390 | 7 of 7 | Median of each brand’s disclosed average |
| Median sales per unit | $1,057,440 | 6 of 7 | Median of each brand’s disclosed median |
| Initial franchise fee | $50,000 | 3 of 7 | |
| Royalty | 6% | 4 of 7 | Headline rate |
| Brand or advertising fund | 2.5% | 4 of 7 | |
| Percentage fees, all in | 11.5% | 4 of 7 | Royalty, funds and local marketing set as a share of sales |
| Cost to open, low | $524,989 | 7 of 7 | |
| Cost to open, high | $864,729 | 7 of 7 | |
| Profit margin | Fewer than three disclose | 0 of 7 | Each brand’s own profit line; definitions differ |
| Labor, share of revenue | Fewer than three disclose | 1 of 7 | |
| Building costs, share of revenue | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 7 | |
| Unit growth, 2025 | 1.7% | 4 of 7 | (End − start) ÷ start |
| Customers lost, 2025 | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 7 | Terminated, non-renewed, reacquired and ceased, ÷ opening units; transfers excluded |
Each figure is the median of the brands that disclose it, and the Brands column counts them.
How we calculated this
Revenue is each brand's own reported figure on its own unit basis, so the median describes the group and no single brand. Growth and customers lost are our calculations from each brand's outlet table. Where fewer than three brands disclose a figure, no benchmark is shown.
The model
The business model the top performers in massage & facial are running
What the top performers can do that others cannot
7 of the 7 brands here sell a membership. Rostering against demand is the constraint: wages run 50.3% of sales at the middle brand, more than any other line. 4 sell gift cards in volume, which brings cash in months before the service is delivered.
What the customer is buying
The customer buys a plan they pay for monthly whether they show up or not. A location at the middle brand sells $1,090,390 a year; the top group sells $1,687,731. The offer is the same at both ends of that range, so the difference is volume rather than product. At 4 of them the top performers widen the offer rather than the building: retail and higher service tiers raise what an hour earns without adding an hour.
Who the customer is, and how often they come back
This is a retention business. The money is made in the second year of a customer, not the first month, so the number that decides the year is how many stay. A median 42% of locations reach their own brand’s average, so most of the system is below the number the brand advertises, and the gap is usually a demand gap rather than an effort gap. The top group sells $1,687,731 against $613,375 at the bottom. Trade area and site set that range before an owner takes a booking.
How the money works
Opening costs $320,891 to $1,466,168 across the group, and inside one brand the top of the range is typically 1.7 times the bottom. At the middle brand the cost stack runs wages 50.3%, occupancy 10.6%, franchise fees 11.5% of sales. Cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods here, so the cash forecast matters more than the profit line in any given month. 5 of these brands publish how a new location builds up, so the first year can be read out of the document instead of guessed at.
Also disclosed across this group: $0, $1,402,246, $10,904, $6,924, $791,091, 4.8.
Top performers
These are the things that separate top performers in massage & facial
At the typical massage & facial brand, the best group of locations sells $1,687,731 a year. The worst group sells $613,375. That is $1,074,356 more a year, 2.8 times over, for the same brand on the same agreement. Across these brands, a median of 42% of locations reach their own brand’s average. The average describes the top of a system, not the middle. 7 of the 7 brands here publish bands; the rest disclose no spread at all.
Decided before you open
- What it costs to open.Opening costs run $320,891 to $1,466,168 across the group, and the top of a single brand’s range is typically 1.7 times its bottom. The top group sells $1,687,731 a year against a build that tops out at $1,466,168, so at the heavy end of the range a location sells $1.15 for every dollar it cost to open. A build that heavy takes years of sales to recover, so the site has to be right the first time.
- What a location sells.Average sales run $1,090,390 at the middle brand and $1,687,731 at the top group. Format and site decide most of that before an owner does anything, which is why the same operator produces different results in different trade areas.
- Rent is one number, and it lands twice.Occupancy runs 10.6% of sales at the middle brand, which on median sales of $1,090,390 is $115,963 of rent a year. That same $115,963 is 6.9% of sales at the top group and 18.9% at the bottom. Nobody negotiated a worse lease. The top performers move this line by putting more sales through the same square footage: longer earning hours, a second daypart, and a site picked for traffic rather than for the rate.
Live operating levers
- 7 of the 7 brands here sell a membership.The owner watches three things. How many people join in a month. How many cancel. What a member spends on top of the plan. The top performers work the cancellations as hard as the joins, because a member who leaves in month four has cost a year of revenue that was already counted.
- 5 of the 7 brands here publish how a new location builds up.Where a brand shows its first year month by month, an owner can see when sales finally cover the costs and how much cash has to be put in before that point arrives. Where a brand does not show it, that curve has to be guessed at, and the guess is usually optimistic.
- 4 of the 7 brands here sell gift cards in volume.The top performers run a deliberate push into the holidays rather than selling a card when somebody asks for one. The money arrives when the card is bought and the service is delivered months later, so the bank balance and the profit line tell different stories in the same quarter. They are Elements Massage, FACE FOUNDRIÉ, Hand & Stone, Massage Envy.
- 4 of the 7 brands here can widen what they sell without widening the building.Selling a product alongside the service, or moving customers onto a higher tier of it, raises what an hour of the same room earns. It is the only way to lift the ceiling without spending money on more space or more hours. They are FACE FOUNDRIÉ, Heights Wellness Retreat, Massage Envy, MassageLuXe.
- Wages. Same labor market, different result.Wages run 50.3% of sales at the middle brand and 50.3% to 50.3% across the 1 that disclose it. These brands hire from the same pool at the same rates, so a 0-point spread is not a pay-rate gap. It is scheduling and productivity: rostering against booked demand hour by hour, managing sales per paid hour as the number, and keeping enough of the pay variable that the line falls when the week is quiet. On the top group’s $1,687,731 of sales, a point of wages is $16,877 a year; on the bottom group’s $613,375 it is $6,134. The same discipline is worth more where the volume already is.
- What the brand charges. The line that works backwards.Fees run a median 11.5% of sales across 4 brands, from 10.0% to 12.0%. Where a minimum sits underneath the percentage, the weakest location pays the highest effective rate, so the fee line costs most exactly where it can least be afforded. The top performers clear the minimum early and stop thinking about it. At $1,687,731 the fees cost $194,089 a year; at $613,375 they cost $70,538. The percentage is the same and the burden is not.
Context you underwrite around
- How many brands show a ramp.5 of 7 filings in this group show how a new location builds up. For the rest the first year has to be assumed, and the assumption is usually wrong in the same direction.
Operating levers
What each brand’s top performers actually work on
The levers the filing supports, brand by brand. Three to five each, read from that brand’s own 2026 FDD. Filter by type of business, or open a brand for the figures underneath.
7 brands
Elements Massage
Massage & facial
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- The gift card book. Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered. The top performers are not selling more of them by accident, they are running a deliberate seasonal push into the holidays and out of it again. The accounting follows: a gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 10.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
FACE FOUNDRIÉ
Massage & facial
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- The gift card book. Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered. The top performers are not selling more of them by accident, they are running a deliberate seasonal push into the holidays and out of it again. The accounting follows: a gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
- Service and retail mix. Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 12.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Hand & Stone
Massage & facial
- Wages, the dominant line. Wages take 50.3% of sales. Staff productivity, scheduling against demand hour by hour, and the balance of base pay to commission are where this is won.
- Occupancy, the line that does not flex. Rent and building costs take 10.0% of sales here. Sales per square foot and the hours the space is earning are the only two ways to move it, because the rent itself is fixed at signing.
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- The gift card book. Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered. The top performers are not selling more of them by accident, they are running a deliberate seasonal push into the holidays and out of it again. The accounting follows: a gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 11.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Heights Wellness Retreat
Massage & facial
- Occupancy, the line that does not flex. Rent and building costs take 11.3% of sales. Sales per square foot and the hours the space is earning are the only two ways to move it, since the rent itself is fixed at signing.
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Service and retail mix. Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 12.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Massage Envy
Massage & facial
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- The gift card book. Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered. The top performers are not selling more of them by accident, they are running a deliberate seasonal push into the holidays and out of it again. The accounting follows: a gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
- Service and retail mix. Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
MassageLuXe
Massage & facial
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Service and retail mix. Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
The NOW Massage
Massage & facial
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Questions owners ask next
The figures above raise these, and each one is answered on its own page.
- Money arrives before the service does. How should that be booked?Deferred revenue, and why the bank balance and the profit line disagree.
- At what level of sales does a minimum fee stop costing me more than the percentage?How royalty, ad fund and minimums actually work on a monthly statement.
- How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?A 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
- What should I be looking at every week?The handful of numbers that move before the P&L does.
- Do I need a bookkeeper, a controller, or a CFO?What each one owns, and the point at which the next one pays for itself.
Run your own numbers.
The Franchise Finance Diagnostic runs the same checks on your own numbers. It scores where you stand and compares you with Item 19 of your brand’s FDD. It works out what one location earns and spends, and builds a 13-week cash forecast. Checks whether you are ready to open another one. It is free and it runs in your browser.
Launch the diagnostic →Where does your unit sit?
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast, and reporting, benchmarked against the brands in this guide.
Request the reviewWhere these figures come from
Every figure here comes from the brands' 2026 FDDs and is unaudited by us. We are unaffiliated with the brands. The medians, growth and customers lost figures are our own calculations. The figures describe past performance at other businesses. They are not a projection of your results. This page is an educational summary and is not an offer to sell a franchise or financial, legal or tax advice. All trademarks belong to their owners. How Averan reads a Franchise Disclosure Document.