Beauty
Heights Wellness Retreat Franchise
A massage and wellness-spa franchise that began offering a second, newer franchised format called "Heights Wellness Retreat" (touchless holistic therapies) in 2024 alongside its original "Massage Heights" ("MH Business") membership-based massage/skincare format, both run by the same San Antonio-based franchisor. Founded in 2004, it competes directly with Massage Envy and Hand and Stone (both also in this dataset) in the membership-based massage/spa category; franchised unit count drifted slightly downward across its FDD's three-year window.
Every franchisor has to file a document called an FDD before they can legally sell you a franchise. Buried in it are the two things a sales rep won't volunteer: what you'll actually spend to open, and whether existing locations are opening or closing. That's what's below, pulled straight from Heights Wellness Retreat's own filing.
What it costs to open
From the filing's investment breakdown -- not a "starting at" number a sales rep quoted you.
Franchise fee
$49,500
Total to open
$472,199–$551,771
Ongoing royalty
6% of gross sales
What you'd actually spend, over time
The upfront cost is only part of it. Plug in what you expect a location to bring in, and see the real total once royalties over a few years are added on top.
Defaulted to a rough beauty industry average, not a figure from Heights Wellness Retreat's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.
Total cost of ownership over 5 years
$622,199 – $701,771
Startup investment
$472,199–$551,771
Royalty per year (6%)
$30,000
Total royalty, 5yr
$150,000
When would you break even?
Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. Heights Wellness Retreat's FDD doesn't disclose a reliable profit figure (most franchisors don't), so this starts from a typical beauty profit margin (~10%) and applies it to the revenue you entered above -- adjust the percentage to your own realistic estimate.
Defaulted to a general beauty industry benchmark, not a figure from Heights Wellness Retreat's own filing -- this is a starting point to adjust, not a promise about what franchisees actually make.
At that profit, you'd break even in about
9.4–11.0 years
Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Heights Wellness Retreat is opening more locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.
Is Heights Wellness Retreat actually growing?
Franchisors have to report, every year, how many locations opened, closed, or changed hands. Most franchise sites never show you this. Here it is:
Locations opened vs. closed, by year
GrowingFrom Item 20 of Heights Wellness Retreat's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.
| Year | Franchised units, start | Franchised units, end | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 109 | 106 | -3 |
| 2022 | 106 | 102 | -4 |
| 2023 | 102 | 103 | +1 |
Most recent year (2023): gained 1 franchised units, ending the year at 103 total.
How Heights Wellness Retreat compares to other Beauty franchises
Across the 10 beauty franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $558,727–$886,877, with royalties averaging around 5.9% of gross sales (based on the 9 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty).
$484,684–$770,754 · 6% royalty
Hand and Stone Massage and Facial Spa$601,695–$760,254 · 6% royalty
Great Clips$183,400–$394,400 · 6% royalty
Supercuts$185,930–$323,460 · 6% royalty
Sport Clips$236,800–$580,500 · 6% royalty
European Wax Center$327,600–$836,950 · 6% royalty
Massage Envy$695,870–$1,046,506 · 6% royalty
Phenix Salon Suites$1,217,136–$1,664,822 · non-%-of-revenue royalty
Sola Salon Studios$1,181,960–$1,939,349 · 5.5% royalty
Heights Wellness Retreat Franchise FAQ
How much does it cost to franchise a Heights Wellness Retreat?
Based on Heights Wellness Retreat's own FDD, total initial investment to open one location runs $472,199–$551,771, including the $49,500 franchise fee. Directly verified against the real filed FDD: Massage Heights Franchising, LLC's 2024 Amended Franchise Disclosure Document, Issuance Date April 19, 2024, as amended November 13, 2024, MN CARDS file 32640-202411-03, MN-effective 12/2/2024 (PDF read directly, cover page and Item 7 checked in person). Item 5: initial franchise fee $49,500 for a 1st unit ($42,500/$34,500 for a 2nd/3rd+ unit). Item 7: two formats -- the original "MH Business" (classic Massage Heights) totals $472,199-$551,771, used here; the new "HWR Business" (Heights Wellness Retreat, launched with this FDD and zero locations open as of its data date) totals $578,847-$662,967. Item 6: 6% royalty on gross revenue. Item 20 Table No. 1 franchised-unit counts, fiscal years 2021-2023 (109 to 103) -- this filing's own reporting window, a year behind the 2022-2024/2023-2025 windows used elsewhere in this dataset; company-owned units fell from 3 to 1 in 2023. An earlier draft of this entry cited different Item 7/Item 20 figures from a secondary aggregator (Franchise Chatter) that did not match this primary filing -- those have been corrected here after a direct PDF read.
What is the Heights Wellness Retreat franchise fee and royalty rate?
The initial franchise fee is $49,500, and the ongoing royalty is 6% of gross sales, per the filing on record.
Is the Heights Wellness Retreat franchise growing or shrinking?
Growing. Across 2021–2023, Heights Wellness Retreat added a net -6 franchised locations, per its own annual FDD filings.
Keep going
- Heights Wellness Retreat and Amazing Lash Studio are both beauty franchises; Heights Wellness Retreat's total investment starts about $12,485 lower than Amazing Lash Studio's. Amazing Lash Studio Franchise
- Heights Wellness Retreat and Hand and Stone Massage and Facial Spa are both beauty franchises; Heights Wellness Retreat's total investment starts about $129,496 lower than Hand and Stone Massage and Facial Spa's. Hand and Stone Massage and Facial Spa Franchise
Where this came from: Directly verified against the real filed FDD: Massage Heights Franchising, LLC's 2024 Amended Franchise Disclosure Document, Issuance Date April 19, 2024, as amended November 13, 2024, MN CARDS file 32640-202411-03, MN-effective 12/2/2024 (PDF read directly, cover page and Item 7 checked in person). Item 5: initial franchise fee $49,500 for a 1st unit ($42,500/$34,500 for a 2nd/3rd+ unit). Item 7: two formats -- the original "MH Business" (classic Massage Heights) totals $472,199-$551,771, used here; the new "HWR Business" (Heights Wellness Retreat, launched with this FDD and zero locations open as of its data date) totals $578,847-$662,967. Item 6: 6% royalty on gross revenue. Item 20 Table No. 1 franchised-unit counts, fiscal years 2021-2023 (109 to 103) -- this filing's own reporting window, a year behind the 2022-2024/2023-2025 windows used elsewhere in this dataset; company-owned units fell from 3 to 1 in 2023. An earlier draft of this entry cited different Item 7/Item 20 figures from a secondary aggregator (Franchise Chatter) that did not match this primary filing -- those have been corrected here after a direct PDF read. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2024-12-02. None of this is investment advice -- get the franchisor's current FDD and talk to a real attorney or accountant before you sign anything.
If you see a different unit count elsewhere: franchisors only have to refile their FDD annually, so the numbers here can run 6–18 months behind a franchisor's own real-time marketing claims -- which often aren't independently verified, and sometimes count signed-but-not-yet-open locations. A gap isn't necessarily an error on either side; it's two different snapshots in time from two different sources.