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Formerly | Howard Johnson's |
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Industry | Hotels, formerly restaurants |
Founded | February 1, 1925Quincy, MA (restaurants)[1] 1954Savannah, GA (motor lodges) in | in
Founder | Howard Deering Johnson[2] |
Defunct | March 2022[3] | (restaurants only)
Headquarters | , U.S. |
Number of locations | Hotels: 285[4][5] (December 31, 2023 ) |
Areas served | North America, South America, Asia, Middle East[6] |
Key people | Clement Bence (Brand President) |
Parent | Wyndham Hotels & Resorts |
Website | www |
Howard Johnson by Wyndham,[7] or more commonly known as Howard Johnson's, is an American hotel brand with over 200 hotels in 15 countries.[6] It was also widely known as a former restaurant chain, which at one time was the largest in the U.S., with more than 1,000 locations. Since 2006, all hotels and company trademarks have been owned by Wyndham Hotels and Resorts.
Howard Johnson's restaurants originally started as a single location opened by Howard Deering Johnson in 1925 and grew into a substantial restaurant chain in the decades that followed. By the 1950s, the company expanded operations by opening hotels, then known as Howard Johnson's Motor Lodges, which were often located next to restaurants. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, it had become the largest restaurant chain in the U.S., with its combined company-owned and franchised outlets.[8]
Howard Johnson's restaurants were franchised separately from the hotel brand beginning in 1986 but, in the years that followed, severely dwindled in number until eventually disappearing altogether.[9] The last restaurant, in Lake George, New York, closed in 2022. The line of branded supermarket frozen foods, as well as its famous ice cream, is no longer manufactured.[10]
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