Hood cleaning franchise: HOODZ and Filta costs, fees and the independent alternative

What is a hood cleaning franchise, and who sells one?

A hood cleaning franchise is a license to run a kitchen exhaust cleaning business under a national brand, with its training, equipment specifications, sales materials and software, in exchange for an upfront fee and a royalty on revenue. The work itself is set by the fire code: NFPA 96 requires commercial kitchen exhaust systems to be inspected on a schedule and cleaned when an inspection finds grease buildup, which in busy kitchens means recurring accounts.

Only one national franchise is built around hood cleaning, and one adjacent franchise competes for the same restaurant accounts:

• HOODZ, part of BELFOR Franchise Group, sells a commercial hood and kitchen exhaust cleaning franchise, run from home with a truck and crew. It is the brand people mean when they search for a hoodz franchise.
• Filta describes itself as a cooking oil filtration, fryer management and commercial kitchen cleaning services franchise (Filta franchise). Its core service is filtering and managing fryer oil on a route; kitchen cleaning is a service line, not the main business. It is in this guide because it sells to the same kitchens and posts fees that HOODZ does not.

Everything about the job (the NFPA 96 frequencies, the certifications restaurants and insurers ask for, the pressure washers, wastewater handling and night schedules) is covered in our guide on starting a hood cleaning business. This page is about whether to do that work under a franchise brand, and what the brands charge.

How much do HOODZ and Filta franchises cost?

HOODZ posts a total investment of $200,538 to $246,807, and Filta posts $141,100 to $163,750 for a single territory. Both figures come from the franchisors’ own sites, read on October 27, 2026, and both sites say the real table is Item 7 of the franchise disclosure document.

How to read it:

• HOODZ’s range is tight because the package is defined. A $46,000 spread on a $200,000-plus total means the truck, equipment and training are largely fixed costs. Ask what the additional-funds line assumes for the months before your first quarterly cycle repeats.
• Filta’s opening package is the equipment. Its site says the $74,950 package covers its proprietary filtration equipment, training, support and marketing materials. That is a different business from hood cleaning, even if the customer is the same restaurant.
• Only Filta posts a royalty. If you are evaluating HOODZ, Item 6 is the first page to read, and the questions to ask franchisees are what they paid last year and whether there is a minimum.

What must the disclosure document tell you about a kitchen exhaust franchise?

The franchisor must give you its franchise disclosure document at least 14 calendar days before you sign a binding agreement or pay anything. That is the FTC Franchise Rule, 16 CFR Part 436 (eCFR, 16 CFR 436), which prescribes 23 items with fixed wording.

For hood cleaning, the items that decide the deal:

• Item 6, other fees. The royalty, marketing fund, technology and call-center fees, and any minimum royalty. HOODZ says it has ongoing royalty and marketing fees without posting them; this is where they are.
• Item 7, estimated initial investment. The table behind the posted range: truck, hot-water pressure washer, containment and wastewater equipment, chemicals, insurance, training travel and additional funds.
• Item 8, restrictions on suppliers. Whether you must buy the pressure washer, chemicals, uniforms and software from approved vendors, and what they cost compared with open-market prices.
• Item 11, training and support. What the certification covers, whether it maps to the hood cleaning certifications restaurants and insurers ask about, and who pays for recertification.
• Item 12, territory. Restaurant chains sign regional and national accounts. Ask whether the brand’s national account program can place a corporate crew in your territory, and how national account revenue is shared.
• Item 19, financial performance representations. The only place revenue or profit figures may appear. HOODZ has a page titled “How Much Money Can I Make?”; whatever it says, the Item 19 behind it tells you which outlets were counted and for how long. Filta’s investment page quotes its 2026 Item 19: a $337,985 median for 37 single-territory franchisees in 2025, against a $517,415 average (Filta).
• Item 20, outlets. Openings, closings and transfers over three years and the contact list of current and former owners. Hood cleaning is night and weekend work; ask former owners whether that, or the economics, is why they left.

Our guide to cleaning business franchises walks through all 23 items and the questions to ask. The method is the same for a kitchen exhaust brand.

Does a franchise change the NFPA 96 work or the certifications?

No. The fire code sets the cleaning frequencies, the fire marshal and the insurer set what proof they want, and the restaurant pays for the same service either way. A franchise changes who trains you, what equipment you buy and whose name is on the truck.

What stays the same, franchise or not:

• Frequencies. NFPA 96 ties the inspection interval to the kind of cooking: more often for solid-fuel and high-volume kitchens, less often for low-volume ones. Your route is built around those intervals.
• Proof of work. After-service reports, before-and-after photos and the sticker on the hood are what the inspector and the insurer look at. A brand’s reporting software packages that; an independent produces the same report.
• Certification. Restaurants and insurers often ask for a recognized hood cleaning certification. A franchisor’s in-house training may or may not be what they mean; ask which certification the brand’s owners hold and who pays for it.
• Wastewater and safety. Grease-laden water cannot go down a storm drain. Containment, capture and disposal rules are local, and they apply to every truck.

Where a franchise can genuinely help is the sale: national account programs, a brand a regional chain manager has heard of, and scripts for the quarterly upsell. Where it cannot help is the 2 a.m. clean itself. The hood cleaning business guide covers the code, the equipment list and the pricing in detail.

Hood cleaning franchise vs independent: a 60-account example

In our example, a franchise owner with 60 restaurants on a quarterly cycle pays about $15,300 a year in royalty, marketing fund and system fees on $156,000 of revenue. An independent owner with the same accounts spends about $468 on software and chooses their own marketing budget.

This is a hypothetical example with round numbers, not a forecast. Assume 60 restaurant accounts at $650 per clean, 4 cleans a year each, and no fan, filter or duct add-ons. We apply Filta’s posted starting royalty of 6.5%, its 1% marketing fund and the top of its $200 to $300 monthly information system fee, because Filta is the brand that posts them; HOODZ’s rates are in its Item 6 and may be higher or lower.

• Annual revenue: 60 × $650 × 4 = $156,000.
• Royalty at 6.5%: $10,140.
• Marketing fund at 1%: $1,560.
• System fee at $300 a month: $3,600.
• Total to the franchisor: $15,300 a year, about $255 per account, on top of the initial fee and investment.
• Independent: software such as Broombook Pro at $39 a month ($468 a year) for quarterly recurring schedules, reminders before each visit and a card on file charged after the clean, plus your own marketing.

The gap, roughly $14,832 a year here, is what the brand has to earn: national accounts you could not sign alone, a faster first year, and equipment or chemical pricing you could not get yourself. Ask franchisees how many of their accounts came from the brand’s national program versus their own walk-ins at the back door.

What does the independent hood cleaning route look like?

Most hood cleaners are independent: a truck, a hot-water pressure washer, containment gear, certification, insurance and a list of restaurants on quarterly cycles. What you build yourself is the name, the accounts and the reporting routine.

Software replaces the system, not the brand or the national account desk. If a regional chain in your area only hires brands its risk manager has heard of, that is a real reason to franchise. If your market is independent restaurants, the owner you meet at the back door does not care whose logo is on the truck.

Kitchen exhaust franchise vs independent: who should choose which?

Buy a hood cleaning franchise if you want to build a multi-crew company that chases chain accounts and you have the capital to carry it through the first year. Go independent if you want to run a crew yourself and grow from quarterly billing.

A franchise can make sense if you

• Have no kitchen exhaust experience and want structured training and equipment selection done for you.
• Plan to hire crews from the start and sell during the day while they clean at night.
• Want access to national and regional account programs, and your territory has the chains to use them.
• Have the posted investment plus living expenses, and are comfortable with a long agreement and a royalty on every invoice.

Independent makes more sense if you

• Already clean hoods for someone else, or run a pressure washing or commercial cleaning company with restaurant clients.
• Want to keep the royalty and fund and spend your own money on your own marketing.
• Want to add fan hinges, filter exchange, grease trap or pressure washing services without a franchisor’s approval.
• Want to sell the business on your terms when the time comes.

Before signing, call current and former owners from Item 20 and ask what they paid last year, where their accounts came from and whether the Item 7 estimate held. Have a franchise lawyer review the agreement. This guide is general information, not legal, tax or insurance advice, and fire code enforcement and licensing differ by state and city.