constructed as Howard Johnson sites, they lacked distinctive architecture and some had no restaurant at all. Howard Johnson Express Inns, Howard Johnson Inns, Howard Johnson Hotels, and Howard Johnson Plaza Hotels range from limited-service motels to full-service properties with on-site concierges and business centers. Howard Johnson began offering a "Rise 'N' Dine" continental breakfast at some economy-limited service locations. The chain abolished the multiple price tiers by 2015. Despite the hotel chain surviving into the 21st century, its number of locations have significantly dropped in recent years. As of 2023, there are less than 150 Howard Johnson hotels left in the United States, where the chain originated. Divestment of restaurant brand While the Howard Johnson Company-owned and franchised motor lodges have stood the test of time since being sold by the Howard Johnson Company in 1979, the restaurants did not. Because Marriott eliminated all the company-owned restaurants, the owners of the franchised restaurants feared elimination and banded together in 1986 and created "Franchise Associates Incorporated" or (FAI). In 1986, Marriott gave FAI the right to operate and maintain Howard Johnson's restaurants. When Cendant acquired the Howard Johnson's motor lodges, they offered to work together with FAI to ensure the expansion of the restaurant chain. As early as 1987, FAI chairman George Carter acknowledged that "We have the concept, but it desperately needs to be modernized, internally and externally. Howard Johnson was allowed to become tired and stale. We must get rid of that plastic image... Anything can be salvageable if a great deal of time and money and effort is put in it. And Howard Johnson needs all those same things." While the Howard Johnson's restaurant chain was preserved, FAI did not have enough money to expand to new locations or revamp the brand. With the exception of one Howard Johnson's ice cream parlor in Puerto Rico, FAI never opened a new restaurant or expanded the chain. 1990s: Struggling under FAI In 1990, an existing restaurant in Canton, Massachusetts, was remodelled as a prototype for a new era of Howard Johnson's restaurants, but the concept failed, and after less than a decade of operation, the prototype restaurant closed in the spring of 2000. Attempts were made to revamp 25% of the menu and create new signage, but these efforts proved insufficient as the long-neglected chain continued to lose ground to mass-market fast food operations. By March 1995, it was clear