Anyone else dissapointed about Loews 2005 Rates?

[NUHuskies#1]

Family of PAP and PP holders here and I must say I am not liking the fact that a PAP hotel discount is STILL not available for our annual trip in August. I'm almost feeling that they are trying to fill as many rooms as possible with rack rates before releasing the discounted rooms. I bought the BOGO Free year last year so I am sucked into two years of USO. And one of the reasons I bought the PAP was FOR the discounted room rates! I have a call into Loews Corporate headquarters in NY to find out what the heck is going on with these rates. I will NOT pay $264 a night at the HRH.

 

[Rash]

I'm almost feeling that they are trying to fill as many rooms as possible with rack rates before releasing the discounted rooms.

Can you blame them? If you run a business, your product is in demand, and your customers are willing to pay a premium for it, why would you discount it? Your PAP guarantees you access to the parks - everything else is a perk. Perks vary according to the laws of supply and demand.

 

[lovetheparks]

We live just over an hour away and could justify paying $129-$149 every once in a while for a treat to get FOTL & simply just get away but I just can't justify more than that unless it's something like HHN. I know they have to make money and all that but still, I'd like to see them open up a few rooms for discount.

 

[d4est]

I am disappointed too. I have read these boards FAITHFULLY on a daily basis since April. I have learned so much about the parks and hotels. I was confident that I was armed and ready to plan a great vacation with "insider" info on how to get the best discounts. After reading tons of posts on how to get great rates....I thought it was a "no brainer." I thought I would be able to get a room at RPR for around 159/night. Of course, that is NOT the case. I don't want to cancel or modify (ie. an off site hotel) my plans, but I am not sure I can justify spending well over $1,000 on accomodations alone.

I do understand supply and demand, but I hope Loews has some kind of a conscience. Not everyone can afford to pay over $200/night to experience the thrill of on-site accomodations. Like WDW, US/IOA is a magical place and everyone should get to experience it. Owners of places like this are living it large and, IMHO, forget us lowly souls who NEED discounts/breaks in order to enjoy/afford vacations. It is like the airlines that take advantage of peak flight times like Feb. break. As a teacher, the school calendar dictates when I can go on vacation and so I am forced to pay high fares or drive. It just saddens me that people/companies can be so greedy sometimes...

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

I'm not really happy with the rates either - ours is $294/night for 3/30-4/2. So I'm planning on shortening our stay up to just one night instead of 3 - if there are no discounts available. I'll still get two days worth of FOTL but I'm not spending that kind of money on HRH.

 

[Rootskate]

I agree with you d4est...We are planning on staying on-site for our Honeymoon. With everything else costing us a small fortune, I was hoping for the $159 rate too! Guess we will just have to keep our fingers crossed

 

[zippehsmom]

I have to agree. Right now I have 2 rooms reserved with AAA discount at HRH for 8/12-8/16, but it's costing me $2,100.

I used FOTL before and it was great, but I don't know if it is worth that much. I'm thinking of maybe cutting Universal (Now that I can get a 10 day MYP from Disney for $209 +tax), or possibly just getting the room for 1 night and getting days of FOTL.

I really want to do Universal, but I would love to be able to lower that room rate a little.

zippehsmom

 

[mega13]

I totally agree with all of you. I had a ressie at PBH for almost $300 a night, and it made me sick. I finally cancelled it and got a new one for $230 at the RPH. It STILL made me mad. But just last night I went on the website, and they had a better rate for my king standard room! It was some kind of "Stay three nights and save, save four nights and save more" deal. I called the hotel, and the gal insisted it wasn't in her system. I read it verbatim to her, and she suggested that I simply book the ressie online, and then call back and cancel my other one. I did just that, and immediately I got my confirmation via e-mail. I'm not happy, because I really wanted HRH or PBH, but I'm satisfied because my new rate is $164.

 

[d4est]

Yes, I had the same problem. People at Loews apparently cannot pull up the PCT discount (the stay x amount of nights and save). On my third call, the nice woman suggested I call RPR directly and I was able to get it. But for my dates it is 198.90, which is cheaper than AAA or APH (those were both $210.60) at this point, but still NO DISCOUNT in my book.

I am just going to keep my fingers crossed for now. I still have a couple of months to make a decision...

 

[NUHuskies#1]

Hi- just a quick update....

Corporate did call me back and a woman told me that when you book through USO they handle the rates. I told her that I have been trying to access a discounted rate through the Loews Hotels reservations website and that the Annual Passholder discount was not coming up at all for my August dates. She stated that this was the first she had heard of a complaint regarding this and that maybe it was just too early. I explained that one of the reasons I purchased the PAP was for the discounted on-site room rates and that I hope they would honor the discount. She agreed. As the dates do become closer and if a discounted rate does not become available, I will be calling her back.

Believe me, I understand the issue that "Rash" posted but I just think they should honor their discount they advertise when purchasing the pass that's all.

 

[GoofyDad_STL]

I am disappointed. The large room discount that was supposed to be a perk with the AP did play into my decision to purchase a 2 year pass. I turned a 3 day, 2 night trip to Universal in March into 0 days at Universal and an extended stay at Disney and now I am not sure I will use the AP again.

That said, Loews/Universal are just doing what makes business sense. If they can get people to pay non discounted rates for their rooms, then they should do that. What it does say to me is that Universal should start planning to build a 4th onsite hotel soon.

In the meantime I need to rework my Disney schedule thanks to the new EMH schedule.

 

[mega13]

Did I mention that this gal told me that they probably won't be doing "Entertainment rates" this year? I was venting to her about how I had been keeping an eye out since late summer for those ENT discounts, and my trip is 30 days away with no sign of them in sight. She told me that it seems as if Universal decided not to do ENT rates in 2005, due to the high fill rate (or whatever word she used) for all three of the hotels. She said that we'd still be able to book through Loews and through Entertainment, but they would only be the the small, limited time offers (like the PCT code) and nothing more.

I had posted this in another thread, but thought you all would like to know.

No real surprise there, but it did cut my vacation short as well.

 

[Wish I lived in Fl]

Disappointed also, was planning a long stay on site this summer because of 2 yr annual pass but won't stay if over $160 a night.

 

[pumba526]

I got tired of waiting for the Entertainment rate too and figured I had better make our 4/05 reservations soon as we needed 3 rooms, so I checked on-line at Loews and got a rate of $210/night with AAA discount. Then, I checked with Orangevacations.com (mentioned in another post) and got a rate of $187/night. I went ahead and called 1-800-Be-A-Star and was also quoted $210/night with AAA discount. When I mentioned the Orangevacations.com rate, the gal said she would match that rate if she could verify it on her computer, so I gave her the website and she got it to come up. While I would much rather have the Ent rate at least this was some kind of discount. I had never heard of Loews matching other company's rates.

 

[MickeyMagic]

My 2 year annual pass will expire this summer. I have really come to enjoy staying onsite at USO and using FOTL. We have March and June trips planned, but so far we cannot get decent rates at the USO hotels.

I am a DVC member, but for the past 1-1/2 years, we've split our stays between Disney and Universal. If I can't get better rates at USO, we will probably forego USO altogether and not bother renewing our passes.

 

[NUHuskies#1]

DVC member here as well and will probably do the same- skip the onsite at Universal and not renew our passes. My boys have come to love the HRH Pool and onsite conveniences but they'll just have to get used to SAB at BCV!

 

[SnowWitch]

We are also DVC members and because of no real discounts on Disney tickets and great rates on tickets and hotel at US/IOA we had been spending alot of time there. However, Disney now has bestowed us with the discoutned AP's- US and Loews have crumy rates we are back to spending more time at Disney. We will not renew our AP's with US/IOA this summer when they expire. Instead we will be purchasing Disney AP's.

 

[momomonster]

I understand the frustration in those of you with annual passes who are not able to snag good hotel rates and agree $200+ a night isn't justifiable for most of us. I was VERY lucky to get a great rate at the RPR late next month by calling Loews and listing all the categories I fall in- Loews member, entertainment card holder, government employee, etc. None of those got me a decent rate, though, and the woman asked me if I lived in Florida. I said "No, but close- I live in Georgia." Well, I never heard of this before, but *Georgia residents get discounted rates*!

I snagged a king room for $119 for three nights mid-week. It was only $169 for the Portifino, but I figured RPR would be fine and I could find other things to do with $150!

Just thought I'd pass that along. Happy travels!