Changes ahead for 2008 room bookings!!

[Dallas_Lady]

Guess is was bound to happen. Seems to be the practice of lots of other hotels.

I agree. It seems like Disney is a little late in the game with changing to this policy, this is pretty much how every resort I've ever stayed at anywhere else does it.

It seems like some of us think Disney is a non-profit organization or something. It's a business and they are going to do what is best for the bottom line, like all businesses do. And judging by the

I also think that in the post 9/11 travel slump years, we have gotten spoiled by the abundance of discounts and relatively stable rates. Now that travel is back up, Disney (and other places) don't have to lure us in anymore. It's just business.

 

[Poohbear123]

I agree with you, this will bite them in the A** BIG time! This is my opinion on all this: Just wait, till a MAJOR tropical Storm comes along, they get severe damage, believe you me, they will want to LOWER thier rates ALL week Long! Back in the day, you couldn't stay CHEAP at all during the summer, after 9/11 all that changed. They decided to extend the Codes thru the summer, and now they are actually blocking out SOME dates, but thats OK I am a Seasonal Pass holder, and don't need to visit the during the HOT months. Also, they came along with the Free Dining which I don't partake off, not suitable for me, I travel Alone. So, now they are going to "get me" so to speak, by raising rates During the Weekends, I attend, possibly even HIGHER for SSW and F&WF, and F&Gard and also SWW! Fine, I just won't go during those times either, or stay Offsite with a AAA rate! Problem SOLVED! So, I will ONLY go in Feb. for my BD and maybe to SSW, but stay off site!

 

[Tink10]

[QUOTE="thegirls";19153087]Disney is not in the hotel business! It is in the entertainment business. [/I][/I][/I][/I][/QUOTE]

They're in many businesses.....They've been in the hotel business since 1971 when they opened the Contemporary & Poly.

 

[Dallas_Lady]

Before I state this, what I'm about to say isn't because I'm "pro-Disney" or think that I need to defend their actions (real or reported)...

People need to keep in mind that WDW's primary goal isn't to provide the cheapest possible family vacation, their prime directive, as with any for-profit venture, is to maximum long term shareholder returns on their investments. The bad news for us: The people in charge of WDW resorts have looked at how they price rooms, occupancy patterns, etc. and have concluded (reportedly) that these changes will benefit them economically. The good news: If their intuition is wrong, and such changes result in a negative financial impact to WDW Inc. due to depressing room occupancy if it pushes people off-site, then will be revised in the favor of the consumer. They've done this type of thing before... a year or so ago they "re-vamped" the whole AP discount program. The changes bombed, and they were tossed aside.

If you've followed the press, you'll read that Tourism is "back". Flights are jam packed to levels that haven't been seen since the tech bubble burst in 1999/2000. Business is "hopping" at WDW and so they think (reportedly) now is a good time to make such changes

Ditto all of that

 

[Geoff_M]

They're in many businesses.....They've been in the hotel business since 1971 when they opened the Contemporary & Poly.

There was a brief period when Disney thought they didn't want to be in the hotel business and started to "out source" new hotels.... and thus the Swan and Dolphin were born with their unique "Disney, but not quite Disney" status. After that short period Disney did an about-face and made a conscience decision to get into the hotel business in a big way and started popping up hotels left and right all over the property. Disney is in the hotel business with the largest room inventory in the greater Orlando area!

 

[pilferk]

Lastly, the change dropping the "rate at check-in is the rate for your stay" policy is disappointing, but let's be honest... that was a "perk" that defied logic. How WDW allowed people to slide into a resort the day before the rates went from Value to Peak for Christmas season and gave them that rate for the whole stay was mind boggling to me. Nice, yes, but rational? (when the family in the next room was likely paying ~60% more for the same night), no. That's the stuff of airline ticket pricing systems!

We helped friends plan an Xmas trip a couple years back. It was cheaper to check in 2 days earlier than it was to stay for the days they wanted. They ended up paying 215 a night, as opposed to 359 (it was a 9 night trip instead 7 night trip). That's sorta nuts....

 

[Disney8704]

Dont you find it odd that Disney is doing all this starting in 2008 - the year AFTER the year of a million dreams? Maybe they lost to much money giving away some of the prizes and creating the castle suite? Just a thought, but what would happen if they stopped doing room only and everyone HAD to book a package unless your a DVC member or AP holder? There goes the split stays that a lot of people like to do right out the window.

 

[pilferk]

Dont you find it odd that Disney is doing all this starting in 2008 - the year AFTER the year of a million dreams? Maybe they lost to much money giving away some of the prizes and creating the castle suite? Just a thought, but what would happen if they stopped doing room only and everyone HAD to book a package unless your a DVC member or AP holder? There goes the split stays that a lot of people like to do right out the window.

I don't find it odd, and would be shocked if it had anything to do with lost money on prizes, etc (all that's in the marketing budget...I'm assuming costs didn't blow the budget too badly, since much of what they gave away had very low costs but provided good value for the guest.

I think it has more to do with (all the changes) the uptick in tourism in general in Florida, and the fact that Iger has really finally gotten into the swing of things (as has his executive team) and is looking to put his stamp on things. I think you're also going to hear about some pretty big expansion plans on both coasts over the next year or so....akin (though likely in smaller scale on the hotel side) to what Eisner did early in his career.

 

[Geoff_M]

Dont you find it odd that Disney is doing all this starting in 2008

If you listen to the DIS Unplugged podcast, you'll hear that some of the changes mentioned are expected to start with new reservations starting this month!

 

[Deb & Bill]

That would be nice, but, I don't think they will give us a break. Lets see what happens if a Big Hurricane comes along, or another 9/11 I bet they won't be able to fill any rooms than.

Orlando won't suffer from any big hurricanes. They are too far inland. They will get all you Miamians heading north to get away from your hurricanes, though.

 

[Poohbear123]

Orlando won't suffer from any big hurricanes. They are too far inland. They will get all you Miamians heading north to get away from your hurricanes, though.

Nope not me, I am "Hunkering Down" as I usually do, but I hope no Tornados go thru the Disney area like they have in the past. I would never leave my house here, to go up there, thats nuts.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

You know, I'm going to Vegas in three weeks for a friend's wedding. I'm staying at the Luxor Monday through Friday. Those four nights I'm staying for $89 a night. Friday and Saturday, it jumps to about $149 or so. And I noticed some nights in the month of July are as low as $59 and as high as $239.

My point is that Disney is just doing what the entire hotel industry has been doing for some time. And before we jump to conclusions, this may end up being a good thing. In value season, we could be paying much lower prices during the week than we have been. Sure, the weekends will be more, but I think it will even out and we'll probably be paying, in total, about the same as we are now. Besides, it sounds to me like they are trying to get more money out of the weekend trippers.

So do you think Disney's going to comp your room if you spend a lot of money there?

That's what they do in LV and AC. I get free room offers all of the time from the casino hotels.

We also got free rooms through Hilton Honors, Marriott Rewards, hotel reward systems and credit cards offers. Never did get any free hotel rooms from WDW though.

If WDW wants to price out like other hotels, I hope they will start a rewards program too.

 

[bmoc_ny]

So do you think Disney's going to comp your room if you spend a lot of money there?

That's what they do in LV and AC. I get free room offers all of the time from the casino hotels.

We also got free rooms through Hilton Honors, Marriott Rewards, hotel reward systems and credit cards offers. Never did get any free hotel rooms from WDW though.

If WDW wants to price out like other hotels, I hope they will start a rewards program too.

Most hotels do this from Marriott to Holiday Inn. In some areas weekends are less expensive these would be places that have alot of Bussiness travelers. Tourist places would generally charge more for Thur. to Sat.. It always suprised me that I could make a resi for a Dis package with only one night in the Value season and pay the value price for the whole 10 days. I have no issues with this, and from a pure economic position with some good planning you could actually end up paying less for a package.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

I believe that Disney also realized that the frequent weekend visitors spend less per day than the once in a lifetime or every 5 year families spend.

You see it here on the DIS all the time. I go so often and can eat for very little and buy nothing else.

Please don't lump all weekend visitors together. Many families from South Florida trek up to WDW for the weekend, stay in the premo resorts and spend just as much money during their weekend trips as another family does for their 5 year or once in a lifetime trip.

When my kids were younger we always went up there for weekends and spent quite freely. We always ran into other families from our area doing the same thing.

Only the local locals brown bag it.

 

[mickeyfan2]

At one time I had about 300K points with Holiday Inn. I never used them for a trip to Orlando, since they cost 3Xs as many points as the other hotels in the chain. So HI did threat the high traffic vacation areas different.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

Most hotels do this from Marriott to Holiday Inn. In some areas weekends are less expensive these would be places that have alot of Bussiness travelers. Tourist places would generally charge more for Thur. to Sat.. It always suprised me that I could make a resi for a Dis package with only one night in the Value season and pay the value price for the whole 10 days. I have no issues with this, and from a pure economic position with some good planning you could actually end up paying less for a package.

I think the opposite from most people here. I think WDW resorts are overpriced at rack rates. I think that when they offer rooms during the value season, or at a discount, that's what the room should realistically be going for. So in my mind, I'm not getting a bargin, I'm paying what the room is really worth to me.

But I guess I'm in the minority here. Some people are perfectly happy to see WDW raise their rates, defend their increases, and gladly pay without a peep.

Too bad all of these great changes aren't reflected in their stock price.

 

[bmoc_ny]

I think the opposite from most people here. I think WDW resorts are overpriced at rack rates. I think that when they offer rooms during the value season, or at a a discount, that's what the room should realistically be going for. So in my mind, I'm not getting a bargin, I'm paying what the room is really worth to me.

But I guess I'm in the minority here. Some people are perfectly happy to see WDW raise their rates, defend their increases, and gladly pay without a peep.

Too bad all of these great changes aren't reflected in their stock price.

Yes they are overpriced, but we have to go back to supply and demand Disney will charge what someone is willing to pay. If you are willing to stay offsite you can get a nice room for a fraction of the cost. you can go on a 10 day cruise for $600 a person when a disney cruise is $800 for the same type of State room, But the disney ships get booked and they are adding more.

 

[Praying Colonel]

What will Disney do when people just stop paying these outrageous rates for a hotel room? We can stay off property at Homewood Suites for less and have a bigger room.

And my research on their website indicates they charge the same for a weekend room as they do during the week. Guess they're not using the "everybody else is doing it" excuse, at least not yet.

I said in a thread on rumored changes to the DDP that we were fine with staying offsite in a condo or vacation home within a 15 minutes drive of WDW. It was the DDP that got our family to start staying onsite. Any changes to the DDP will cause us to price out staying onsite vs. staying offsite and act accordingly. When doing that comparison we'll certainly factor in any increase in cost due to weekend rates, as well.

I get the idea from many of the changes that have occurred over the last 10 months (the significant ticket price increase last August, the rumored changes in the DDP, the rumored changes discussed in this thread, etc.) that Disney sees that it has increased demand and is going to push the envelope to see just where the public's "squeal point" is. It seems the new motto is, "It's not personal--it's just business." Fine--Disney's not a non-profit organization. But that door swings both ways. Our family will also be evaluating and at some point we'll push back and either do things offsite or do things on a different vacation someplace else.

 

[SplashMountainRocks]

So do you think Disney's going to comp your room if you spend a lot of money there?

There's a big difference between spending a lot of money and gambling a lot of money!

 

[disneydreamin-gang]

I have just spent the last 2 hrs reading from the beginning of the posts. WOW!

I am concerned about the increases. We definitely have a budget that we must stick to. If the cost goes way beyond what we can save for our 2008 trip then we will not be going to WDW. i am sad at the thought of that. I have so been looking forward to planning and traveling to WDW in 2008. We are on a fixed income and only have so much to spend on vacation.

This year we are going to the Grand strand in NC. We rented a 6 bedroom, 4 bathroom house that sleeps 14 for $1600 for the week in Sept. We even have a private pool and hot tub, game room and more. That being said The beach is much cheaper for our family of 10.
I love staying on site at WDW, but if we cant afford it we will stay off site. I know we can get a suit off site cheaper.

I would like to see rates for the longer you stay the better the rate. We always stay 7 - 10 nights. I would love to stay at a deluxe resort but can't seem to make it in the budget. If Disney prices go up to much we will either cut our trip short, stay off site or just go to the beach.
Oh! that hurts to even say it.

I know this is all speculation but I have been researching and planning for some time and was just waiting on the packages for 2008 to come out so I could book. Hopefully the rates will not be to out of line and we can still have our WDW vacation that fits our budget.