January 2024 resort rack rates - do they fluctuate week to week or trend upwards?

[peacefrogdog]

Looking to book a couple of nights at the end of a conference for a resort-only stay Jan 27-29, 2024. It is well after MLK weekend, and I don't see any races during that weekend either.

I was looking at booking a tower room at Gran Destino. One week ago the price for two nights (via the Disney website) was $566 (for a standard view tower room) and $635 (for for a water view room) one week ago. I didn't pull the trigger then. Now, no standard view rooms are available at the water view room is now $735. Undercover T prices have been even more?

My question is: do room rack-rates offered on the Disney site tend to just increase as dates get closer? Or like airlines do they vary from week to week?

 

[focusondisney]

Hmm, I haven’t heard of them fluctuating on availability. But Disney has quietly raised hotel rates during the year. They did it the first time maybe 5 years ago & have done it every year since it seems. Maybe they just did it again?

But that’s a huge increase!

EDIT…. are you sure you didn’t accidentally price a regular standard & water view room before? I just checked & a regular water view room prices out at $635 for the 2 nights. And a standard room is $566. Seems strange that any increase would put the tower rooms now at exactly what regular rooms were before.

 

[peacefrogdog]

Possibly.
However i'm 99% sure I priced out the Tower rooms at Undercover Tourist and the prices are higher now vs a week ago on there. Also both the standard and water view 2 Queen rooms (that are cheaper than King bed rooms) are not available now, making me wonder whether they allocated rooms to a conference.

 

[OwnedByRetrievers]

I just found the opposite. I had AKL booked for December '24 and only booked it because the WL was outrageously high. I just looked and now it's only $400 more, so I made the switch. It was more like $1,500 more when I booked.

 

[CuteAsMinnie]

If you plug in your dates/resort on the Disney website and then click on rate breakdown, it’ll show you dates by day going forwards and back quite aways so you can see the fluctuation.

 

[focusondisney]

If you plug in your dates/resort on the Disney website and then click on rate breakdown, it’ll show you dates by day going forwards and back quite aways so you can see the fluctuation.

Yes, you can see the daily rate. But that’s not the issue. The questions is if Disney changed the rates in the last week. It doesn’t show you that.

 

[focusondisney]

Mousesavers has lists of each resort & room type by season & date with tax included. They set up theses lists when rates are first released & don’t update during the year if rates are increased. For CS, for Jan 27-29, they have
standard room $565. Water view room $636
Tower standard. $690. Tower water view. $754.

https://www.mousesavers.com/2024-coronado-springs-room-rates-season-dates/

Doesn’t look like rates changed in the last week.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I have seen Disney raise room rates at unannounced times during the year. But I know that they didn't raise the rates for the Beach Club for April this year. They are the same as they were two months ago. I checked today.

 

[SL6827]

Ya, mousesavers is a extremely valuable tool now with these rack rate charts.

 

[CuteAsMinnie]

Yes, you can see the daily rate. But that’s not the issue. The questions is if Disney changed the rates in the last week. It doesn’t show you that.

Oops, sorry. Yes, I have seen room rates increase as time goes by.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

While anything is possible, I would be surprised to see a quiet rack rate increase just a little less than 3 months into 2024 bookings. I would triple check booking details like room category and number or adults, UT vs Disney’s website, etc. Historically Disney does not have ‘dynamic pricing’ like many hotels, but as has been noted above they have tinkered with rack rates at times over the last few years - although usually they have been relatively small increases; not major budget busters.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Disney does not change their published rack rates based on demand, once their yearly calendar is out there BUT what they do change is their discounts/specials. However, their rates of course do go up from year to year for certain properties.

Disney will play the price game yearly, but they won't raise the rates once published. Disney will provide discounts/promos that you need to be on the look out for and of course, as travel has become more normalized and less covid-y, I think we'll start to see the same discounts that we usually expect to see year to year.

To answer your question, rates will fluctuate weekly in Jan. New years day will be pricy, it will quickly drop to value pricing, then increase for the marathon, head back to value, peak again for MLK and then drop again to value pricing. They've followed this model for years and will likely do the same in 2024. Some seasons don't have weekly changes like summer season where there is less major pricing volatility.

 

[SL6827]

If you have a room booked already and a discount comes out for that room, don't they make you now cancel and rebook the whole reservation with the discount? As in the past, if the discount was available, it was just applied?

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Also, was going to add to ensure you clear your cache/browsing history when you search for resort rooms using disney's site. The price you're seeing will not be the nightly rate, it will be the nightly average. The rate would not change that much from $635 to $735 for the same exact room type, guest ages, dates and number of nights, so something had to have changed when you searched. Also, the average rates for 2023 at their peak pricing were $393, so I think something is off in your search parameters. I just looked and rates were $350-$406/nt for a water view room at GDT for your dates in Jan. I think you're looking at club level rates.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Disney will play the price game yearly, but they won't raise the rates once published.

Just FYI, this used to be the case but the last few years Disney has quietly done mid-year across the board rack rate increases. Usually they go unnoticed as they have been pretty small and most folks just aren’t studying it all that closely. So while not common and not frequent, rack rate increases to previously published rates are possible (there has been one in 2023, for example).

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Just FYI, this used to be the case but the last few years Disney has quietly done mid-year across the board rack rate increases. Usually they go unnoticed as they have been pretty small and most folks just aren’t studying it all that closely. So while not common and not frequent, rack rate increases to previously published rates are possible (there has been one in 2023, for example).

I had heard there were small increases but never witnessed it myself. I screen shot the published rates when they're released. Was it all resorts or some? Guessing even if it was resorts I booked, I had promos so I never really compared that closely but $600/nt for GDT is not accurate.

 

[sponica]

If you have a room booked already and a discount comes out for that room, don't they make you now cancel and rebook the whole reservation with the discount? As in the past, if the discount was available, it was just applied?

I think all I had to do was modify the reservation if the discount applied.

 

[SL6827]

I think all I had to do was modify the reservation if the discount applied.

That's what I was thinking, but it seems if I have read that some had to cancel and rebook completely. Maybe others will chime in.

 

[honeymo78]

That's what I was thinking, but it seems if I have read that some had to cancel and rebook completely. Maybe others will chime in.

I've been able to modify room only reservations to apply AP or general public discounts.