Question for Hojo vets...

[jenpace]

I just booked 3 nights at the Hojo in May (so excited!). We have the kids' suite for the 1st 2 nights with the Ent/AP 'retro' rate and the 3rd night in a standard room at the regular rate. I had hoped to be able to book the same room type for the entire stay to avoid changing rooms mid-stay but that was the best that was available since they're pretty booked up.

For those of you who have a lot of experience staying with the Hojo, what are the chances that something might open up between now and the start of May? Ideally I'd love to have the kids' suite for the three nights but even if it were a standard room w/out having to move that last night I'd feel happier than moving.

Either way I know we'll have a blast but I'd love it if I didn't have to pack up everyone for that last night

Thanks

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Hojo management has complained that they suffer from a lot of cancellations. From what I have seen when watching room availability and rates, it is not outside the realm of possibility that a cancellation would come up so that you could have one room type for your whole stay. Since there are only 14 kid suites in total on the property, then it does seem statistically more likely that a different room type will open up, but you can always keep hoping. Now, whether you will be able to secure a comparable rate to what you have booked, I can't say. When the rooms do become available again due to cancellations, I have noticed the rate is often higher (sometimes much higher) than what it was weeks or months before. You may be able to negotiate something if you talk to the hotel staff directly though since you already have rooms booked. Of course, if Hojo gets so many cancellations that it puts there vacancy rate at a certain threshold, then they offer the ET/AP rate. We were there once in August, and by the second day of our stay they had changed all the rates for that day to the ET/AP rate. Even though we had already checked in and stayed a night and they had us already, they let us change our rate for the second night to the AP rate right then. Awesome perk, and that's one of the things that keeps us going back there!

 

[jenpace]

Thank you longtimedisneylurker for your reply I will call the in house reservations line from time to time to see if anything comes up so we don't have to switch rooms mid-stay. If we need to after all it's still a-okay

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Thank you longtimedisneylurker for your reply I will call the in house reservations line from time to time to see if anything comes up so we don't have to switch rooms mid-stay. If we need to after all it's still a-okay

The other thing I like to do first before making the phone call is type my dates into the reservations box on the website and see what comes up. But I sit in front of the computer a lot and am not all that fond of talking to people on the phone, so that's just me maybe.

 

[jenpace]

After thinking it over for a couple of days over the weekend I started to get really uneasy with the notion of packing up the kids and myself to move rooms on the 3rd day since my husband won't be joining us this trip and it'll be 'all me'.

I called Hojo today hoping to be able to change my reservation to ANY room type as long as we wouldn't have to switch mid-stay. Super happy to say that the kids' suite suddenly became available for that third night! Even though it won't be the AP/Ent rate that last night, it's really not too much more at $155-ish vs $99 for the 'retro rate'

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Glad to hear it worked out so well. It probably would have been a big pain to have to switch rooms during your stay. I too don't mind paying more for one night of a stay when I can get the rest of the nights at the really good price.

 

[jenpace]

Yes! I had visions of packing up all the perishable food...milk, yogurt, etc. from the fridge and having it spoil while our bags were being stored until the new room was ready. Not to mention the fact that the new room might not have been ready until 3 or 4....

I'll be checking the Hojo website compulsively to see if that last night gets changed to a 'retro rate' night

Anyway, thanks LongTimeDisneyLurker for being so helpful!