Sky high hotel rates

[weather_lady]

I've been watching Feb 18-21 (President's Day), Mar 14-18, and Apr 2-9 (Spring Break for our county), and the prices are in the $600-750 range for deluxe resorts. There have been very few APH rates, and there are not many choices for rooms even at full price. As long as they sell out the hotels, I would expect this to become the "new normal" for peak pricing...

I think you're right that this is a new normal. If the higher pricing and dearth of APH rooms persists, I can honestly say it will make us think twice about buying annual passes in the future. The math for those of us who live far away, visit briefly/infrequently and rely on express passes (price of cheap hotel + a la carte tickets and express passes, vs. price of premium onsite hotel + annual passes) no longer favors the annual pass + premium hotel combination the way it used to.

What's funny to me is that I booked our 4-night President's Day Week stay in a Future Rock Star family suite at HRH 6 months ago, at a rate of $805/night. At the time, it seemed outrageous -- after all, we'd just returned from a stay at RPR in a Jurassic World family suite at an APH rate of $365/night -- but I was telling myself, "when APH rates come out, it will be much cheaper -- and if they're not offered for our exact dates, maybe I'll make it into a split stay with a standard room to save some money, or even book 2 adjacent standard rooms instead, all at APH rates, of course..." The joke was on me! Since I booked, they've jacked up rack rate for the HRH Future Rock Star family suite to over $1,200/night for weekends, and $1,100+ for weekdays, and the cost of a standard room is now over $600/night. APH rates haven't been offered at HRH for any 2 contiguous nights of our upcoming stay, for any room or combination of rooms that would fit our family, or that isn't even more expensive than what we have (e.g., Graceland Suite, Hospitality Suites, etc.).

Now that "outrageous" price I locked in 6 months ago feels like a bargain.

 

[cfoxga]

Wonder why there’s such a difference in pricing between those 2 weeks. No holidays, not busy season

I would guess that UO is fully aware of all school breaks, and adjusts prices accordingly. As a software developer, I would create a tool that scraped all of the county school calendars to figure out when lots of schools had breaks at the same time. It wouldn't be that difficult to do...

 

[Squirlz]

Just for fun looked at what we paid for Disney last time, Dec. 2014. We had a package with a Boardwalk Deluxe Club with tickets for 7 days. It was a smidge over 5K. Same room for the same time now is over 1K/night just for the room!

 

[macraven]

Ouch!

 

[Husker Mike]

I would guess that UO is fully aware of all school breaks, and adjusts prices accordingly. As a software developer, I would create a tool that scraped all of the county school calendars to figure out when lots of schools had breaks at the same time. It wouldn't be that difficult to do...

Considering all of the different formats those calendars might be in, that would be awfully difficult thing to do with tens of thousands of school systems to deal with. The reality is that, other than Easter, the calendar is pretty much the same every year. Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day are locked in. So is Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and President's Day. And since Spring Breaks are spread throughout the months of March and April, you can work Easter into that mix. They have years of history to work with already in their systems to forecast demand; they don't need to go look up school calendars to tell them what they assuredly already know.

Oh, and President's Day is typically a school holiday in many districts...typically with in-service or conference days. In California, I believe they call it "ski week" because so many people head to the mountains. (I heard about it at a Hawai'i resort, because others head to paradise...)

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

I believe that is driving this. It's similar to when HCOL residents from California or NY move to the midwest or south. Everything is "dirt cheap" to them, so they actually drive up the prices in the region - the market responds to their perceptions by leveling up.

Uni knows full well that WDW guests see a $400 deluxe room as a bargain because of the resort rate insanity going on right now at The House of Mouse. I was asking one long-time TM if she thinks any specials may be released on annual passes (like the 3 month free promo) and she said it actually feels like the opposite climate right now. So many WDW guests are buying UO passes because they're so much "cheaper".

Sigh. I think the dark side is no longer. The secret's out. lol

Exactly, count me as moving to the dark side!