What Industry Slowdown?

[Amusement Park Junkie]

With all of this talk of a slowdown in the travel and vacation industries, I thought I'd call the HRH and see if they had any discounts for my existing reservation. We're going at the end of February/ beginning of March. After presidents week, and before Easter vacation. I've got Fan club, AP, AAA, Lowes, and will be getting the entertainment club book next week. Not only are there no discounts available (I currently have the AAA rate of $240/night inc tax), there are no rooms available at all. I asked about the following weekend, and it's sold out also.
I called again from work and didn't say I already had a reservation, to see if that made a difference. Still no rooms available at all. He did manage to find me a room at Portofino for $260 plus tax, which I thanked him for and said I would think about it.
What about if I call Lowes directly? Same story!
Could they be using all of this talk (people being afraid to go on vacation) to book much higher than usual occupancies?
I am glad I did book what I did a few months ago, because it looks like we'll need the FOTL access if the parks are also going to be filled to capacity during the spring.

 

[BarryHom]

I had the same situation. I couldn't find a room on 10/20. I was able to get a room at PBH for around $200 a night!

My guess is that Universal only gets X amount of rooms to fill. Other rooms are given to travel agencies, AAA, etc.

 

[thefoyboy]

APJ,

When are you going? We're going to be there March 15-21 and got a Club Room at the AAA rate of $225 a night for 2 adults and 2 children.

They also had deluxe at $179 and Garden at $145. This is by calling Loews directly and not going through universal.

Anymore questions, please ask.

 

[Tony M]

I have had bad luck with availability with direct contact with the hotels, but when trying alternate Discount Internet Travel Sites(Travelocity, Expedia) I have booked rooms for the same nights that the direct lines to the hotels said were sold out.
Does anyone know if once you have your reservations for a specific night even if you have bought and paid for it through those Discount Internet Travel sites, can you call back later and apply a different discount and still keep your reserved nights?
HAVE FUN

 

[Amusement Park Junkie]

Thats a Good Idea! I had already tried both the hotel and Lowes direct so why not try Travelocity and Expedia. What I found here was nothing available at all after Jan 1. It doesn't make sense that they are completely booked for 3-4 months, so I'm thinking that maybe they pulled everything for some reason. (Maybe they're getting ready to put them back out with deep discounts?)
.
Or maybe they're doing it to try and push people to book now instead of postponing their trips until next year.

 

[BarryHom]

Expedia has a nice PBH special for $169 a night. That's the cheapest I've seen it on a travel website.