Why are Disney Hotels so much more expensive than Universal Hotels?

[rchampagne]

One reason we continue to choose Disney over Universal is Disney's Magical Express. I love that I don't need to rent a car, or even pay attention to maps or directions. And I also love skipping the luggage carousel. That being said, I still would never pay $600 / night. We're booked for August at Grand Floridian for under $300 / night.

 

[GreatLakes]

Economics 101. Simply put the Supply and Demand curves meet at a different place for the two resorts. I assure you both are charging as much as they feel their consumer base will pay. Once this is mastered we can talk about the actual pricing model used in the hotel industry, price discrimination, and their attempt to capture all consumer surplus.

 

[LYSE]

I agree ..we love the Portofino and it's a much better value...yet we still pay Disney...well sort of renting points and going through rofr now

 

[AngiTN]

Odd. I find Universal hotels more expensive. Unless I get an AP rate every night of our Universal stay is more than our Disney stay, every time. Guess I'm doing something wrong. Granted, we shop the best rates for our Disney stays. Universal/Lowes doesn't really have many promos

One thing to note, Universal does not own or run their hotels. Lowes does. It's a partnership. Totally different than what Disney has. Does that explain the cost difference? No idea, but it may.

 

[Barnabas T Bullion]

You can't really compare hotel rates across properties. Universal charges the rate that suits their business model, Disney charges the rate that fits their business model. The same goes for ticket prices, food prices, souvenir prices, etc.

Of course you can compare the two. It's the same goods/services being provided by both.

 

[pattyw]

One big difference is that Universal hotels have rewards programs. We are a member of Hard Rock rewards. We get points for our hotel stays- so far we have accrued 4 FREE nights. They truly appreciate repeat guests. So, for us Universal is much cheaper!!!

 

[Jennasis]

Odd. I find Universal hotels more expensive. Unless I get an AP rate every night of our Universal stay is more than our Disney stay, every time. Guess I'm doing something wrong. Granted, we shop the best rates for our Disney stays. Universal/Lowes doesn't really have many promos

One thing to note, Universal does not own or run their hotels. Lowes does. It's a partnership. Totally different than what Disney has. Does that explain the cost difference? No idea, but it may.

When we were researching our Universal trip last year we found there were far more diwcounts and promos offered for their hotels than we ever found for Disney. The trick was looking in the right places. I did a lot of research on the DIS uni boards where I found where to look.

 

[yaya74]

I don't find Portofino Bay better comparing to AKL or Poly. We stayed at Portofino Bay CL last summer. I felt PB is just like a regular hotel. During our stay at AKL in 2016, we had a regular room, no CL. But we were always greeted at the entrance by CM who said "welcome home!" There were CMs everywhere at AKL, but not at PB. Staff in the CL at PB were just okay. I had to help clean up after other guests' mess so my family could sit down by the table and I did quite a few times!

 

[agame2323]

One reason we continue to choose Disney over Universal is Disney's Magical Express. I love that I don't need to rent a car, or even pay attention to maps or directions. And I also love skipping the luggage carousel. That being said, I still would never pay $600 / night. We're booked for August at Grand Floridian for under $300 / night.

I knew I was paying too much

How did you get GF for under $300?

 

[Mome Rath]

Demand due to location.

 

[cobright]

I've stayed at all 3 US hotels (Portofino, Hard Rock and Royal Pacific). I've also stayed at the Contemporary about 10 yrs ago. I can't understand why it's so expensive to stay onsite at Disney. IMO, the Portofino is the best / nicest hotel on both sites. Admittedly, I've never stayed at any other Disney deluxe resorts, but based on my stay at the Contemporary (which was pleasant) I feel like Disney's Deluxe resorts pale in comparison to Universal's.

This is not to say that Disney's deluxe resorts are bad. In fact, I'm trying to figure out if we should stay at the GF or YC. We stay at the Portofino every year for 10 days and it's always a great stay and feel just right for the amount of money we pay. We also do Club Level. I'm just trying to understand what exactly to you get for roughly $600 a night at the GF? How does this hotel compare to PB?

I've found the Royal Pacific to also be one of the most beautiful hotels on either property. IMO, for the price you pay, both the RP and PB beat out the Contemporary.

It's hard to compare the two resort hotels really because the parks each are married to are so different.
I priced a 5 night stay starting May 1st. Getting a basic 2 queen room at:

• Loews Portofino Bay meant $400 a night. wit all the fees the total was $ 2,714.84.
• Comperable Disney resorts include AKL, DBC, and maybe Contemporary.
  • AKL$2,228.43
  • DBC $2,806.25
  • Contemporary $3,636.93

For about the same $$, the US resort is bigger. I would say the interior appointments of the Portofino compare with the DBC. AKL as well in a corny, kitchy sort of way that is not at all for everyone. Contemporary is about the same size and costs about a third more.

Staying at a Disney property includes a ride in from the airport. For a couple with 2 kids, US charges about $140 for the same. But there is definitely a premium charged for staying on the WDW property.

In the end, Disney charges more because they have a more valuable product. Not an opinion. More people want to go to WDW. There is close to a perfectly competitive market in the Orlando resort hotel business. There are plenty of competing hotels and yet WDW sells their rooms out just fine charging a 20-35% premium over their closest competitor.

Some of it comes down to customer service. I totally believe that service at the Portofino is great. And there are anecdotes to support good and bad service of any place. But if I had to bet on which property will provide a great customer service experience over the long haul, I'm betting on Disney. Just too much of their total value is held in the brand of the place. Want a video to go viral? Any video... just put the word Disney in the title.

But most of it is that more people want to go to WDW and for many of those people, staying on property represents a significant value. I know I hated my last off-site disney vacation hotel stay, and it was a great hotel right off Disney Springs.

 

[Minniesgal]

So what exactly is Disney's business model?


.

Charge as much as the consumer will pay. The consumers are still coming in their drones so prices are not yet too high.

 

[vinotinto]

Demand. IMHO, Disney's parks are better than Universal's. So people want to visit them more, and stay longer. We can easily do 4-5 days at Disney, but it's tough for us to do more than 2 days at the Universal parks. Again, just my opinion.

 

[AllieBoo]

When we were researching our Universal trip last year we found there were far more diwcounts and promos offered for their hotels than we ever found for Disney. The trick was looking in the right places. I did a lot of research on the DIS uni boards where I found where to look.

Hi, care to share where you found your discounts for Universal? We are planning a trip now, and I have not found much in the way of discounts so far.... TIA!

 

[DLgal]

I suspect it is largely because Disney is a rather small hotelier, in the grand scheme of things.

Universal Hotels are owned amd operated by Loews Hotels. If Hilton owned the Disney hotels, hypothetically, I imagine prices would be more in line with their other properties worldwide. When you have a large corporate backing, with a huge portfolio of hotels, you can keep your prices competitive and still be profitable.

 

[DisneyArkie]

If Disney lowered their prices like most wanted them to that would create a whole other issue. More people would go which would create Christmas 365 days a year where they have to shut the parks down for going over capacity. Athough there are no light crowds anymore Christmas is a whole other ballgame.

 

[Jennasis]

Hi, care to share where you found your discounts for Universal? We are planning a trip now, and I have not found much in the way of discounts so far.... TIA!

The Lowe's website, the AP holder res site. Sometimes buying an AP for 1 person in your party is worth it for the room and mercy discounts. Go to the DIS universal resorts board and check out the threads there.

 

[ClapYourHands]

Tinkerbellybutton, I completely agree about Cabana Bay's pools! We stayed there last fall because it was the "value" resort for a quick trip, and we were so impressed by the pools. Huge waterslide in one pool and great lazy river in the other. I went alone with my older kids (ages 8 and 9), and I think for them the pool is much more important than the room (which was quiet and perfectly adequate, although ours was pretty far from the main lobby, so it was a bit of a hike if we forgot something in our room).

Now I'm looking for a Disney trip, and between onsite and close offsite, there aren't many properties that come close. Even looking up to moderates and offsite, most of the pools just look like ordinary pools. No way am I paying for a Disney deluxe just to get them a pool that matches the Universal value hotel.

 

[clm10308]

Our family stayed at the Royal Pacific several years ago. The room was much smaller than the similar room at Boardwalk. With two adults and two kids that makes a big difference to me.

 

[ClapYourHands]

Hi, care to share where you found your discounts for Universal? We are planning a trip now, and I have not found much in the way of discounts so far.... TIA!

I went last year during the buy two days, get two days free promotion (which I think is still going on for another month or two). You can book online, but to do what I wanted to do, I called and spoke to one of Universal's agents. I was probably on the phone for an hour, as he played around with different options, including flights, hotels, etc. Because staying at Cabana bay doesn't get you the Universal fast passes, I got that added onto my tickets for an additional fee that still worked out to be cheaper than staying at one of the premium hotels (premium hotels automatically give you fast passes). He worked out a flight booking to maximize my time there that included flying out of one airport and back into another (both NYC). It also included free airport shuttle from and to MCO (though unlike DME, I had to collect my own bags). I might have been able to do better on my own with a lot of advance planning, but I was planning with not much time, so I was having a hard time finding decently priced flights that worked with my timeframe.