Contemporary rates for Sept...and no garden wing rooms?

[horizons82]

I currently have a reservation for the Contemporary for mid-September. I made the reservation some time ago at a non-discounted rate, expecting there would be a significant reduction in the rate closer to our actual stay in September, and I would then update our reservation to that discounted rate.

However, I've continually been checking rates periodically for the past few months, and the CR has had very few room types available and the cost is significantly higher than all of the other deluxe hotels. In fact, I have not seen any garden wing rooms available since I first made the original reservation back in January.

Today, I saw a passholder discount available on the WDW site and checked it out. Once again, there were NO garden wing rooms available, and the rooms in the tower (which is where I'm booked) are still actually higher WITH the discount now than they were when I made the non-discounted reservation many months ago!

Also as of today, the rooms at the CR are running about $160 per night more than next highest priced deluxe hotel!

Can someone explain why this might be? Could there be some convention or something booked for the hotel during the time I'm going? Perhaps they are renovating all of the garden rooms which is making the tower rooms limited and in high demand and thereby making rooms so expensive?

I made the initial reservation thinking we'd get a discounted price break before our stay, but seeing how the CR has only had the tower rooms available and MUCH higher rates than all of the other deluxes, I'm starting to get nervous...

 

[ratherbeinwdw]

I'm sure a discount is possible, but I've never been able to get one for the garden wing. They simply don't have to discount those. They are usually sold out, so they don't need to discount them. Maybe someone else on here has been able to get a discounted garden wing room. I did see one discounted AP room in the tower last year, but before I could get it, it was gone.

 

[horizons82]

Thanks for the response. Just to be clarify since I tend to ramble on...

I do want to stay in the tower and my current reservation is for a tower room. I just thought it was very odd that no garden wing rooms have shown as being available for several months now--not even at a standard rate, and that somehow that was a sign of some reason that the CR was really booked or had a convention or something going on that would also make the tower rooms so high.

 

[ToTBellHop]

That's because the Garden Wing will soon close so a new DVC can be built in its place:

 

[ratherbeinwdw]

I don't know. I just checked and the AP rate for September 9th is 386.13 for a Tower Room Lake View. Is that what you are seeing.

 

[horizons82]

I don't know. I just checked and the AP rate for September 9th is 386.13 for a Tower Room Lake View. Is that what you are seeing.

This is exactly the kind of room I was looking for, but the non-discounted rate I currently have is actually slightly less than that rate...go figure.

 

[Master Yoda]

It is hard to say. A convention could be taking up many of the rooms, but it also might be a number of guests that did the exact same thing you did.

The garden wing rooms at the Contemporary are some of the most popular in all of WDW. They are among the largest standard rooms on property, within walking distance of MK and they come in considerably less than comparable rooms in the Tower or at the Poly. This causes them to book up quick at full price giving Disney no incentive to discount them.

If you can, try moving your dates around. On occasion, a single day can cause the system to show no availability.

 

[shipley731]

There is quite possibly a convention (possibly more than one) booked into CR when you are planning on being there. I work for a non-profit society and plan their Annual Meeting every year. We had this meeting at the CR for 4 years running. The vast majority of the rooms in my room block were in the Garden Wing. The contract allowed us 3 concierge & 2 suite upgrades, but everything else was a "standard view". The convention rates are so much lower than anything else you could get, the hotel is going to put them in their lower priced rooms, so they can still sell the premium rooms at rack rate or just slightly reduced. The convention rate last time we were there was $194 per night. It was always right around that for the 4 years running when we had our meeting there. When I talked to someone I know in room sales last fall what the convention rate might be for a mid-September meeting 2014, the rate quoted was $249. She mentioned that the price hike was due to the New Fantasyland & 7 Dwarf Mine Train. Group rates were lower at Yacht & Beach. (Rates vary depending on the time of year & whats going on at the time.)

 

[eblaz37]

Don't have any specific CR/Disney inside knowledge on this, but I do work in the hotel industry and because of that, I offer this:
Hotel companies (Disney being no exception) play a cat and mouse game. They start out with pricing based on what the rooms have sold at, on average, historically. If there seems to be consistent bookings for certain dates, they will leave the rates be. If they see "pick-up", they will raise the rates because they know the demand is there, so they will be able to sell out, even at the higher rate. The only time they will lower the rate is if they see significantly low occupancy levels. Then, once people notice they can get a "good deal", the hotel company will then slowly raise the rates as the occupancy increases, hoping to sell out completely. Now, something I learned in my early hotel years was "you can never go back and sell last night". Sometimes, they'll take a lower rate if it means selling that room.