Disney’s Q3 FY22 Earnings Results Webcast

[peter11435]

Literally everyone? You do know they have staffing problems, right? Why do you think its so hard to book a room?

It would be hard to book a room at 90% average occupancy regardless of what the total number of available room nights is.

 

[Kamikaze]

It would be hard to book a room at 90% average occupancy regardless of what the total number of available room nights is.

It was easier when they ran at 96-98% for the bulk of two decades previously. Which translates to there being less rooms in the total sellable inventory, and roughly the same number of people trying to book them.

 

[mikejs78]

Are you kidding? They don't have enough housekeeping. Therefore they can't clean all the rooms. Therefore they can't sell all the rooms. This isn't rocket surgery.

Sold Out Hotels at Disney World in Late 2022

Walt Disney World resort availability is extremely limited for this Christmas season through early January 2023, prompting reader questions and concerns. This post addresses what's going on with the sold out hotels, lack of discounts,

www.disneytouristblog.com

And yes, its because of demand, but its also because they aren't selling every single room.

Dude, that article was written in 2021 and last updated in February. And it's speculation.

 

[Kamikaze]

Dude, that article was written in 2021 and last updated in February. And it's speculation.

And? I'm telling you the facts - just because I can't link to a website where Disney explicitly says 'we aren't selling every room we have' doesn't mean it isn't true. They never admit to such things just like they never release attendance numbers. You're just going to have to believe it or not. But its obvious in the way rooms sell out and then the parks aren't nearly as busy as they should be for the number of rooms sold if were selling 90% of 36,000.

 

[flynnibus]

Of course they have staffing issues. But that doesn't necessarily translate into occupancy. I'd like to see a reliable source confirm and give an idea how much inventory is down before making a judgement.

This is not new - https://www.disneytouristblog.com/limited-hotel-availability-disney-world-2022/

The only question is how much have they been able to recover and bring back in this quarter. Considering housekeeping still is getting hiring bonuses... they obviously are still behind in staffing targets.

 

[doctornick]

Dude, that article was written in 2021 and last updated in February. And it's speculation.

Don’t they still have some resorts closed, like one of the All Stars?

 

[mikejs78]

This is not new - https://www.disneytouristblog.com/limited-hotel-availability-disney-world-2022/

The only question is how much have they been able to recover and bring back in this quarter. Considering housekeeping still is getting hiring bonuses... they obviously are still behind in staffing targets.

That article was already posted. It's from February and it's speculation. Since that article was last posted, they've brought back the college program, are in the process of returning the cultural representatives to Epcot, which frees staffing up there to go elsewhere.

I'm sure they aren't operating at 100% (they never are), but at this point I'd bet they are pretty close to pre-pandemic as far as room openings.

 

[mikejs78]

Don’t they still have some resorts closed, like one of the All Stars?

All Stars opened earlier in the year.

 

[peter11435]

It was easier when they ran at 96-98% for the bulk of two decades previously. Which translates to there being less rooms in the total sellable inventory, and roughly the same number of people trying to book them.

If the same number of people are trying to book from an inventory that has been cut down to 80% then why isn’t occupancy at 100%?

 

[crazy4disney]

You're looking at the slowest month of the year. For most of 2022, multiple parks have been impossible to get reservations for unless you book a month ahead.

You can literally book ANY day in Sep. Oct. Nov & Dec. if Christmas is the slowest time of year i have a bridge to sell you & no offense. How many people book vacations less than a month out?!? I made it clear that people who want to vacation can & have no problem getting a theme park reservation & they still can. You act like booking last minute & being shut out of things is an isolated Disney issue… newsflash its not

 

[flynnibus]

That article was already posted. It's from February and it's speculation. Since that article was last posted, they've brought back the college program, are in the process of returning the cultural representatives to Epcot, which frees staffing up there to go elsewhere.

They aren't moving Epcot hosts and waiters to housekeeping... they are also still paying hiring bonuses. You think Disney is handing out bonuses because they are feeling generous? And holding job fairs because the economy needs it? The CPs didn't fill all the voids.

They had large swaths of rooms out of service for refurb and DVC conversion.. and STILL couldn't run all their available rooms. Yet now you think CP returns is going to cover all this gap?

And Tom's article is more than speculation.

I'm sure they aren't operating at 100% (they never are), but at this point I'd bet they are pretty close to pre-pandemic as far as room openings.

I bet more that Disney would stop throwing money at hiring if they didn't have to... yet here we are.

 

[mikejs78]

You can literally book ANY day in Sep. Oct. Nov & Dec. if Christmas is the slowest time of year i have a bridge to sell you & no offense. How many people book vacations less than a month out?!? I made it clear that people who want to vacation can & have no problem getting a theme park reservation & they still can. You act like booking last minute & being shut out of things is an isolated Disney issue… newsflash its not

Um, that's the way it's been all year. But come nod September, October dates will likely start filling. I had to move a trip this year from mid April due to illness. I wanted to go in May. I found a room, but there were no reservations available. I had to postpone to late June. And that's the way it's been for most of the year. Reservations start filling up about a month in advance, especially at DHS and MK. Aug/Sept are the only slow months, so I can see why that isn't filled. But let's see a month from now.

They aren't moving Epcot hosts and waiters to housekeeping... they are also still paying hiring bonuses. You think Disney is handing out bonuses because they are feeling generous? And holding job fairs because the economy needs it? The CPs didn't fill all the voids.

They had large swaths of rooms out of service for refurb and DVC conversion.. and STILL couldn't run all their available rooms. Yet now you think CP returns is going to cover all this gap?

And Tom's article is more than speculation.



I bet more that Disney would stop throwing money at hiring if they didn't have to... yet here we are.

They could be at 100% of rooms and still have a staffing shortage. They are operating at 50% housekeeping service. So they can have half the number of housekeeping they used to have and still service all the rooms. But they know they need to get housekeeping back to daily.

 

[Kamikaze]

They could be at 100% of rooms and still have a staffing shortage. They are operating at 50% housekeeping service. So they can have half the number of housekeeping they used to have and still service all the rooms. But they know they need to get housekeeping back to daily.

No... Those 50% still only can work 40 hours (and two of those days per week they're off completely on a normal work week), which means less than 100% coverage. That gap is the number we're chasing.

If the same number of people are trying to book from an inventory that has been cut down to 80% then why isn’t occupancy at 100%?

I was just supposing numbers. I don't know what they exactly are and obviously have no idea how many people are trying to book.

 

[mikejs78]

No... Those 50% still only can work 40 hours, which means less than 100% coverage. That gap is the number we're chasing.

That...makes no sense. If they are only cleaning rooms every other day, which is half of what they did pre pandemic, how would 50% of housekeeping staffing not cover that?

 

[networkpro]

The three hotels at Disneyland are routinely hitting 80-90% occupancy and they are expanding DVC again. Tourism certainly isn't as big a deal at DLR as it is at WDW, but it's not a bad business at all.

They just let in way too many Annual Passholders at a discounted rate.

Disneyland AP holders the category Chaepek called negative offset to profits for admission mix. For hotel revenue, there are less than 2,300 Disneyland rooms to sell compared to over 30,000 in Disneyworld.

 

[peter11435]

I was just supposing numbers.

Exactly. You are just speculating but stating it as fact.

 

[Kamikaze]

Exactly. You are just speculating but stating it as fact.

I was only using that as an example. I know they aren't booking 100% (or the normal 96-98%) of the rooms because anyone that has common sense can see that. The 'same number of guests trying to book' is what I was estimating, not the fact that less rooms are available.

 

[Kamikaze]

That...makes no sense. If they are only cleaning rooms every other day, which is half of what they did pre pandemic, how would 50% of housekeeping staffing not cover that?

They started the limited housekeeping pre-COVID, because they had staffing issues even then.

The problem you're not taking into account is that you need staff all 7 days, and if you're losing 50% coverage, thats much more difficult when you limit a person to working 5 of them (normal 5x8 week). You can overlap people to cover days - 3 people overlap shifts during a 7 day week much better than 2 do, and 1 can't do the same coverage.

You can't look at it as 'person X does 40 hours and person Y does 40 hours so if they are only doing 50% work you can just cut person Y' because thats not how it works when you can't have a day with no coverage.

If you only have two bartenders you can't just schedule them both Thurs-Mon because those are the busiest days because then you can't open on Tues & Weds.

 

[mikejs78]

They started the limited housekeeping pre-COVID, because they had staffing issues even then.

The problem you're not taking into account is that you need staff all 7 days, and if you're losing 50% coverage, thats much more difficult when you limit a person to working 5 of them (normal 5x8 week). You can overlap people to cover days - 3 people overlap shifts during a 7 day week much better than 2 do, and 1 can't do the same coverage.

You can't look at it as 'person X does 40 hours and person Y does 40 hours so if they are only doing 50% work you can just cut person Y' because thats not how it works when you can't have a day with no coverage.

If you only have two bartenders you can't just schedule them both Thurs-Mon because those are the busiest days because then you can't open on Tues & Weds.

Ok now it's obvious you're just making stuff up.

 

[Kamikaze]

Ok now it's obvious you're just making stuff up.

What the heck are you talking about? Its basic scheduling...

Or are you talking about the declining housekeeping being pre-COVID? Because check the date here: https://www.wdwinfo.com/walt-disney-world/my-regrets-after-waiving-mousekeeping/

Since the parks were closed when this was written, it was obviously pre-COVID.