Resort guests being offered 1 night extension at discounted rate through the new year

[ParentsOf4]

Please keep in mind that Disney's rack rates are pretty much outrageous from Christmas to New Years. Prices start at $856/night at the Grand Floridian, $760/night at the Poly, $561/night at the Wilderness Lodge, $285/night at Port Orleans Riverside. Even the All Stars start at $199/night for what's essentially a small motel room.

An extra occupied night (plus the corresponding upsale in food) for a room that was going to sit empty anyway represents a nice little bonus for Disney, even with a deep discount.

 

[surfsupdon]

Swan Dolphin, when booked early enough, gave us a discounted rate of 179/night Epcot fireworks view with balcony for 12/28- 1/3 last year. Standard view was 139 but we like a view and balcony. Yacht Club was 575/night. This year it was 184 at Swan if booked last Feb.

We used to stay at Yacht for New Years before the night by night pricing started. Six consecutive years there.

But had to stop with the current pricing structure. Hope to be back next NYE.

 

[GymLeaderPhil]

Availability is very slim for longer stays and occupancy is actually way way up - even with the block out dates for Cast Members at the parks. As mentioned this is filling the small gaps in which they have the same room available for an additional night. Disney won't put you in room #1 for one night and then move you to room #2 during your length of stay. It's a very elaborate game that easily gets muddled up when some one puts in a request to have a specific room, in a specific building, since they saw a glowing review on AllEars that room 4708 was the best ever.

This is not, in any way, an indication that bookings are down.

 

[TeddyinMO]

Availability is very slim for longer stays and occupancy is actually way way up - even with the block out dates for Cast Members at the parks. As mentioned this is filling the small gaps in which they have the same room available for an additional night. Disney won't put you in room #1 for one night and then move you to room #2 during your length of stay. It's a very elaborate game that easily gets muddled up when some one puts in a request to have a specific room, in a specific building, since they saw a glowing review on AllEars that room 4708 was the best ever.

This is not, in any way, an indication that bookings are down.

Exactly. This is a unique year because Christmas and New Years fall on a Friday. Because of the way the calendar falls, there's a decent number of people who booked long weekend trips on those holiday weekends rather than the traditional week-long holiday vacation. That means there probably is some very limited availability for the rooms on 12/28-12/30 as the Christmas weekend group checks out and before the New Year's weekend group checks in. So, there's no harm in Disney trying to entice a few of these people to stay an extra day and fill one or two of those nights. It's a great strategy:
- because the hotels are fully staffed anyway due to the busy week
- parents can look at it and say "the kids are off school anyway and we're off work, why not?"
- adding an extra day to your park tickets (if needed) is cheap and easy
- those staying an extra night or two will still be long gone before the next weekend's crowd checks in
- it's likely that a lot of these long weekenders drove, meaning they don't have to deal with flight changes

As Phil said, you're not going to be able to just call up and get the discount on NYE, but if you happen to be checking out on the 27th and you want to add an extra day, Disney can entice you with a nice deal, fill an empty room and keep capacity at 95+% vs 80-90% on Mon-Wed.

 

[Andrew C]

$199 for a room at a poorly themed resort on the fringes of property? What the heck is Disney smoking? I'd love to get a whiff of it. That's ridiculous.

For a destination such as this between Christmas and New Years, I wouldn't expect differently. For comparison, little motels in Niagara Falls, Canada will charge close to 200 bucks for rooms on Canada Day (July 1) and the 4th of July as this is a very high demand period for them. These same motels charge 40 bucks on other nights....

 

[boufa]

I think we're starting to see some fallout from DHS closing just about everything, Animal Kingdom being just months out before it becomes an evening park with all new offerings, Epcot being a few months from the Frozen attraction and MK not really having much new to advertise as well. The second half of 2016 is really where Guests are going to start seeing some new options. Expect low occupancy until then.

The rest of your post was valid (we were planning a trip in late 17, but are moving it to early 18 in order to ensure that more construction is done... however your first line is uninformed and just plain wrong.

What is closed at DHS that hasn't be replaced by another offering, other than the backlot tour. I keep hearing this "everything is closed at DHS" junk, but in the end, nothing is really closed, except BLT, what we are seeing is the overall lack of offerings, but this isn't new. I would argue that the SW fireworks more than makes up for the loss of the BLT, but this is a personal opinion. Ultimately is might be a perception problem, since DHS is virtually the same park today that it was several years ago.

 

[COProgressFan]

Seems like Disney forgot even a booked room at a CM discount is still making them money. Once again picking up pennies while dollars fly over their heads

But we don't want to mess with those "per guest spend" metrics, do we? In this case, they're allowing it to happen with regular guests because they're spending so much on rooms during a holiday week anyway, it probably isn't messing with their numbers too much. But you are correct that it is increasingly difficult for CM's to book rooms at a discount for themselves or friends/family.

 

[dizda]

This is an interesting offer. It sounded like a possible scam at first but the explanations about trying to fill gaps between reservations make sense.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Cost of resort stays finally crossing over the line perhaps?

 

[Bolt]

I suppose if you're already at 90-95% why not try for 100%?

 

[fillerup]

Just anecdotal - proof of nothing.

Wife wanted to go to GF to see decorations today and we agreed maybe a 5 percent chance we could get in.

A frames were up saying registered guests only. But security said come on in, we're pretty slow today.

 

[wdwfan100]

I've had a few reports of in-room flyers starting today for a discount on a 1 night extension for guests staying at WDW resorts.

Anyone there now have any details of the discount?

What's difficult about this offer is that Disney has created a system that put a lot of value in planning/booking months in advance. It could be pretty difficult to get an ADR or FP on such short notice. Unless of course they are throwing those in with the offer.

 

[mm121]

I suppose if you're already at 90-95% why not try for 100%?

opting for 100% isnt really the best strategy as then you have zero flexibility on guest placement or guest overstays or rooms being dirty when guests arrive or rooms simply needing to be placed off market for repair

from a customer service standpoint its better to opt for slightly less then be sure your able to meet customer service goals

 

[PhotoDave219]

Parks were still quite busy during classically low periods this month. I think reports of the resorts demise are a bit premature

It was slower the week I was there versus most of 2014, IMO.

 

[ford91exploder]

opting for 100% isnt really the best strategy as then you have zero flexibility on guest placement or guest overstays or rooms being dirty when guests arrive or rooms simply needing to be placed off market for repair

from a customer service standpoint its better to opt for slightly less then be sure your able to meet customer service goals

This is DISNEY we are talking about, Guest Service no longer matters.

 

[Brad Bishop]

Swan Dolphin, when booked early enough, gave us a discounted rate of 179/night Epcot fireworks view with balcony for 12/28- 1/3 last year. Standard view was 139 but we like a view and balcony. Yacht Club was 575/night. This year it was 184 at Swan if booked last Feb.

We used to stay at Yacht for New Years before the night by night pricing started. Six consecutive years there.

But had to stop with the current pricing structure. Hope to be back next NYE.

The problem with the Swan & Dolphin (and all Starwood hotels) is that they impose stupid fees:
- $25/day fee (mandatory) for access to the spa, weight room, and something else (maybe WiFi)
- $20/day fee for parking (which I guess doesn't matter if you flew in and took a taxi there)

Still, you go in thinking it's going to be $140-180/night and it's closer to $200-250/night w/o the silly hotel taxes and other nonsense (not their fault but it's the state taxing people a premium who can't vote there - a whole different issue).

 

[Jon81uk]

The problem with the Swan & Dolphin (and all Starwood hotels) is that they impose stupid fees:
- $25/day fee (mandatory) for access to the spa, weight room, and something else (maybe WiFi)
- $20/day fee for parking (which I guess doesn't matter if you flew in and took a taxi there)

Still, you go in thinking it's going to be $140-180/night and it's closer to $200-250/night w/o the silly hotel taxes and other nonsense (not their fault but it's the state taxing people a premium who can't vote there - a whole different issue).

That is sort of one good thing about the Disney hotels, they are all included. Parking or an airport transfer is in the room price and there are no resort fees.

 

[MatthewWho13]

Well DHS isn't that slow, this was shortly after 9am yesterday. Most of property seems pretty darn busy. I bet they are just trying to fill the weekday gaps.

 

[surfsupdon]

The problem with the Swan & Dolphin (and all Starwood hotels) is that they impose stupid fees:
- $25/day fee (mandatory) for access to the spa, weight room, and something else (maybe WiFi)
- $20/day fee for parking (which I guess doesn't matter if you flew in and took a taxi there)

Still, you go in thinking it's going to be $140-180/night and it's closer to $200-250/night w/o the silly hotel taxes and other nonsense (not their fault but it's the state taxing people a premium who can't vote there - a whole different issue).

You are correct, but the price of the room with the fee and the taxes was still cheaper than a Disney Value Resort for that same time period. During peak periods, the Swan and Dolphin should be considered.

 

[MrPromey]

What is closed at DHS that hasn't be replaced by another offering, other than the backlot tour. I keep hearing this "everything is closed at DHS" junk, but in the end, nothing is really closed, except BLT, what we are seeing is the overall lack of offerings, but this isn't new.

Well, there are a few other things that may or may not matter to you. The Jack Sparrow attraction for instance, doesn't matter to me but is now closed. Sounds Dangerous to my knowledge, has never been replaced with anything permanent at that location.

Also, how far back in time do you want to go and how much of a game of 3 card monte are you up for playing? American Idol is gone. That was replaced with the Frozen Sing Along but that was already being done in another part of the park so still a net loss for attractions. Now that, which was added in recent years went into a space that was previously used primarily for private events and for the comedy club that they put in there seasonally, prior to its current location. That comedy attraction is currently in operation but is expected to shut down again in a few weeks when the season ends and this venue for largely private events had previously been the home of the live Hunchback show which was a full time attraction.

The Backlot tour may be the only e-ticket gone and not replaced in recent memory but that's a major thing because how many times can you recall that happening in WDW history? Body Wars? 20,000 Leagues under the sea*?

To be fair though, when you see a lot of people on there talk about things being gone, I think they're projecting a bit into the slight future with things they know or strongly believe will be going away rather than what currently has. You're right that this kind of thing shouldn't be considered when talking about average guest reaction when those people don't know what's leaving and what isn't in preparation for new development. Just the same though, I think the message Disney sends when make the upcoming additions of Star Wars and Toy Story to the park sound like such a big "expansion" is, Hollywood Studios will be an awesome place to visit some day when that's all done. If I was considering a once in a lifetime or once a decade trip, that might impact some of my decision making a little bit. I'm sure mileage varies with average guests, though.

*Obviously eventually replaced but I think when something is closed long enough without a replacement that an entire generation doesn't realize a new attraction replaces an old one, it doesn't count in this kind of discussion as a replacement.