If a business absorbs the costs themselves or not is their decision.... but the lots are not free to build nor maintain... nor does it really matter much if a space is taken or not. The environment still does it thing. Customers often assume such things are just cheap or free. But talk to anyone who has had to add parking to their building, or is involved with the budgeting and most would be shocked.
Disney doing this now is Just capitalizing on what they can do... verse the standard they’ve set themselves. But besides maximum utilization driving the need or not for more spaces... the rest of your “no load” justifications are pretty irrelevant
Of course parking lots are not free to build, but I think you missed the point of what I was saying, either intentionally or unintentionally.
We agree that the decision to charge for parking is Disney's, but my point is based on the assertion that this is the "industry standard." That "industry standard" is not universal, again, it depends on the location of the hotel and scarcity of parking spaces. Suburban hotels typically do not charge for parking. You usually run across parking fees (I have traveled other places besides WDW, big cities, too!) in cities where hotels tend to be high rise buildings, in an urban area where parking space, or any space for that matter, is at a premium. Thus, you get parking charges. Fact is, Disney owns the property, and it being private, they choose whether to charge for parking. BUT, you cannot use the :industry standard" argument because the Disney resorts do not meet typical "industry standard" criteria, such as in a limited footprint urban area, and you can even go as far as the rooms types, sizes, decor, and amenities if you want to split hairs. I will indulge you, so take the Waldorf in New Orleans. Room rates tend to be in the 500 dollar a night range, parking is about 40 dollars a night. Now, let's look at Disney's Polynesian Resort, Rooms about 600 dollars a night, smaller than the Waldorf, the rooms are nice and themed, but do not approach "industry standard" for a hotel room that falls into the Polynesian/Waldorf price point. So, if you want to use "industry standard", that argument is moot because Disney cannot use industry standard as justification to charge for parking, but not meet "industry standard" in regards to room size, decor, or amenities, but meets or exceeds the "industry standard" rate. In Disney's case, the CAN have their cake and eat it, too, but it will rankle the nerves of quite a few guests.
In regards to you trying to shoot holes in my occupied/not occupied parking space argument, what you failed to get is I was using that argument in regards to your "industry standard" assertion, and making the point that the "industry standard" you refer to is an urban area with grossly limited parking availability, lending itself to, once again, Supply and Demand. It's scarcity, sir. Disney does not have scarcity. I thoroughly enjoyed that you feel my point is "irrelevant," since you make this assertion with no facts nor statements to support its irrelevancy. What I would like from you is to explain what upkeep costs amount to 13 dollars per night, and if these parking lots need upkeep that require charging, then what does Disney charge Uber, Lyft, Rental car companies, delivery and rental companies who drop off rental strollers and ECVs, or wheelchairs, since their vehicles are considerably heavier and cause much more stress on their prized parking areas than my one vehicle. I hope I am not being asked to foot the parking lot maintenance bill for outside vendors.
Look, I agree with you. They can charge whatever they want. They do it all the time, and people like you and I will pay it, time and time again because we are loyal to the product and Disney more often than not delivers on what they sell. With that said, Disney is no more in a position to need to improve their parking areas now than they were in the past. I do believe that, as Captain America said, that Disney does sell the idea that they are doing this to keep people on site. But if you really think of this rationally, you will see this is just humdrum. That's a convenient excuse to sell to Disney apologists, or people who will not do anything but toss their credit card to the cast member to pay their bill, as I dis. But, if one really removes their Philharmagic opera glasses, rubs the pixie dust out of their eyes, and stops looking for hidden Mickeys, they would see this was an untapped cash source that Disney could somewhat justify because "other hotels do it." That's the truth. They can charge what they want, but it is an all out cash grab.
Let's think of this, All Star Sports has 1,920 rooms. If only half of those rooms occupants drove, you're looking at 12, 480 dollars per night. That's over 4.5 million dollars per year just for that resort. If you triple that amongst the other 2 All Star Resorts, that's a cool 13.5 million dollars. Pop and Art of Animation, now you're at 22.5 million dollars a year. The rates go up as you get into the Moderates and Deluxe hotels. You're looking, modestly, at about 200 million dollars a year in new revenue from parking. Now I ask you, you think this is really only about keeping guests on site, or do you think that nice little hunk of new change might have somewhat of a bump in park profitability and stock prices???