News Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin to eliminate 1136 employees

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Let's talk about the airlines. As someone who infrequently travels, and usually just for personal vacations, I've long felt the bread and butter for so many of the major airlines were the businesses travelers. What happens when that travel goes kaput? And virtually all that's left is personal travel? Expensive airlines and all the accoutrements they come with that cater to well-heeled business travelers...lots of downstream consequences from this freeze (for the foreseeable future) on non-essential travel.

Airlines make their money on business fares...

...and they still are always teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

To answer your question: it’s not looking good.

The airline industry has been wrecking employees from multiple business for decades. A specific example? When airlines stopped paying commissions for ticket bookings...it put a large amount of travel agents out of business. The internet had something to do with that too.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Yeah, and I heard Boardwalk’s been a complete ghost town since all this shut down. Not a pretty sight. Have to imagine the project manager/incoming GM for that huge Swan Reserve is having massive heartburn right now. Orlando is about to have a massive, massive glut of convention space and service industry professionals with virtually no demand for the foreseeable future. And they’re finishing a massive complex.

We have some experts on business travel that have been commenting on this for months and they are unfortunately correct.

Business travel is being changed...permenantly...not a temporary glitch at magic kingdom.

 

[DisneyDelirious]

Exactly, it doesn’t matter what the employees think. Once the companies see that they can replace business travel with a zoom conference it’s a done deal. I’d say at least 20-40% of national business travel will never return and I feel like that number is optimistic, just a guess of course.

Same with offices. Unless businesses see a drop in productcivity why would they want to continue paying for high priced office buildings? And if they see a loss in productivity... perhaps they need to replace the current employees with younger workers who are fresh out of business school, looking for a job, and won’t complain about zoom all day. . Welcome to the future.

I would add that while human interaction in a face to face manner is always going to be important and essential for personal relationships, many of the younger generations filling our shoes prefer electronic communication for utilitarian needs. While my son understands some things are best done face to face or via a voice call if it doesn’t rise to that then he would just as soon text or email. My daughter a couple years behind him sees even less need to communicate in person or via a phone call. Just as I don’t draft eloquent letters like my grandparents the pendulum keeps moving. COVID is only going to hasten that move to less personal forms of communication in my opinion. Just my dos centavos.

 

[Mr Mindcrime]

but is “big four” the big 5 minus Arthur Anderson

Yup. I started work there when it was Big Six .... then Big Five .... now to Big Four (PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY). Glad I don't have Arthur Andersen on my resume

 

[Mr Mindcrime]

I would add that while human interaction in a face to face manner is always going to be important and essential for personal relationships, many of the younger generations filling our shoes prefer electronic communication for utilitarian needs. While my son understands some things are best done face to face or via a voice call if it doesn’t rise to that then he would just as soon text or email. My daughter a couple years behind him sees even less need to communicate in person or via a phone call. Just as I don’t draft eloquent letters like my grandparents the pendulum keeps moving. COVID is only going to hasten that move to less personal forms of communication in my opinion. Just my dos centavos.

Ditto for my two college kids. They can be totally happy with online gaming with "friends" they'll never meet face to face. We can ruminate all night about whether or not this is good for humankind (I'll bet the older you are, the more you think this is not a good societal trend) but I can tell you, it's not a world that excites me too much. I love my privacy and quiet time as much as the next guy, but give me face to face human interaction anytime.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Yup. I started work there when it was Big Six .... then Big Five .... now to Big Four (PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY). Glad I don't have Arthur Andersen on my resume

Ok...just making sure. Had two good college buds that started with D&T...got out as fast as they could and are both CFO of decent sized private companies.

 

[DVCakaCarlF]

I have actually seen surveys for vacations asking about “solo” trips.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Another article that raises more questions than it answers. Is Marriot moving out??

Marriott is only the operator. Tishman and MetLife can pick whomever they want to run it, with Disney’s blessing.

 

[UNCgolf]

It’s definitely “different strokes for different folks,” but my coworkers and I cannot wait to return to an office environment. Who wants to be at home all day with no physical separation between work and play? That’s just us, though.

I always felt like that, but I've actually really enjoyed working from home for the past 6 months.

However, I've been working on some pretty easy cases. There are other cases I've worked on in the past (and ones that some colleagues are currently working on) where I think WFH would be a nightmare.

 

[UNCgolf]

Yeah, and I heard Boardwalk’s been a complete ghost town since all this shut down. Not a pretty sight. Have to imagine the project manager/incoming GM for that huge Swan Reserve is having massive heartburn right now. Orlando is about to have a massive, massive glut of convention space and service industry professionals with virtually no demand for the foreseeable future. And they’re finishing a massive complex.

Most of the Boardwalk is shut down right now. Even if those hotels were packed there'd be little reason to go there.

Of course, if the hotels were packed, the Boardwalk probably wouldn't be shut down.

 

[cmb5002]

Yeah, and I heard Boardwalk’s been a complete ghost town since all this shut down. Not a pretty sight. Have to imagine the project manager/incoming GM for that huge Swan Reserve is having massive heartburn right now. Orlando is about to have a massive, massive glut of convention space and service industry professionals with virtually no demand for the foreseeable future. And they’re finishing a massive complex.

While some of it is a ghost town, I'm staring at Luna Park Pool right now from my balcony, and it's busier than an average September night. Now of course that's because the parks are all closed, but it stays pretty busy from mid afternoon on.

Epcot closing at 7 now (plus no hopping) has probably added some business to the Bakery and the Pizza window, because both were very busy at 8pm. Lots of people walking over from Beach Club to grab a pizza during my evening walks this week.

 

[cmb5002]

I understand point. But you can still build relationship and trust working at home and over Zoom. I'm in tech, been working from home for 20 years, and have developed great business relationships and even friendships with people I barely (sometime never) see face to face.

But again tech, where being not social does not disqualify you from doing pretty well.

You can't buy someone a drink on Zoom. You can't judge body language. You can't touch and feel the product that someone is trying to sell Don't get me wrong, Zoom, WebEx, etc. are great tools that will change the landscape, but I think conferences will eventually recover most of their previous business. IDK about other workplaces, but at mine its the bosses that go on the most conferences, not the underlings. The bosses aren't going to eliminate their own travel unless they have to.

 

[JoeCamel]

I wonder if Marriott could pivot S&D to be a less expensive, more value parks accommodation?
Does WDW have a say over what prices they charge?
If they priced it at $130 a night they could fill it and maybe turn a profit?
Conventions will be a long time coming back if they ever do.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

If they priced it at $130 a night they could fill it and maybe turn a profit?

Not with guests that would spend enough to keep all the f&b fully staffed and the convention center with catering etc. staffed.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I wonder if Marriott could pivot S&D to be a less expensive, more value parks accommodation?
Does WDW have a say over what prices they charge?
If they priced it at $130 a night they could fill it and maybe turn a profit?
Conventions will be a long time coming back if they ever do.

Swolphin for a long time was priced as a low moderate even though the amenities are deluxe. It was two to four times less expensive than the other Crescent Lake hotels. But in the past 5 years, the Swolphin's price kept going up and up to the point where they were too rich for me to go any more unless I found a really good deal, which was less and less often.

So... Swolphin could live on lower prices. The lay-offs probably represent mostly the conferencing staff. The big conference halls will just sit mothballed for a year.

When the conference circuits are able to revive, there's a big draw to being a WDW conference center, so, their long term health shouldn't be a worry.

I've got a Dolphin reservation for the first week of December (which I can cancel a week ahead of time at no penalty... and now that seems likely). I got their AP discount rooms. But, I've canceled my AP since it was going to go unused for 8 months. If I go in December, it would require APs to be selling again to keep the discount.

 

[rio]

I would add that while human interaction in a face to face manner is always going to be important and essential for personal relationships, many of the younger generations filling our shoes prefer electronic communication for utilitarian needs. While my son understands some things are best done face to face or via a voice call if it doesn’t rise to that then he would just as soon text or email. My daughter a couple years behind him sees even less need to communicate in person or via a phone call. Just as I don’t draft eloquent letters like my grandparents the pendulum keeps moving. COVID is only going to hasten that move to less personal forms of communication in my opinion. Just my dos centavos.

24 year old here. You are right that there’s plenty of things that can be settled with a text or email. There were too many meetings before. But the lack of in person interaction has severely hampered our ability to just go and ask for help, bond with teammates, or gain random information about the business that comes up in conversation. For those of us that are single, the lack of in person interaction has effectively been stripped away entirely, and many social functions won’t return until next year.

There are plenty of us that are absolutely waiting to go back-and plenty of us who will be searching for jobs or trying other things if our current jobs don’t.

 

[rio]

Our supervisor informed us they were considering making us work from home permanently. After thinking about it for a day-I figured out a way to make the most of it. I’ll travel the country/Europe while working. After all, if we aren’t needed in the office, why not take the time to see new places and do new things? Go to the louvre in the morning, and report for work in the afternoon one week, while going to Disney after work a couple of weeks later.

I probably won’t be the only one who will do this if the situation becomes permanent. Travel will come back-it might just appear a bit different.

 

[tallica]

1137

funny, but sad!

 

[tallica]

Exactly, it doesn’t matter what the employees think. Once the companies see that they can replace business travel with a zoom conference it’s a done deal. I’d say at least 20-40% of national business travel will never return and I feel like that number is optimistic, just a guess of course.

Same with offices. Unless businesses see a drop in productcivity why would they want to continue paying for high priced office buildings? And if they see a loss in productivity... perhaps they need to replace the current employees with younger workers who are fresh out of business school, looking for a job, and won’t complain about zoom all day. . Welcome to the future.

they said the same thing after 9/11 however conventions and business travel bounced back fairly quickly.

 

[WDW862]

24 year old here. You are right that there’s plenty of things that can be settled with a text or email. There were too many meetings before. But the lack of in person interaction has severely hampered our ability to just go and ask for help, bond with teammates, or gain random information about the business that comes up in conversation. For those of us that are single, the lack of in person interaction has effectively been stripped away entirely, and many social functions won’t return until next year.

There are plenty of us that are absolutely waiting to go back-and plenty of us who will be searching for jobs or trying other things if our current jobs don’t.

I consider myself pretty introverted, but I'd die if I had to work from home. Humans need face-to-face interaction to remain healthy (and proper amounts of alone time).