Comment by gymbeaux
3 years ago
There are MANY examples of The Walt Disney Company making poor decisions. The most recent one would have to be the "Star Wars Hotel" that cost $1,200/night PER PERSON. In what world can enough Americans afford to fill up a hotel every night at that price? They did what all companies do- they got greedy. Now they have a $300M write-off as they tear it down.
DIS stock is taking a dump right now because Disney+, it turns out, isn't the savior we all thought it was (and were led to believe it was) during the pandemic when the Parks division wasn't bringing in the cash. ESPN is dead weight. They have more debt than ever thanks to the pandemic.
I did not say they’re making the right decision. I merely pointed out that the parent comment poked at this being a bold assumption.
They might be wrong, they might be making a bad play. But they’ve also probably devoted a reasonable amount of resources at finding answers to questions like whether people will want to use these or not. So, they probably didn’t make “bold assumptions”.
It's a question of semantics I suppose. So to me, it was a bold assumption on Disney's part to assume, regardless of what the data/research/surveys told them, that A) there were enough people on the planet who would travel to Orlando, FL to stay at this Star Wars-themed resort for over $1000/person/night, and B) there were enough people on the planet who would travel to Orlando, FL again and again to stay at this Star Wars-themed resort for over $1000/person/night.
It would have surprised me if such people would be interested enough in the hotel to not stay at it in the first few months of its opening, but hold off until some time thereafter, and so in that respect, Disney seems to have recognized that once that initial high demand drops off, it's GG. Demand wouldn't magically (ha) go from ~50% occupancy to ~90-100% with no change to the hotel or the pricing (e.g. any factor external to the resort itself).