The Present & Future of Hotels Near Disneyland
Over the next couple of months, we’ll be adding several new hotel reviews from spots near Disneyland. Places with forthcoming reviews before the end of September include SpringHill Suites Anaheim Maingate (in addition to the other SpringHill we just reviewed), Clarion Hotel Anaheim Resort, Residence Inn at Anaheim Resort/Convention Center, and Best Western Plus Park Place Inn (finally!).
In addition to those, we’ll likely be doing a few others, with an emphasis on knocking out all remaining “across the street” hotels on Harbor Boulevard. Places like Camelot Inn, Best Western Anaheim Inn, and maybe even the HoJo. We also have a lot to change in our existing Disneyland Area Hotel Rankings & Reviews post.
We originally published this two years ago, and have updated it numerous times since. However, it is in need of further refinement, as the hotel scene in Anaheim continues to change. In this post, we’ll a look at the current state of Anaheim’s hotel scene, along with what to expect going forward…
In the case of hotels near Disneyland, I think the phrase “a rising tide lifts all boats” is apt. There has been continuous new development in the Anaheim Resort district, and that has caused many of the older hotels to refurbish their facilities to keep up.
The downside of this is rising prices pretty much across the board, especially during peak tourist seasons. (In fairness, I think a lot of those prices would’ve increased irrespective of refurbishments, so at least visitors are getting more bang for their buck.) This started 5 years ago with the opening of Cars Land, has not slowed down.
In that time, some hotels have close to doubled their rates. Even in the last 2 years since first creating that list, I would estimate that prices have increased by around 10% to 20% at most of the hotels. (Since my rankings are heavily weighted based upon average nightly rates, I need to re-analyze prices at each of these hotels.)
As of last year, the average nightly rate at Anaheim hotels was $180.75. Even assuming this number has not increased for 2017 (and I’d hazard a guess that it has), that’s an astronomical amount for what mostly amounts to upscale motels that would cost around half that if the hotels were not located near Disneyland. In fact, half that is about what we paid before the Cars Land bump.
Parking fees are also a lot more common than 5 years ago. Now, you’re very lucky to find free parking at the hotels that are a short walk from the park. Honestly, it’s tough to blame the hotels for this–with nonstop development over the last few years, real estate is worth more and is in shorter supply.
I would not expect prices to level out anytime soon. Although there are several hotels in development near Disneyland, some of these projects are stalled (thanks, local unions!) and demand will only increase when the Convention Center completes its expansion and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens. Occupancy rates in Orange County are at an all-time high, with numbers being especially strong near Disneyland.
While there are a number of hotel projects in various stages of development, I suspect even those will not be enough to fulfill demand in Anaheim during tourist seasons. Between Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and the kinda-sorta-announced Marvel Land, Disneyland Resort is poising itself to become a bona ride destination resort.
Given what Cars Land did for the off-site hotels, it’s almost scary to think about what lands based upon Star Wars and Marvel will do. Personally, I think the current amount of hotel development is insufficient for what the Anaheim hotel market will need come 2020 and beyond.
A lot of the development that is occurring is in the luxury tier. While this may not appeal to readers looking for budget accommodations, I’d argue that the most under-served market in Anaheim is the luxury one. Aside from the Grand Californian and Disneyland Hotel, there’s not really anything luxury-caliber in the area.
Some of the hotels near the convention center come close, but those are more business class than they are luxury. Anaheim needs more rooms across the board, but I think there’s more unsatisfied demand in the luxury market than anywhere else.
For what it’s worth, there are people who disagree. In an article on the topic of luxury hotels in Anaheim, Daniel Lesser said, “I can’t say enough that I don’t see Anaheim as a luxury market.” Lesser heads a New York-based hotel real estate firm.
Given his location, there’s the possibility he doesn’t have intimate knowledge of the Anaheim market, and where development is taking it. (I wonder whether experts thought Orlando could sustain luxury hotels before Walt Disney World came along and built out its parks…and a dozen-plus luxury hotels were added?)
Lesser believes those who can afford luxury price points would rather stay in Newport Beach than Anaheim. To his credit, Newport Beach is way nicer than Anaheim, and I think most people would prefer Newport, all things being equal. The problem is that all things are not equal.
Based upon his comment, I’m guessing Lesser has never driven in rush hour traffic from Newport Beach to Mickey & Friends in an effort to get to Disneyland in time for rope drop. I have, and it’s not exactly a fun way to start the day. If your primary motivation for a trip is Disneyland or a convention, staying in Newport or Laguna and doing that commute for 4-5 days is not convenient.
Moreover, during peak seasons, the luxury hotels in the beach cities are near capacity with guests who are taking beach vacations. Unless several luxury hotels are added between Huntington Beach and Dana Point, there is not sufficient room inventory to satisfy demand for those visiting the beach, attending conventions, and going to Disneyland. There’s only so much redevelopment than can be done on the coast, so adding several more luxury hotels there is not really a possibility.
So, luxury hotels in Anaheim it is. The good news is that even if luxury hotels near Disneyland don’t interest you, more room inventory added to the market is a net positive for everyone. Whether it causes a ripple effect of decreased demand at mid-tier properties (and so on), causes other hotels to step up their game, or simply absorbs some of the increased demand that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge brings with it in a couple of years remains to be seen.
Whatever the case may be, already there is greater variety among the hotels near Disneyland. Recent additions have offered more family-friendly accommodations, nicer amenities, and other upside beyond just the basic motel style that was once the staple of hotels in the area. One thing I’ve noticed from reader comments is that many of you are big fans of the new hotels that offer family suites and rooms of that sort.
Along those lines, I’m curious as to whether my methodology in ranking the hotels near Disneyland makes sense to you. While various factors are considered in those rankings, proximity to Disneyland (minutes by foot), room quality, and price were what I weighted most heavily.
My personal preference is being <15 minutes from the Esplanade by foot, and not having to rely on ART or Uber, so the list skewed towards hotels between Harbor and Katella. While I’ve started to give more thought to room variety based upon your feedback, it was not something that was emphasized when originally creating the rankings.
As I prepare to refine the list, I’d be curious as to the weight each of the following variables plays in determining which hotel near Disneyland to book:
- Walking distance from the parks
- Ability to comfortably sleep 3-4 adults
- Room quality and size
- Quality of amenities (pool, fitness center, etc.)
- Overall cost (rate + fees)
- Other (please specify)
It would be incredibly helpful to me if those of you who are interested in off-site Disneyland hotels could rank these factors in order of importance in the comments, with #1 being the most important, and so on. If something does not matter to you at all, there’s no need to rank it.
I know a lot of this is ‘inside baseball’ type of stuff that doesn’t really matter to you if you’re just planning a Disneyland vacation and want practical advice. I find it pretty fascinating, but I’m a geek for stuff like this. In any case, hopefully this post has provided you with some insight about why you’ve encountered higher hotel prices than before, what you might expect in the future, and how we can improve our Disneyland-area hotel rankings to make them more useful to you.
If you’re preparing for a Disneyland trip, check out our other planning posts, including how to save money on Disneyland tickets, our Disney packing tips, tips for booking a hotel (off-site or on-site), where to dine, and a number of other things, check out our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide!
Your Thoughts
Do you agree or disagree with our assessment on the Anaheim hotel market? Are you looking forward to more luxury hotels in Anaheim, or do you wish more family suites and budget accommodations would be added? Care you share your rankings for what factors matter most when we re-rank the Anaheim hotels? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience.
Here is my list:
Walking distance from the parks
Quality of amenities, Specifically the pool
Overall cost (rate + fees)
Room quality and size
ability to get a reservation for the date and length of stay I need
Ability to comfortably sleep 3-4 adults
I plan on making a trip to Disneyland sometime in the next couple of years.
1.) Walking Distance
2.) Room Quality
3.) Price/Value
Thank you, Tom, for all the work you do. Your recommendations helped us choose the Park Vue Inn for the second part of our first Disneyland stay (had to split after we couldn’t get GCV for the entire stay) and it was perfect. Really appreciate your insight and perspective. Hard to find DINK recommendations sometimes in the Disney community.
1. Room Quality
2. The landscaping, lobby, common areas. Something transportative, comfortable, modern, relaxing, and upscale.
3. Service. Somewhere that prides itself on an excellent guest experience from start to finish
4. Proximity to Disneyland
5. Size- I prefer a larger high rise style hotel with its own restaurant, cafe etc. I don’t want to feel like I’m staying at the Hampton Inn from any town USA. Basically I want a resort- an escape- a vacation. Think the Grand Floridian, Waldorf Astoria, Ritz Carlton, JW Marriott or Four Seasons of Anaheim. If it was nice enough, needing to take an uber or walk an extra mile is perfectly acceptable
6. Cost. I am not wealthy but I will happily pay $300-$400 a night for a knock out hotel on a vacation. People do this and up to triple the cost all the time at WDW. Why not for Disneyland?
Based on everything you’ve listed, I think your options are pretty much Disneyland Hotel or Grand Californian…or the beach cities. What you’re describing doesn’t really otherwise exist in Anaheim.
There are several resorts like what you describe in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, and Dana Point. Even then, the $300-400 price range is going to be on the off-season low end of things.
As for the reason why: real estate costs. My favorite resort in the area is the Montage Laguna Beach. Absolutely stunning grounds and a beautiful hotel. It sold a couple of years ago for $360 million, primarily because of the value of the land it sits upon: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-montage-laguna-beach-20150130-story.html
Thanks for the rankings Tom!
Ability to walk, ability to sleep 5, then cost.
Based on your recommendations we stayed at the Park Vue Inn 2 years ago and the Courtyard by Marriott Maingate this summer. We like to walk so we avoid a rental car (Uber too and from John Wayne), and prefer to have one room for 5. Park Vue was fine and had breakfast (!) but I think we’ll go back to the Marriot in the future. The two queens and bunk beds was really a perfect combination, I went to Panera in the morning. I just wish it wasn’t so overpriced for what it is! It cost the same per night as a JW Marriot resort we went to a few weeks later..
East coaster who considers WDW my home resort. I’ve been to Disneyland twice. The first time I was attending a conference in Long Beach, and stayed there. The second, I was much more interested in proximity. I used your reviews and selected the Desert Inn. We wanted Park Vue, but at the time the price was a little higher than Desert Inn. This worked great for us.
1. Walking distance
2. I’ve cost
3. Room size and quality
4. Amenities
Maybe in addition to your normal rankings you could provide a star or something signifying a family friendly hotel. I have a family of four but one boy and one girl who don’t like to sleep together. Bunk beds or even space for a foldaway bed would be nice. Breakfast is a big deal to us because it is convenient and a money saver. We love a suite setup especially if there are two TV’s. I’m not sure if walking distance to the park is a priority for our family.
By far the number one thing to me is COST. As long as it isn’t dirty/gross/unsafe, I’ll stay there. Walking distance for me is part of cost. If I don’t have to spend money on a rental car and parking then hotels near the parks maybe the lowest cost. If not, then sometimes staying far away is cheaper even with factoring in car/bus costs/parking. But in general I would say location is number 2. For what I can afford, the rest doesn’t matter. I consider walking distance to be 20 minutes only because we get totally tired walking in the parks. Walking distance for others might be 30 minutes…..
If there is any sector that should be “under served” it is those that can afford luxury accommodations. They should be the last to be served, for once. They aren’t the hardest working class there is. I say provide enough budget accommodations for those working blue collar, grunt jobs first and then provide luxury for those that can afford it, after all they can still afford to lower themselves to stay among the plebs.
I have stayed at the Clarion twice now because of price and location near the Toy Story lot. It definitely isn’t luxury and we had a few minor problems but I wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again if it also had a very competitive rate again. Some of the staff was helpful/courteous, others either incompetent or else boldly shrugging off requests. There is a woman who is often at the front desk with pink highlights – she is the type of employee who definitely acts like she would rather be somewhere else. I called down 2 times asking or a wake up call when she was on duty – she assured me both times that I would get my wake up call but I didn’t get a ring. There are fridges in the rooms which is a must have for me, but no microwaves, which is ok with me, would be nice but not a must have. The furniture is shabby with rubbed off upholstery, that kind of thing. Things seemed clean enough, though one our rooms smelled a bit. I always felt safe and it wasn’t noisy even though there was construction going on Harbor during the wee hours. The plumbing and AC/heating systems worked. There is no breakfast of any kind which is ok with us. I bring hard boiled eggs and fruit plus buy milk and juices from nearby stores. I don’t go for ultra convenience or spend more than 80 bucks a night when on vacation to Disneyland so that I can go more than once a year. Me and my kids get super tired walking around the parks, so we also like that the Clarion is near the Toy Story parking lot – it doesn’t save a ton of walking time, but any little bit helps us.
When I say no breakfast of any kind, I meant “free”. Sorry! There is a restaurant there and they have a closet that is open sometimes that sells dry goods too.
My comments about hotel tiers are not with regard to merit–I cannot really comment on whether people who want luxury hotels “deserve” it more or less than those who want budget accommodations.
Rather, I’m speaking in terms of what the market will bear. Value judgments aside, there is a lot of unsatisfied demand for luxury accommodations.
Having stayed at a number of offsite hotels now, I’ve got some pretty clear preferences:
1) Room quality and size (I dropped the Park Vue for the new Courtyard Marriott–it was so nice staying in a newer hotel that hadn’t been disinfected to within an inch of its life! I also stayed in a great King suite at the Doubletree and took the parking lot shuttle to the park)
2) Walking distance from the parks (or proximity to one of the parking shuttles)
3) Quality of amenities (ie, can I have a good breakfast here?)
4) Overall cost (rate + fees)
5) Ability to comfortably sleep 3-4 adults (when doubling up on queens isn’t an option–again, points to Courtyard Marriott with their bunks beds)
Overall, when I’m looking at a Disneyland trip and booking a hotel
Ranking:
1. Walking distance to front gates
2. Overall Cost
3. Room Quality
4. Hotel amenities (breakfast, pool, etc)
We are a family of 3 that frequently travel with my parents and sister’s family so we typically rent 3 rooms. When we book with hotels on Harbor Blvd, we look for discounts for the multiple rooms. (some give one others don’t).
1. Walking distance from the parks
2. Overall cost
3. Ability to comfortably sleep 3-4 adults (as long as there are two queen size beds, we are happy)
4. Room quality (size really doesn’t matter at all other than the bed size)
5. Quality of amenities (pool, fitness center, etc.)
1) Walking distance from the parks
2) Overall cost (I don’t drive so parking doesn’t matter)
2) Room quality
Don’t really care about anything else.
1. Walking distance.
All other equal weight in my decision making process.
How about a review of the Great Wolf Lodge? I know it’s not in walking distance. I think ranking the hotels on bus service is a priority. If they ran every 15-20minutes it would be on par with many of the walking hotels.
Probably not anytime in the near future. Not only is it farther away, but it’s pricey. Perhaps if I can score an off-season deal, we’ll give it a try.
Thank you so much for doing this, Tom! 😀 I am gathering information for our very first trip to Disneyland Christmas of 2019 (yes, I know, I plan…) and would love to get your views on the different hotels.
Here is my list:
1. Walking distance from the parks (we plan on rope-dropping and taking mid-day breaks)
2. Overall cost (rate + fees)
3. Room quality and bed size. We can be 2 adults in a queen bed, but not in a more narrow one. Room size doesn’t matter – every double room in America is big enough for the 3 of us.
4. Quality of amenities (especially breakfast and pool)
5. Walking distance to convenience store
Hi Tom! Thanks so much for doing these reviews and rankings. I find them to be most helpful and informative! We are a family of five (3 kids) that drive down from Oregon, usually once a year.
#1 – room size and the ability/willingness to accommodate a party larger than four
#2 – cost!! (including parking)
#3 – distance from the parks (this used to be higher up when I had a toddler that NEEDED to nap)
#4 – room quality (mostly concerned with cleanliness)
#5 – Amenities (quality breakfast, pool)
Hey Tom,
1. Location is always #1.
2. Amenities (including quality breakfast, fitness centre, pool)
3. Cost (including parking)
4. Room quality and size
Thanks for doing this. Appreciated and put your last rankings list to good use.
1) Distance to the Disney bubble
2) Room quality
3) Lobby / overall hotel quality
4) Service
5) Cost
My husband and I (no kids) like to stay at Best Western Stovall’s Inn because you only have to walk a minute before you are in the bubble. The morning walk along Disneyland Drive and through Downtown Disney almost makes us feel like we are staying at one of the Disney hotels.
Love your site and your articles Tom, keep them coming! Our family of 4 is visiting Disneyland Saturday-Tuesday (Nov 18-21), the week of Thanksgiving (Nov 23) this year. I know this is not the ideal time to visit, but with the childrens’ school schedule we didn’t have much of a choice! How insane do you think the crowds will be?
We live in California and visit DLA at least twice a year and always stay at California Grand because of convenience to the parks, and here’s our preferences:
1. Professional meeting held at the hotel (allows me to count at least part of the trip as a business expense, and California Grand has a fair amount of business meetings)
2. Proximity to the park
3. Ability to comfortably accommodate our family of 4 (we stay at the 1 BR suite at California Grand which is adequate)
4. Hotel quality
5. Cost (wish California Grand was less expensive, but oh well)
Thanks Tom!
Demo: locals, AP, Couple w/no kids
Order of importance:
1. Walking Distance
2. Cost
3. Hotel loyalty (we have a primary and backup chain)
4. Room quality (but size isn’t as important)
5. Convenient to convenience store for snacks (that CVS under the new SpringHill is awesome)
For my partner and me, if staying off-property our ranking would be:
1. Walking distance from the parks.
2. Overall cost.
3. Room quality alone (but not size.)
4 Quality of pool area specifically.
5. Other: walking distance to the Harbor Blvd McDonald’s.