Hotwire & Priceline Deals for Disney World Hotels
You can successfully “guess” which on-site Walt Disney World resorts are discounted via Priceline Express Deals and Hotwire Hot Rates with these tips to score a great deal. This covers how to save money on Orlando, Florida hotels with hacks & matching tricks. (Updated March 8, 2024.)
Priceline Express Deals and Hotwire Hot Rates are similar to the popular “Name Your Own Price” feature or bidding on hotels based upon amenities and a general area. You can score a deep discount on a great hotel (or not-so-great one, if that’s more your style), but the tradeoff is that don’t know the name of the hotel until you pay. In other words, it’s a surprise…but like children snooping under the Christmas tree, there are certain ways to ‘spoil’ that surprise!
Hotel chains, including Walt Disney World, do this to dump unsold inventory at the last minute while concealing to the general public that they’re unloading rooms at such a cheap rate, which might tarnish their brand or irritate guests who paid significantly more. Let’s start by taking a look at the current Priceline Express Deals for Walt Disney World…
At their best, Priceline Express Deals and Hotwire Hot Rates offer deep discounts of up to 60% off, not just a “deal” of 10-15% off a room-only rate. We’re talking $60 per night or less for Values, ~$100/night for Moderates, and ~$200/night for Deluxe Resorts. We primarily focus our searches to Priceline here (which often has more availability), but the below deals can often be replicated on Hotwire with the same strategy…
Inventory Update: Spring 2024
February 8, 2022. That’s the last time this post was updated before today, and that was basically to address reader questions and explain how “discounts have dried up at Walt Disney World.” Although pent-up demand had already entered the vernacular, it didn’t occur in full force until Spring 2022. (Our first post about the topic was “Revenge Travel” at Walt Disney World, published August 15, 2020…which seems way too early to have been talking about that. Very much wish I would’ve been wrong with those predictions!)
For the next year or so, not only were discounts difficult to come by, but so too were full-priced room reservations. Another popular topic at the time was Limited Hotel Availability at Walt Disney World in 2022. That was driven by a confluence of circumstances, from pent-up demand to strong bookings for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary to not all hotels being open or operating at 100% capacity to staffing shortages. But it’s unnecessary to recap all of that in full. You either lived through it and remember (or have blocked it out), or didn’t and don’t care.
The moral of the story is that there was absolutely nothing in the way of Priceline Express Deals and Hotwire Hot Rates for Disney-owned resorts from September 2021 until some point in Winter or Spring 2024. Back then, we remarked that this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, but it is the longest Walt Disney World has gone in recent years without dumping any unsold inventory onto Priceline and Hotwire. However, we also attributed it to the lack of inventory, and said that we expected it to change by later in the year as demand dropped and supply improved. How young, how naive.
Fast forward over 2 years, and so much has changed. Pent-up demand has been exhausting itself for over a year now and Walt Disney World has been pulling from what we call the “2019 discount playbook,” which is to say that almost all of the same deals offered then–including more obscure ones like PIN Codes and Bouncebacks (not to mention fan-favorite Free Dining) have all made their triumphant return.
Up until now, all but one niche discount was back–the Priceline Express Deals and Hotwire Hot Rates. Well, there are once again signs of life on that front after a 2.5 year absence! So that’s the very good news. The bad news is that in spot-checking dates on Priceline Express Deals throughout March and early April 2024, the only resorts I could find were the All Stars and Coronado Springs. (The hotel above is almost certainly one of the All Stars; Bonnet Creek, 8+ score, 600 ratings, and 3-star hotel are the big giveaways. See below for tips & tricks on identifying the resort.)
The good-within-bad news is that we’re entering the heart of Spring Break 2024 Season at Walt Disney World (literally–it starts today!), so it’s wholly unsurprising that I can’t find much. It’s a miracle that there’s anything, and makes me wonder what I might’ve missed over the last couple of months. Since these last-minute deals are only added a few weeks out, my expectation/hope is that there will be more during shoulder season (approximately mid-April through Memorial Day 2024).
So stay tuned–I’m going to be checking this a lot more regularly and, fingers crossed, reporting back with a lot more in about a month! Or perhaps not. Maybe this was a one-off blip and you won’t see another update to this post for another 2.5 years. Who really knows anymore!
In addition to Disney-owned hotels, here are the third-party options on-site that you might find on these opaque booking sites…
Another option that regularly appears on Priceline Express Deals is the Swan & Dolphin Resorts. Keep in mind that there’s also a mandatory resort fee, so what you see is not the final price–but both of these resorts still tend to be far cheaper than anything else in the Crescent Lake area.
We love the Swan & Dolphin for a few reasons. Namely, they’re within walking distance of both Epcot and Hollywood Studios–perfect for rope dropping Slinky Dog Dash before going back to the pool for a mid-morning break. For the most part, Swan & Dolphin guests have similar advantages to guests staying in Disney hotels. They even offer access to Extended Evening Hours, which Moderate and Value Resorts don’t even offer!
The JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek Resort & Spa is also a frequent fixture of Priceline Express Deals. We reviewed this new on-site hotel and gave it generally favorable marks.
The one big thing it lacks as compared to other luxury resorts near Walt Disney World (including other Bonnet Creek properties) is a sprawling pool and lazy river. While the JW Marriott is perfectly family-friendly, it’s not catering to kids like some of the other hotels in the area.
There are usually also scattered options at Disney Springs. We don’t do extensive research into these, but the usual suspects are as follows: B Resort & Spa (soon to become Marriott Renaissance), DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Orlando, Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista, etc. We have Hotel Rankings for the Disney Springs Resort Area if you need further resources to help you choose one of those properties.
We’ve also seen availability at Flamingo Crossing, which is about a 10-minute drive from Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. These hotels are pretty attractive because they’re all brand-new.
Keep in mind that Priceline Express Deals inventory changes frequently, meaning you might find hotels we didn’t list if you search later today or next week, and you might not see what we’ve found. We’ll keep you posted as we continue to scour Priceline for new Express Deals! For now, here’s everything else you need to know about booking these discounted rooms…
How to Book Priceline & Hotwire Deals at WDW
For starters, Hotwire and Priceline Express Deals really can amount to substantial savings at Walt Disney World–that’s not just marketing fluff. Priceline advertises the service as offering savings of “up to 60% off” but we’ve saved more than that on Deluxe Resorts (and, to be fair, significantly less than that on others).
In fact, for a few weeks around our stay at the Poly, during which we received a free upgrade to the King Kamehameha Club Level, the Polynesian was under $300/night via Priceline Express Deals…and the rack rate ‘value’ of our room was over $800/night. Obviously, that’s an extreme example with tremendous luck involved, but even “just” 60% off is not uncommon.
With the reward of substantial savings comes risk. Priceline Express Deals is a “semi-opaque” booking site, meaning certain details and amenities are revealed in advance, but not the hotel name. Fortunately, those details narrow things down considerably, to the point that internet sleuths have made the process pretty predictable for anyone willing to do their homework.
Of course, there still are no guarantees. You’re locked in to a non-refundable hotel before knowing the exact property for sure. That means there is some risk and uncertainty inherent to the process. It’s certainly not for everyone. Another drawback is that these deals are mostly last-minute. Walt Disney World hotels are typically added to Hotwire or Priceline’s Express Deals around 1-2 months prior to travel dates, sometimes a bit longer.
Finally and along those lines, Priceline Express Deals are offered to fill unsold rooms. If you’re trying to book a Christmas stay, you’re unlikely to have success. You’ll have a tough time finding good rates for multi-night stays during peak tourist seasons; the best options tend to be short, weeknight stays in the off-season.
It should also be noted that the ‘hacks’ for revealing hotels are constantly in flux. Internet deal spotters have been great in helping to uncover which hotel corresponds with which amenity sets and descriptions. Unfortunately, Priceline (and other bulk wholesaler sites) are always one step behind, meaning that successful strategy for uncovering a deal might work one day and stop working the next.
The best options for narrowing hotel choices yourself is deselecting each “Neighborhood” except “Walt Disney World – Bonnet Creek” and “Walt Disney World – Disney Springs.” Every official Walt Disney World resort is located within those areas on the Priceline map.
Additionally, Walt Disney World hotels will have an amenity set of only Free Internet Access, Restaurant, and Swimming Pool. To my knowledge, this amenity set is a recent change (and inaccurate as compared to what WDW resorts actually offer).
In terms of star rating, Values are 3-star, Moderates are 3.5-star, and Deluxes are usually 4 or 4.5-star.
The big bummer is Priceline’s removal of the one-line descriptions, such as “enjoy jazzy evening entertainment at this well-designed resort” for Port Orleans French Quarter. These were the decisive ‘clue’ in determining which hotel you were booking. With the description, accuracy was 100%. The Hotel Canary extension no longer works, which is another big blow.
Now, you’ll need to do a bit more legwork to match hotels on your own. Consequently, the confidence rate is far lower. You’ll want to match up the following:
- Number of reviews (rounded up or down)
- Guest ratings (rounded off)
- Rack rates (the pre-discount price vs. discount price, also rounded off)
- Other clues in conjunction with the amenity set and location.
Basically, this means comparing the normal Priceline listing for a particular hotel with the listing. If you aren’t comfortable doing this on your own, resources like BetterBidding.com can help–but even then, know that you’ll be rolling the dice a bit.
Here are some observations I’ve noticed while searching. First, Moderate Resorts are pretty common, but Coronado Springs is the most prevalent, especially outside of peak convention season. While prices fluctuate highly based upon season and occupancy rates, I’d say a “good” rate for a Moderate is $150/night or less.
Second, the Deluxe Resort you’ll see most frequently is Animal Kingdom Lodge, with rates in the neighborhood of $200 to $300. Other Deluxe Resorts have appeared on Priceline Express Deals. I’ve seen almost every single one, including the Polynesian and Grand Floridian. I’d say Yacht Club–another convention hotel–is probably the most common after Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Finally, Value Resorts also have appeared on Priceline Express Deals with some degree of regularity, with common options including the Little Mermaid Rooms at Art of Animation and All Star Sports (Movies and Music have been less common). Of all resorts, the All Stars appear most commonly, and we’ve seen them for prices as low as the mid-$60 per night range. However, that was also several years ago–and prices have shot up since then!
Overall, Priceline Express Deals is a great option for saving a lot of money on Walt Disney World hotels, but it’s definitely not for the faint of heart. It’s no longer the ‘sure thing’ that it once was, but with a bit of legwork, you can narrow down the possibilities and still have a high degree of certainty before booking.
If you’re willing to gamble and don’t mind the possibility of getting a third party hotel like the Dolphin or Wyndham Bonnet Creek (both great options that are on par with Walt Disney World Deluxes), we’d highly recommend using Priceline Express Deals for savings that are far superior to room-only discounts directly from Disney.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Have you tried any of these hacks or tools to book on Priceline Express Deals? Any other strategies you use? If you’ve used it, what’s the best rate you’ve scored? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? If you’ve yet to book, any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
So, how do the express deals work if you have a family of 5? I see it says something like only for 2 adults. TIA!
You are only guaranteed a King room if it says 2 adults. We learned the hard way. Disney will not add people to your room unless you book from them. You
can contact the third party site to see. We contacted Priceline to add our Mom and they faxed in a request to Disney to add her. They were not nice at all about it because the fine print is explicit. Disney only added her to the room as a late arrival at check in as a day guest so no MDE. It was a mess with no Magical Express. With the park reservation system, it might be hard to do that now. They told me I should have booked Two (2) people rooms for three people.
If you book through a third party, how are tickets and dinning reservations added? Will my dates show up in the mydisney app? For changes, do I have to go through the third party?
I am from Ohio and traveling to Disney in late September. I was able to book the B resort on the Priceline express deals that you suggested for only $54 a night. Seems like the Disney Springs area has a lot of inventory on there at the moment.
Woo hoo! After reading thisI decided to take a chance with the express deal and I snagged The Swan for the last week of August for $100 a night!
Thanks!
Just wrapped up a week at Caribbean beach and the bus transportation is atrocious. It’s only good to be at CBR when the skyliner is running, which it goes down almost every night for storms. I’d go back again this fall/winter but I would only stay some where I can walk or monorail ornstay off site and uber daily. With no EMH and FP+, there’s no reason to even stay onsite.
True!
Is it really “ a deal”? Limited hours, limited restaurants. Restrictions, restrictions, restrictions. I’d rather pay the regular rates, and get all that Disney had to offer before Covid. I won’t be going to Florida anytime soon , sadly.
I agree with you on the Swan, probably the best hotel in the theme park area (as in not the Four Seasons). If you are an AP holder, you can get a slightly better price on the Marriott website using the AP promo code “QWH”. For example, the weekend of 8/28-30, the AP code gets an all in price (including resort fees and taxes) of $312.75 and Priceline gives you an all in price of $326.96.
Whenever I go to Priceline Express and fill out the form, it takes me to the regular Priceline window with the hotel names clearly labeled – and close to rack rates.
I just checked every day from Aug 18 – Sept 17. A few times, blinded Pop showed up for $90, but clicking on it showed “Sorry no availability.” I’d stopped even looking about two weeks ago as WDW pass holder has rooms at Pop for $110 some of that time. The best deals I noticed were Cabins at Wilderness Lodge for around $250 or less (wasn’t interested but did notice it) for some of the dates I searched. Nice to know that Priceline has some inventory again.
Yes, it did that to me as well. But there was a spot below the dates I selected that said Express Deals and when I clicked on that it took me to the right page.
Why would Priceline try to outsmart users who seek ways to determine which hotels are Disney? Do they not want you to take their offers?
Priceline has to satisfy two opposing sides, the first is the customer (you and me) and the second is their supplier (the hotel owners). Priceline effectively buys the rights to sell the rooms, and they want to pay the hotel owners as little as possible for each room and be able to buy as many as they think they can sell. If they make it too obvious which offers go to which hotels, then normal bookings for the hotel owners will be cannibalized and those vendors will stop selling rooms to Priceline. Priceline only gets these rooms through cooperation with Disney and other hotel owners, and they can’t afford to piss off their only suppliers of product. It’s also probably a contractual condition of the room inventory purchase that they not disclose information which is not desired by the vendor.
thanks for the clear explanation, Will,..
With Priceline express make sure you have free airport transportation selected. Walt Disney World is the only properties that offer free airport transfer.
What should I be looking for for Disneyland deals via Priceline?
You likely won’t find onsite hotels for Disneyland (since they only have 3 hotels), but I’ve seen good discounts on great offsite hotels. I filter to the Disneyland and convention center areas to be within walking distance.
If you have another disney hotel booked and already have your fast passes, will those transfer to your new hotel booking with Priceline?
Yes. You should book and link the new reservation before canceling the previous one–just to be safe. I’ve done this numerous times.
it would be great if anyone that books on hotwire could report back what hotel they got and the distances provided to certain locations as a hint. if there is a clear “tell” in the listed distances you could book with a decent amount of certainty.
There are Disney forums out there that have threads dealing with this. I’m not sure I can mention any here but just search.
You can mention them here. (Better Bidding is also really helpful.)
I find great info on DISboards, but I’m sure there are many others.
We are coming the first week of March and haven\t got a deal yet been planning and watching for 6 mos. all deals go around our week. all before some after. What is the deal with no deal for March?
It’s probably because March is peak season. With spring break, there really is no reason for Disney to release heavily discounted rooms.
We used Hotwire recently in this type of process. I think it’s a minimal amount of people who get the WDW accommodation. We ended up in a tired old room that had seen better days. Agreed never again. It’s non refundable so you’re stuck no matter what.
Honestly, I’d feel very uneasy using Priceline for a dream vacation hotel booking at WDW. I’ve used Priceline just once to book a hotel near Disneyland for my elderly father and myself and when we showed up, the room had one double bed. Real awkward and there was no way to change it. After that, I vowed I would always know EXACTLY what I was paying for…even if I have to pay more.
Can you add the pickup and drop-off in the airport from Disney hotels booked through priceline?
Yes. You must call WDW as the online choice will not be available to you.
Thank you kindly Rhea
I tried to use lifeline but when I add in 6 people to a room since I have 4 kids it tells me they have no deals, but if i put in just 2 people it works. Ive tried different dates also. I’m going to keep trying. Thanks for article.
I may be wrong but i am pretty sure that the priceline express deals are always based on 2 people. They will not work for more people so you always have to put in 2 people to find the deals. Now you can assume that most disney resort rooms will hold 4 so you can still book but probably wont work out for you with 6 to a room. There are only a few resorts that will hold 6 to a room and they are mostly suites or one bedroom villas.
Book with the two names then call Disney with your hotel info and they will add your children to the reservation. That way everyone gets a magic band and no hang ups scanning into the park or fast passes, etc. My husband and I do this with our granddaughter.
There are very few rooms in WDW that you can have 6 people, most max at 4 (kids under 3 don’t count though, so if you have lots of littles then that will work). There are a few rooms that allow 5 (POR, CBR both have them)
Do the Priceline deals include meal plans and park tickets? If not can you buy those separately and tie them in to your room if it is on-site?
No- if you buy through Pricelineir other third party site you cannot add a meal plan
Thanks for the heads up on the latest deals. Checked with Better Bidding and got 100% confirmation.
Hoping for these type of deals on our next trip for Runaway Railway!