Very upset - Different discounts in Germany than in all other countries

[marcus.ka]

Very upset - Different discounts in Germany than in all other countries

I just had a look at the DLRP homepage for a possible trip in November. And I saw on the UK homepage that there are many 3=2 and 4=3 offers during the whole year; some are even during school holidays.

And so I entered a search for the following:
3 nights 4 days at the Sequoia Lodge in NOV mid week 2 adults

For Germany I got
692€ (2 nights and 3 days would cost 528€)

For France I got
528€ (including 1night and 1 day for free. The same price as I would have to pay as German to stay 2 nights and 3 days!)

For the UK I got
372£ (470€) (in the UK you also get the 1 night and 1 day for free and the other price difference is due to the conversion I assume)

Right after seeing this I called Disney and they said that this is true. The promotion department decided not to offer such special offers anymore. I am so upset about this. As I am from a country were they don’t have special offers anymore I have to pay 164€ more for the same stay.
This applies already for the whole year 2008. So it might have been that we would have had 1 night and 1 day free for our DLH stay in June.

I am so angry I will write them a complaint letter this weekend.
I have the feeling that they don’t interested anymore in visitors from other countries then France and the UK because now the numbers have increase from 10 to 14 million.
This is great how Disney honors guests who have been there many times. They don’t have to wonder why the number of German guests has decreased from 18% in the first year to 6% now.

 

[cap'njack.]

Wow! That's a big difference. I'd never thought that 'Rip Off Britain' would actually be cheaper for anything tbh

 

[DLPdaft]

Can't you book online with the UK site anyway?
Your confirmation will come to your email address won't it, not your postal address?

It may not be possible to do this, I honestly don't know. It was just a thought.

Elaine

 

[scampbunny]

elaine - i checked that, and it automatically fills in uk & wants ur address, so u cant change the country....

although - y it wants ur addresss i dont know?!?!?!?!

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

OMG you would think they would offer the same discounts to every country.

Is there anyone in the Uk who's address you could use? I think they only use your address if when booking over the phone you want your confirmation details posted..

 

[JC Butterfly]

OMG you would think they would offer the same discounts to every country.

Is there anyone in the Uk who's address you could use? I think they only use your address if when booking over the phone you want your confirmation details posted..

unfortunately, they also use your address to verify the charge to your credit card (to ensure no fraud) so unless you could open a credit account in the UK, probably won't work.

Disney actually does the same thing here in the U.S. Different states are offered different promotion packages to go. As an American going to DLP, it's just incredibly expensive . . . but I try not to think about the much better deal that my fellow DISers are getting. Good luck getting a response

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Thats weird because when my mum paid off the rest of my April trip on her card they never asked for her address and we live in different houses.

 

[britchic4]

That does seem very unfair Marcus. I wonder if there is any way of you booking through the French site so it would still be in euros?

 

[marcus.ka]

The CM on the phone told me that it would be possible that a friend in the UK or France could book a trip for me. But it is like JC said; this friend would also have to pay the trip. And after paying the trip the friend in the UK needs to contact Disney and asking them to change the booking for me (for example).

So you would need a real good friend to do that. Because this friend would have to pay in some cases more than 1000€ first and then he/she has to hope that the other one will pay the money back. Otherwise he/she would have a booked DLRP trip for itself.

But the main point for me is: I never thought that Disney would make such a big difference. It realy seams as if they were only interested in guests from France and the UK.

It is like Bart Simpson in the Simpsons movie said when he was waring black ears: I'm the mascot of an evil corporation.

 

[Ware Bears]

Oh Marcus, that's awful.

I realised from threads in the past that different countries had different offers at different times but I didn't realise you would be missing out altogether.

I would certainly write a letter of complaint to Disney ~ even if it doesn't make any difference you will feel a bit better for getting it off your chest.

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

The CM on the phone told me that it would be possible that a friend in the UK or France could book a trip for me. But it is like JC said; this friend would also have to pay the trip. And after paying the trip the friend in the UK needs to contact Disney and asking them to change the booking for me (for example).

So you would need a real good friend to do that. Because this friend would have to pay in some cases more than 1000€ first and then he/she has to hope that the other one will pay the money back. Otherwise he/she would have a booked DLRP trip for itself.

But the main point for me is: I never thought that Disney would make such a big difference. It realy seams as if they were only interested in guests from France and the UK.

It is like Bart Simpson in the Simpsons movie said when he was waring black ears: I'm the mascot of an evil corporation.

Could you not give your friend the deposit and then give them the money when it comes to paying it off then switch the booking over to your name?

 

[marcus.ka]

Could you not give your friend the deposit and then give them the money when it comes to paying it off then switch the booking over to your name?

For this I would need a friend in an other country who would do this. And as I said this is also a lot of stress for the "friend" as you have to contact Disney a lot to get the booking changed afterwards.

And that was not the reason I was posting this here. But isn't this cheeky that even the CM adives you to do so? And that they have such differences in the first place?

If I should book the trip I would at least get 10% Shareholders discount. But I also think of other possible German guests. And I asume that it is not only Germany. Maybe this also applies to other European countries?

 

[sjaakie]

The CM on the phone told me that it would be possible that a friend in the UK or France could book a trip for me. But it is like JC said; this friend would also have to pay the trip. And after paying the trip the friend in the UK needs to contact Disney and asking them to change the booking for me (for example).

So you would need a real good friend to do that. Because this friend would have to pay in some cases more than 1000€ first and then he/she has to hope that the other one will pay the money back. Otherwise he/she would have a booked DLRP trip for itself.

But the main point for me is: I never thought that Disney would make such a big difference. It realy seams as if they were only interested in guests from France and the UK.

Same problem here. I think its very unfair that the bookings fore the UK open weeks not to speak months before the rest of Europe can book. For the Christmas booking is start phoning first of June and then I call every day,really every single day to ask if the booking is open for us.

 

[Ware Bears]

I am amazed, I just assumed bookings would start the same day for everyone. As cap'njack said, we in the UK are so used to living in "Rip off Britain" that we just take it for granted that we always get the worst deals.

 

[britchic4]

I had no idea either that booking start dates would be different. I just can't understand why? why be so unfair? Money is money, charge everyone the same, give everyone the same chance, what difference does it make what nationality your customers are in a place as cosmopolitan as DLRP?
Could it not be seen as unfair discrimination? Aren't the European Courts of Justice quite hot on that kind of thing?!
Sorry, just realised that was quite a lot of question marks.....

 

[tennisfan]

That is unfair, although I remember watching on a program in the late 90's that it was always cheaper to book when you lived in mainland Europe & that the UK had to pay more. This must of chabged when the Euro was introduced

 

[melanie5]

Oh that really stinks, Markus!!

I just noticed that we don't live that far apart from eachother. I live near Wiesentheid (right off of the A3 after Geiselwind when you're coming from Nürnberg)

 

[giuly09]

I asked the CM when i booked our Halloween trip and he told me the offers are based on the number of people from a country that had visited DLRP the previous year and unfortunately they are not too much (or anyway not a very high number) from Italy and that's why we have not as many offers as in the UK.
We had been thinking of asking Brian's brother to book for us (he lives in Brighton) but then decided it may have been too complicated (documents would had arrived to his address and he would had had to redirect them to Italy) and anyway they could had seen we live in Italy from our documents so we didnt want to get troubles at our arrivals.
Not much we can do about it i think, it's just their commercial policy.

 

[ElenaP]

I asked the CM when i booked our Halloween trip and he told me the offers are based on the number of people from a country that had visited DLRP the previous year and unfortunately they are not too much (or anyway not a very high number) from Italy and that's why we have not as many offers as in the UK.

Another Italian here... the problem is, the less offers are available to a country, the less people from that country will go to DLRP. As Markus (I think) wrote, Germany attendance to the resort has dropped hugely in the last few years, in parallel with less and less specials being offered.
I think I read last year that Spain was the object of a marketing campaign, including ads and offers, to raise their attendance: it makes much more sense to me!!

 

[marcus.ka]

Although it would not make sence to me this could realy be the reason why they only offer such special offers to France and the UK. Would be interesting to know if you get free nights if you live in Spain.

But what is this for a kind of logic? If the numbers from one country go down they reduce the special offers. They should do it the other way around to get these visitors back. Make more special offers.
And they should start thinking why the numbers for some country go down. And not "punish" these countries by reducing the special offers.

This may work on a private basis like -The more one person buys in one store the higher the reduction can be.
But this will not work with quests from one country. Because these guests don't know that there would be more offers if more people would visit the resort.

Eurodisney should look for more clever people to work in their promotion department.

Or is my thinking wrong?