Disneyland Area / Anaheim Hotel Discounts

There are lots of hotels near Disneyland, and it’s not hard to find Anaheim hotel discounts. The Disneyland area is quite compact, with many off-site hotels located within easy walking distance or a very short shuttle ride away from the theme parks.

Some of the off-site hotels offer accommodations nearly as good as the “official” on-site Disneyland hotels. (Bear in mind that Disneyland Hotel and Disney’s Pixar Place are both renovated 60’s high-rises — and Pixar Place was not even originally a Disney hotel.)

Interesting fact: some off-site Anaheim hotels are just as close to the Disneyland/Disney California Adventure entrance plaza as the Disney resorts! For instance, Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel and Water Playground is almost exactly the same distance from the center of the plaza as one of the buildings at the Disneyland Hotel.

When booking an offsite hotel be sure to check on the actual location of the hotel instead of just relying on the hotel’s name. Often the name has “Anaheim” or “Disneyland” in it, but the hotel is really located 25 miles and two towns away. Those that are actually in Anaheim will usually (but not always) be closest to Disneyland. Hotels in the cities of Buena Park, Garden Grove and Orange are also fairly near Disneyland and in a few cases, due to city boundaries, might be closer than certain Anaheim hotels.

Okay — assume you’ve narrowed down your choices. Now how do you get the best Anaheim Hotel discounts? Read on…

• Shop Around Online
• AAA Rates
• AARP Rates
• Government Discounts
• Military Discounts
• Priceline Express Deals
• Hotwire Hot Rates
• Flight + Hotel Package Deals
• Beach Add-On

Shop Around Online

There are lots of useful websites to try for discounts. When searching these sites, be sure to use Anaheim, CA if you want to be closest to Disneyland. Parts of Buena Park, Fullerton, Garden Grove and Orange are also close to Disneyland — in some cases, closer than parts of Anaheim, so check a map.

Jump to:

• aRes Travel
• Expedia and Travelocity
• Priceline and Booking.com
• Hotel Websites
• Independently Owned Hotels

aRes Travel

A great resource for promotional Disneyland-area hotel rates is aRes Travel, which specializes in Southern California hotels. aRes Travel is actually located in Southern California and offers reservations for most of the local hotels. You can book online with them, or call and speak with an actual person at (800) 680-0977.

aRes Travel does not charge a service fee for most reservations, though a few select hotels that offer “Special Web Rates” may incur a small per-night fee. In many cases you will find that aRes Travel beats the top online agencies like Expedia and Travelocity.

If you book online, be sure to read the specific terms of the deal you pick (select “View Terms”) before finalizing your booking with aRes Travel. Most reservations have a 72-hour cancellation policy, but some hotel deals require full prepayment. Some of the offers on the site incur a $25 cancellation fee and some require a nonrefundable deposit.

Expedia and Travelocity

Two good sites to check out for hotel deals are Expedia and Travelocity. Travelocity is actually owned by Expedia, but the two sites will sometimes list different deals, so it’s worth checking both sites if you have the time.

Expedia also owns Hotwire, and while their regular rates are seldom any different from Expedia, they do offer their special “Hotwire Hot Rates” program (covered below) where you don’t know the name of the hotel when you book, but can sometimes score a really good deal. (Expedia also owns many other sites, including Orbitz & CheapTickets, but we very rarely see them offer anything better than the “big two.”). 

These sites may charge a service fee on your reservation, and they sometimes require full payment or a substantial deposit in advance. Be sure to read ALL the small print as you make your reservation (which may require you to select a link that says “terms and conditions” or something similar) so that you are clear on any cancellation and change fees.

Priceline and Booking.com

The other huge internet travel behemoth (besides Expedia) is Priceline, which also owns Booking.com. Overall, we prefer the interface of Booking.com, but Priceline does have their Express Deals (covered in more detail below). Both sites are worth checking for deals and offers, but be aware that, like nearly all online travel agencies, they will sometimes add miscellaneous “fees” at the very end of the checkout process, and they may have cancellation fees and conditions over and above the hotel’s own policies. Be sure to read the fine print carefully.

Hotel Websites

Sometimes there are good offers directly through the hotels’ own websites. Check for hotels located in Anaheim, but be sure to actually map the address. There are plenty of hotels that have “maingate” or something similar in their name that are miles away from Disneyland. There are even hotels with “Anaheim” in their name that are located in Garden Grove or another neighboring city.

If you are a member of a specific loyalty program, you probably want to search across all of that hotel company’s brands. For example, Hilton owns DoubleTree, Embassy Suites, Hampton, etc. Here are links to the overall parent company websites where you can search their whole portfolio:

• Hilton Hotels (DoubleTree, Embassy Suites, Hampton, Homewood Suites)
• Marriott Hotels (Westin, Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, Courtyard, Fairfield, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, TownePlace Suites)
• Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) (Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites)
• Choice Hotels (Clarion, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites)
• Wyndham Hotel Group (Howard Johnson, Ramada, La Quinta, Super 8, Travelodge)

If you like a specific chain, you can go straight to any of the major hotel chains websites, listed below. For convenience, we list the parent company or affiliated loyalty program in parentheses where it’s not already part of the hotel name:

Independently Owned Hotels

There are many independently-owned hotels around Disneyland. Most were built in the 1960s and have exterior motel-style corridors. The quality varies widely, but some are pretty nice.

A good way to compare prices on the independents is to see what kind of deal the hotel is offering on its own site (you can find the hotel’s site through a search engine like Google). Then go to aRes Travel, Expedia and Travelocity and see if they have rooms for the same hotel at a better price — amazingly enough, these third-party sites do beat the hotels’ own websites fairly frequently.

AAA Rates

The majority of major hotel chains (and many independently-owned hotels) offer American Automobile Association (AAA) discounts, which can give you significant savings. (Generally the same rates are offered for the Canadian equivalent, CAA.) If you are a member, always look for the AAA rate when checking online, or ask when calling for reservations.

AARP Rates

Many hotels offer very attractive discounts to members of AARP (American Association of Retired Persons). They imply that you have to be 50 to join, but in fact anyone can join, and you don’t even have to be retired. Membership in AARP is very inexpensive and might pay for itself in one night’s stay!

Government Discounts

If you are a government employee (local, county, state or federal), you should always ask if there is a government discount (be sure to carry your ID with you and have it available at check-in). Many contractors to government agencies also qualify. Most of the major hotel chains offer government rates, though you may have to call the hotel directly, since these rates don’t show up on most of the hotel websites. Thanks to ClaymoH for the info.

Military Discounts

If you are active duty or retired military, you should always ask if there is a military discount (be sure to carry your ID with you and have it available at check-in). Often the military discounts are among the best offered by hotels. Most of the major hotel chains offer military rates, though you may have to call the hotel directly, since these rates don’t show up on most of the hotel websites. Thanks to John G for the tip.

Priceline Express Deals

Priceline, once best known for letting you “bid” on hotel rooms, now is primarily known for offering special deals via their “Express Deals”.  With Express Deals, they offer special deal on hotels without telling you which specific hotels they’re offering. Some Express Deals bookings can be great deals, but be wary – sometimes they’ll put hotels in the Express Deals set at a price that’s not significantly lower than the regular price. Our advice is to only book Express Deals when you have high confidence that the price you’re paying is well below what you’d pay for the cheapest hotel that fits the criteria you’ve specified.

Priceline will tell you some things about the property, but not enough to make it easy to figure out what specific hotel it is. You’ll know the area it’s in, some of the major amenities (with some removed to make things trickier) and roughly how many “stars” it is rated. Keep in mind that “stars” is not some kind of industry standard system, and what Priceline considers “4 stars” may not match what you, or AAA or some other rating guide would consider a 4-star property.

Disney’s own resorts show up on Priceline’s Express Deals from time to time, but very rarely. And you should know that there are a lot of cheap motels in Anaheim, many with lofty descriptions, but tacky, worn-out rooms. We offer the following tips to maximize your chances of getting something reasonable:

• Use the filters they provide to limit yourself to 3, 4 or 5 stars, then select only from hotels rated 3.5 stars or higher. Some of the hotels that Priceline calls “3 star” are not great and the 2-star properties are pretty much all cheap motels. There are still a few mediocre-to-bad hotels at the 3.5+ star range, but the odds are much better.
• Limit your search to just the few areas nearest Disneyland listed below. You’ll be closer driving distance from the parks, and the areas mentioned have the highest proportion of decent hotels:
  • Disneyland: this is almost entirely hotels within a block of Disneyland resort. Some of them may be “across the street” but not really near the entrance, so there still could be a decent walk (10-15 minutes), or you might need to use Lyft or Anaheim Resort Transportation to get to the parks.
  • Disneyland – Convention Center: this area is south of the parks and stretches all the way down into Garden Grove. The southernmost hotels in this area are too far from the parks to walk, so you might want to budget for Lyft or Anaheim Resort Transportation to get to you to and from the parks.

• Remember that what specific hotel you get is really impossible to reliably predict. There are a variety of tools out there that try to figure out what hotel you’re getting, and we’re here to tell you none of them work reliably. The list of  hotels is constantly changing, and Priceline is constantly changing the way they present each hotel to foil predictions. Do not use this service unless you’re prepared to get the least desirable hotel in that category and area.

Hotwire Hot Rates

Hotwire has a Hot Rates feature which is similar to Priceline Express Deals in that you don’t get to choose the exact hotel (you choose the rough location and the star rating), and the room is sold on a “no refunds, no exchanges” basis. Just do a search on Hotwire, and the Hot Rates hotels will show up mixed in with some number of named hotels.

Hotwire gives you a list of prices for unnamed hotels in various star categories (i.e. a 5-star hotel will be a luxury resort, while a 1-star will be a low-end motel) and with specific amenities. At that point you can choose to accept or reject the offered price for a hotel that has a rating and amenities you want. Once you have accepted the price, you are charged in full. It is only at that point that you’re told the hotel name. There are no refunds or exchanges. Keep in mind that “stars” is not some kind of industry standard system, and what Hotwire considers “4 stars” may not match what you, or AAA or some other rating guide would consider a 4 star property.

Disney’s own resorts show up on Hotwire’s Hot Rates from time to time, but very rarely. And you should know that there are a lot of cheap motels in Anaheim, many with lofty descriptions, but tacky, worn-out rooms. We offer the following tips to maximize your chances of getting something reasonable:

• Use the filters they provide to limit yourself to 3, 4 or 5 stars, then select only from hotels rated 3.5 stars or higher. Some of the hotels that Hotwire calls “3 star” are not great and the 2-star properties are pretty much all cheap motels. There are still a few mediocre-to-bad hotels at the 3.5+ star range, but the odds are much better.
• Limit your search to just the few areas nearest Disneyland listed below. You’ll be closer driving distance from the parks, and the areas mentioned have the highest proportion of decent hotels:
  • Anaheim Disneyland Maingate: this is almost entirely hotels within 2-3 blocks of Disneyland resort. Some of them may be “across the street” but not really near the entrance, so there still could be a decent walk (10-20 minutes), or you might need to use Lyft or Anaheim Resort Transportation to get to the parks.
  • Anaheim Convention Center: this area is south of the parks. The southernmost hotels in this area are a pretty long walk to the parks (20-30 minutes), so you might want to budget for Lyft or Anaheim Resort Transportation to get to you to and from the parks.

• Remember that what specific hotel you get is really impossible to reliably predict. There are a variety of tools out there that try to figure out what hotel you’re getting, and we’re here to tell you none of them work reliably. The list of  hotels is constantly changing, and Hotwire is constantly changing the way they present each hotel to foil predictions. Do not use this service unless you’re prepared to get the least desirable hotel in that category and area.

Flight + Hotel Package Deals

If you need both airfare and hotel accommodations, there are some good resources for booking a cheap vacation package that includes both. Note that most of them offer the best deals fairly last-minute (typically 2 weeks to 4 months in advance). If you are booking really late (3 weeks or less before your departure date) these are especially worthwhile, because sometimes you can buy an entire package (airfare and hotel) for LESS than it would cost to book a last-minute airfare alone!

Learn more about the best places to find deals on these packages.

Beach Add-on

We’re frequently asked about the best beach near Disneyland. For those who are visiting Southern California and want to add a beach visit to their Disneyland trip, we recommend a short stay at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach.

Huntington Beach is one of our favorite Southern California beaches. We might be a little biased because some of us (Don and his sister, MouseSavers.com founder Mary Waring) spent a lot of our childhood there, but it really is a fun beach, and it’s located an easy drive from Disneyland.

The Hyatt Regency is a fabulous luxury hotel with a great kids’ program called Camp Hyatt, and it is right at the beach. In fact, Disney uses the Hyatt for its “Southern California Vacation Package” Beach Hotel option for Disneyland packages. (If you’re interested in booking that package, consult a Disney Specialist travel agent.)