Remodelers’ Fairy Dust Will Give Disneyland Hotel a Brand New Look

There won’t be any Mickey Mouse faucets, but the soon-to-be remodeled Disneyland Hotel could include just about anything else.

On Tuesday, Disneyland Hotel officials confirmed plans for an extensive remodeling that will modernize the 33-year-old facility at a cost estimated by a competitor to be $30 million.

Hotel executives would only acknowledge that the remake will cost “tens of millions” of dollars before the 1,174-room facility has a completely new look.

The renovation marks the first of what could become three phases of remodeling and possible expansion, said Michael A. Bullis, vice president and general manager of the Anaheim hotel.

The hotel will begin its renovation next year with its three towers of guest rooms. Work will be confined to three floors--or 100 rooms--at a time, allowing the hotel to stay open.

The 130,000-square-foot Convention Center will also be remodeled. That includes the exhibit halls, meeting rooms and ballrooms, which will get complete face-lifts, including new carpet to replace the drab red fabric outside their doors. And the front lobby will get a fresh look--with granite and hardwood replacing dated red and orange Formica counters.

The plans could also include designing floors or buildings around different themes--with parts of California as the focus, for instance, said Bob Small, executive vice president for resorts with Florida--based Walt Disney Attractions.

And the hotel’s oldest facilities, known as villas, could be transformed into suites--larger rooms with kitchen areas--if that part of the project receives the final nod from Disney, Small said. The hotel’s interior and employee facilities will also be remodeled.

The renovation should be completed within 2 years.

The first phase will upgrade the hotel without increasing its size. The second and third phases of the renovation, if approved, could encompass expansion of the hotel and possibly the surrounding area.

The hotel’s renovation comes none too soon. The facility has been showing its age in recent years, and in late 1987 was downgraded to a Three Diamond rating (from four) by the American Automobile Assn.

Part of the problem was that the hotel’s former owner, Wrather Corp., did little to upgrade the hotel. Wrather “really didn’t have the money to put back into it,” Bullis said.

But all that changed when Walt Disney Co. bought Wrather in January, giving Disney acres of land for a possible expansion of its Magic Kingdom.

Despite its dated appearance, the Disneyland Hotel hasn’t been suffering. It has an annual volume of about $70 million, according to Lodging Hospitality, a trade publication. Occupancy runs about 15% higher than the average in the Anaheim area, Bullis said.

Laventhol & Horwath, a Costa Mesa accounting firm, estimates that large hotels in the Disneyland area will see 1988 occupancies of 70 to 75%. That means Disneyland Hotel’s occupancy could exceed 85%.