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Disney discovers peak pricing

Feb 29th 2016, 13:06 BY S.K. | LONDON

ACCORDING to an article published in Bloomberg, on February 28th Disney introduced “surge pricing” to its theme parks. Now, when I think of surge pricing, I think of an annoying little screen that appears on my smartphone making sure that I’m happy to pay 6x the normal fare for my cab home. Conditional on having opened the app, my demand for taxis is insensitive enough that I’ll almost always click the ‘Fine, rinse me’ button.

One thing comforts me as the slow-moving traffic burns a hole in my bank balance: at least the higher fare might have encouraged my fine chauffeur on to the road. Uber, the master of surge pricing (they have been trying to patent it since 2013) claims that is the benefit of surge pricing: it equilibrates supply and demand. A study last year that they published showed that when their surge pricing mechanism broke, waiting times exploded and the rate of fulfilled rider requests plummeted.

So what might surge pricing for Disney look like? When queues are long, ride prices rise, encouraging Disney employees to switch on even more rides…? Some sort of dynamic pricing system for the park, where ticket prices rise and fall depending on demand for that day?

Not quite. This surge pricing that Disney is implementing (today) is not actually surge pricing. First, because there is no clear mechanism for supply to increase in response to price. More taxi drivers can flood on to the streets in response to a price rise, but Disney will struggle to offer more park. Second, because the price changes will be nowhere near as dynamic. Prices will be higher at certain times of the year, but parents will not arrive at the gates of Animal Kingdom to find that a glimpse of the massive artificial tree has doubled in price since they left the house.

Instead, what Disney world is doing is old-fashioned price discrimination. In summertime, when the living is easy and children need entertaining, demand is high, and relatively insensitive to price. A sensible monopolist (sort of—though if you want to argue that Disney world faces perfect competition then be my guest) should try to tap those willing to pay through the nose during peak times, and coax in the cheapos when it’s quieter. Discouraging the crowds in peak hours should improve the visitor experience, by smoothing visitor numbers.

It is somewhat extraordinary that Disney was not already doing this—the idea is not a new one. Cinemas offer cut-price tickets in the middle of the day, airlines offer cheaper seats with less leg room and flying at ungodly hours—surely it cannot just have occurred to Disney to charge more when more people want to go? (Apparently accommodation does get pricier during peak times.)

Disney is not alone. The Bloomberg article reports that Universal Studios Hollywood introduced a system earlier this month that “allows savings of as much as $20 off on non-peak days, compared with the standard $95 admission.” Earlier this month.

There is a chance that the themeparks were contributing towards a public good—by having the same price all year round, there is less of an incentive to take children out of school in search of a cheaper holiday. The change is a disaster for people who particularly hate queuing and who previously could avoid the crowds by going at ‘off-peak’ times. Or it could be that someone up high thought it would be unfair to charge different prices for what some would see as the same product. All other explanations welcome.

迪士尼推出尖峰訂價？

作者：黃維德編譯 2016-03-02 Web Only

彭博的文章指出，迪士尼開始在主題樂園採用「動態訂價」（surge pricing）。迪士尼的動態定價是什麼樣子呢？是遊樂設施大排長龍的之時，搭乘價格會隨之上揚，鼓勵員工開啟更多設施嗎？還是某種動態價格系統，依照遊客人數升降票價？

目前迪士尼採行的動態訂價，其實不是真正的動態訂價。

首先，迪士尼並沒有明確的機制，可以讓供給隨著價格增加；費用上升可以讓更多計程車駕駛上路載客，但迪士尼恐怕沒有辦法在尖峰時段多開幾座樂園。

其二，迪士尼的動態訂價實在算不上是動態訂價；票價會在特定期間比較高，但家長不會在到達樂園門口之時，赫然發現票價已經比出門時高了一倍。

反之，迪士尼使用的是傳統的差異訂價策略。夏季的需求高，遊客也對價格變動較不敏感；像迪士尼這樣的獨佔供應商，自然會利用旺季挑出那些願意支付高價的顧客，並在淡季以低價吸引想撿便宜的顧客。讓顧客避開旺季，還能減低遊客人數的波動幅度，進而改善遊園體驗。

迪士尼一直到現在才採行此策略，其實讓人有些驚訝。

差異訂價策略並非新鮮事，例如，電影院有早場特價，航空公司也會在冷門時段的提供低廉的機票。迪士尼樂園裡的飲食價格會在旺季之時調漲，因此，迪士尼想必不是最近才發現這樣的策略。

或許，迪士尼決定全年票價相同，是為了避免鼓勵家長為了省錢，選擇在學期間向學校請假、帶小孩出遊；也有可能是迪士尼高層認為，不該針對相同的商品訂定不同的價格。