How Many Square Feet in a Square Foot?

By Dave Shute

OVERVIEW

This page tries to make the square foot numbers associated with Walt Disney World Resorts more understandable and comparable.

HOW LONG IS A SQUARE FOOT? 

The different resort classes all have different sizes:

• The value resorts—Art of Animation, Pop Century and the All Stars—are 260 square feet
• The moderate resorts are 314 square feet, and
• The deluxes vary from 344 square feet at the Wilderness Lodge and the Animal Kingdom Lodge to 440 square feet at the Grand Floridian.

Most of us, however, have no idea what this means.

• First, most of us don’t normally think in squared dimensions—we think in linear distances, not areas.
• Second, we don’t usually whip out our tape measures and size up our hotel rooms, so we don’t have a comparison readily at hand for how much difference there really is between 314 square feet at the Caribbean Beach Beach (at $204 on a weekday night in the 2015 Fall price season) and 344 square feet for $367 at the Wilderness Lodge those same nights.
• Finally, most of us lump all these square feet together—but hotel designers know that bedroom square feet make much more of a difference in the livability of a room than the remaining components of square feet (which are the bathroom, and also the access area from the interior corridor to the bedroom, if the hotel has interior corridors), because your family spends much more time in the bedroom area.

HOW WIDE IS A SQUARE FOOT?

See below three thumbnails which show total and bedroom square feet for most Disney World Resorts and a few comparisons from across the country.

In addition, the second and third images are illuminated by vertical lines showing industry standard* sizes of bedroom and total space by price class.

The first image (click to open; when open, click again to enlarge) shows some summary information, with these takeaways:

• The bedroom spaces at the moderate resorts are actually larger than those at the Wilderness Lodge and the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and comparable to the bedroom spaces in the Yacht Club and Beach Club.
• The bedrooms fall out this way despite (sometimes) big differences in total square feet because so many square feet in the deluxes are used in the “hallway” between the exterior corridor and the bedroom space—up to 60 square feet.
• The value resorts are bigger than a Super 8, the moderate resorts comparable to a Holiday Inn or Best Western, and the Deluxes are not all comparable to a luxury hotel.

The second image suggests that

• On total square feet, the value resorts exceed “Budget” standards,
• The  moderate resorts are just about right on “Mid-Price” standards,
• The Wilderness Lodge and the Animal Kingdom Lodge fall about halfway between “Mid-Price” and “Upscale,” and
• None of the depicted resorts gets enough above “Upscale” to cross the line into “Luxury.”

The final image focuses on bedroom sizes.

All Disney resorts exceed the “Budget” standard, and most fall into the “Mid-Price” standard, with the exceptions of the  Polynesian and Grand Floridian, both of which exceed “Upscale,” and come close to “Luxury.”

Most important takeway?  The moderate resorts are a great deal from a square foot livability point of view–but I still don’t recommend them for your first family visit.  See Where Not to Stay for why.

* Source: From Rutes, Penner, Adams, Hotel Design (2001) p.270

MORE ON WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• For where to stay, see this
  • For your next best choices, in order, see this
  • For picking your resort based on appeal to kids, see this
  • For picking your resort based on convenience, see this
  • For where not to stay, see this

• For what you get in each resort price category, see this
  • For Walt Disney World resort price seasons, see this
  • For resort reviews, see this
  • For the value resorts, see this
  • For the moderate resorts, see this
  • For the deluxe resorts, see this
  • For suites at the deluxe resorts, see this
  • For the Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) Resorts, see this

• For a (geeky) overview of comparative room size, see this

• Large families should look at this, and also at
  • Large Families Looking for Value Pricing at Walt Disney World
  • Large Families Looking for Deluxe Accommodations at Disney World
  • Beds and Sleeping Spaces at the Walt Disney World Resorts
  • Renting Disney Vacation Club Points
  • Suites at Walt Disney World

• Military/DOD families should look at this

• Tightwads should look at this

• Families seeking the most comfortable place to stay should see this