Disney hotels discount on Priceline.com to shore up sales

Walt Disney World is marking down its rooms. For the first time ever, the resort has grudgingly agreed to offer its Disney-owned hotel room on the discount site Priceline.com. Starting in mid-November, Mickey Mouse can be had at a deeper discount than before.

While Disney has sold its theme park tickets on Priceline for about four years now (and not at a deep markdown), it held off on expanding its nearly two dozen high-dollar hotels -- such as the Polynesian Resort, the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and the Beach Club -- to the site. Priceline, which offers both standard booking engine results and blind name-your-own-price bidding services, is a budget traveler's friend, but the perception of bottom-scraping discounts chafes against the premium image Disney strives to cultivate for itself.