Universal Studios Hollywood May Finally Be Getting Something It Desperately Needs

While Universal Studios Hollywood is one of the most unique theme parks in the world, due to its location directly adjacent to an actual movie studio, allowing for the iconic Universal Studio Tour, it’s a part that is frequently overlooked due to its smaller scale when compared to Disney, or even its sister location the Universal Orlando Resort. It’s certainly true that USH doesn’t have a lot of those things those larger locations have, but there’s evidence the park is looking to remedy some of that, as it may be on the verge of building its own resort hotel. 

The evidence comes from YouTuber Theme Park Wizard who posted an image to Twitter that showed building permits recently submitted by Universal Studios Hollywood. Among the permits for what appears to be for the demolition of existing Universal Studios buildings from recently closed attractions in order to build the as-yet unconfirmed Fast & Furious roller coaster, is one that appears to be in regard to an 11-story hotel.

While there are several hotels very close to Universal Studios Hollywood, including some that have Universal in their name, they are all independently operated by other hotel chains and are not actually on the property of Universal Studios. There have been rumors that at least one, and possibly more, hotels may have been coming to the theme park and this would seem to indicate that these plans are very much a reality.

If there’s one thing that Universal Studios Hollywood actually needs more than a Fast & Furious roller coaster, it’s an actual hotel on the property. It’s the thing standing between USH being a theme park and being an actual resort like Universal Orlando or even Disneyland. Universal Hollywood has always struggled with space due to being located in the middle of Universal City and next to the motion picture studio, so it hasn’t had the space that other resorts have to expand and build hotels, but it has always found the space it needs. It knocked down a couple of sound stages to build the recently opened Super Nintendo World.

It may seem like a small detail but a resort hotel would completely change how a lot of potential guests view Universal Studios Hollywood. When you’re staying on property at a theme park the hotel feels like part of your experience, not simply a place you’re staying in between days at the park. It would give guests reasons to spend more time in the park, as well as an opportunity to create one or more higher-end restaurants, something else that, in this writer’s opinion, USH could also use. 

Universal Orlando Resort has several resort hotels on the property. Some of them are high end and some have surprisingly entry-level price points like the most recently opened, Dockside Inn & Suites but even those at the lower end of the price spectrum are quite comfortable, so what Universal Creative helps design at USH could be quite spectacular. 

Now we’ll just need to wait to see just what sort of a hotel we get. Of course, knowing Universal’s history with actually announcing new projects, the hotel could be mostly done being built before anybody actually admits it’s going to exist.