Makes sense. Why else would Universal hand over all that potential money that the original three Hotels use to attract guests, namely unlimited Hotel Express. If there was no Hotel Express, I'd guess the rates the deluxe hotels (Portofino, Hard Rock, and Royal Pacific) can demand, would be considerably less. Definitely Universal was in the lesser role back then...............Note to new posters; Hard Rock three way owned. Loews only puts their high end hotel brand name on the top hotels but manages all the others, not using their name.