The two hotels that everyone speculated would be Disney operated hotels at the Anaheim Gardenwalk were announced today. Only no one would say if the hotels would in fact be operated by Disney. That seems to be the general consensus, however.
If Disney does operate these two locations, it would be a reversal of roles for the mouse. Normally they lease Disney properties to other vendors who then have their own hotels on Disney property (Pan Pacific Hotel and the Original Disneyland Hotel come to mind). In Orlando they’re going one step farther and actually selling off bits of the Disney World resort to outside companies.
Disneyland could certainly use the extra hotels rooms, and I’d hate to see them use the remaining parts of the Timon, Simba, or Pumbaa parking lots for non-theme park related activities. So this looks to be a very good opportunity for the Disneyland Resort to capitalize on some extra rooms and keeping more guests inside the Disney-envelope while doing it.