Not going to compare to disneyland, but compared to many other religious places, for example, there is no way to donate money for the cause of Hajj anywhere in Mecca or Medina. The government does not ask for your money, nor does it encourage you to donate money at the mosques. Say what you want about the Saudis, Hajj is not seen from a pure profitability standpoint as far as I can see.

Confused: who is staying in those hotels? They are free? The food is free? The travel? In one breath we hear how folks spend their life savings, and in the next that it is all a charity. Something isn't adding up.

The hotels are definitely not free. It's there to cater to the wealthy while the rest toil away in the heat.

The Saudis destroyed many sites associated with the early history of Islam to make those expansions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_early_Islamic_h...).

It's rather unfortunate that Mecca is in Saudi Arabia as it gives them free reign to preach their Salafi/Wahabi ideologies and no one else.

I come from a Shia family and many of my relatives who have gone to pilgrimage and complained of abuse by the religious police there for being in a different sect.

Hajj visas are very restrictive. You aren't allowed to go anywhere except Mecca and Medina, and you're only allowed to stay for the length of hajj plus a few days extra for travel. And many of the people who go to hajj have spent their life's savings just to get there. So not a lot of foreign money is flowing, at least not compared to those other places.

Foreign == non-Muslim? Because somebody is staying in those hotels and its not locals, right?

Pretty sure they're aimed at the wealthier muslims who don't want to stay in crude and overcrowded camps, not at non muslims.

if you are a non muslim it is illegal to enter mecca under saudi law.