Republican groups and foreign governments have been doing their best to send profits Donald Trump’s way by booking events at his hotels and golf courses. But, outside of Washington, D.C., that’s not always enough to overcome the drag Trump’s behavior is putting on his businesses. The Washington Post reports that the Trump Doral National Miami saw a whopping 69% drop in its net operating income from 2015 to 2017—because the Trump name is toxic.
Doral is not some minor Trump property. It’s a 643-room resort with a famous golf course that, until Trump made it toxic for sponsors, hosted a major golf tournament. It’s been Trump’s biggest moneymaker, according to federal financial disclosures … but “They are severely underperforming,” a Trump Organization tax consultant told Miami-Dade County in a (successful) bid to lower Doral’s taxes. And that underperformance is because “There is some negative connotation that is associated with the brand.”
The Trump Organization claimed, with typical bluster, that everything is just great at Doral and that, if the resort is suffering, it’s because of Zika and hurricanes. No explanation was offered for why Doral is doing worse than its competitors in the area. Even after it reduced room rates, Doral’s 2017 occupancy rate was 53%. Its competitors boasted a 77% occupancy rate.
”Profitability is down across the board,” an outside analyst told The Washington Post after reviewing the information the Trump Organization provided Miami-Dade County. And it’s not just Doral. While some Trump properties—especially the ones that don’t have his name on them—are still doing very well, his Chicago hotel has seen a drop in average daily rates and revenue per available room, even as both those measures rose for its Chicago competitors. “Among the hotel community in Chicago, everyone is aware of the relative underperformance of the Trump hotel over the last two to three years,” the analyst told the Post.