Last year, NBA star LeBron James made headlines when he stated his refusal to stay at the Trump SoHo hotel when in New York City with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Soon the hotel will be dropping Trump’s name because it turned out a lot of other people and wealthy organizations decided to follow in James’ foosteps—and the hotel is just not nearly as profitable as it used to be.
In short: the Trump name has the opposite of the Midas touch.
The New York Times reports:
The Trump Organization, which operates the 46-story building, announced on Tuesday that because of faltering business, it had reached a deal with the hotel’s owner, the CIM group, to excise the Trump name from the hotel. By as soon as the end of next month, the association with the president may be gone.
The building, which includes condominium apartments, has lost revenue, shuttered restaurants and slashed prices as the professional sports teams and corporate guests who were its mainstays checked out and never returned, according to hotel staff, shedding more guests with each controversy involving the White House.
It’s been a rough year for the hotel. It turns out bearing the name of a man who bragged about sexual assault, is a Nazi sympathizer, hired a white nationalist, and enters Twitter feuds like a teenager wasn’t good for business.
After LeBron James publicly refused to stay at the hotel last year, the corporate clients and 20 or so sports teams that had been regular guests almost entirely disappeared, the staff member said. Porters whose base salaries were once buoyed by up to $60,000 a year in gratuities have earned half as much in tips.
Many employees, some of whom are immigrants from countries targeted by Mr. Trump’s policies, quit, the staff member said.
The hotel could change its name as soon as next month.