The hotel business will always be a challenging one, regardless of whether your founder happens to be the 45th President of the United States or not. Whether the Trump Hotels company can continue its focus on domestic growth, while avoiding the many conflicts of interest and challenges that arise in this unprecedented situation, we'll have to wait and see.
We're calling 2017 as the year when loyalty becomes an even bigger focus for hotels, if it isn't already. Why? Because there's no better time than now to try to capture a consumer's loyalty, or to engage with them, even if the landscape is becoming a lot more competitive, and consumers, overall, aren't quite as "loyal" as they used to be.
You'd think having a hotelier in the White House would be a good thing for the hotel industry, but Trump's protectionist and xenophobic immigration and visa policies have the potential do much more harm than good, not only for his own hotel business but that of his peers, too.
If only there was an electoral college of polls here, maybe Trump could win this contest despite a majority of people voting against his hotel brand. Luckily for him, he has a new job to fall back on.
The Trump brand has definitely felt some kind of impact from Donald Trump's presidential campaign. What's unclear is how mild or severe that impact has been for foot traffic and guest stays as recent foot traffic is up for some properties compared to foot traffic before the campaign began, according to Foursquare data.
Mixing politics and business is rarely a great idea and it is becoming clear that the Trump brand is taking a hit across the U.S., in both Democrat and Republican-leaning areas, from Donald Trump's presidential campaign.