In a one of a few Mother Jones stories written about Trump's Washington D.C. hotel from Sept 9 of this year they said
On Monday, Donald Trump's newest hotel, located in the iconic Old Post Office Pavilion a few blocks from the White House, will open for business. But there already are signs that the $200 million project could face trouble achieving financial success—and that Trump family claims about the project were not accurate.
(all emphasis is mine)
Now from an October 13 article in NY Magazine comes confirmation -Trumps's DC Hotel Shows As Polls Sink So Does His Brand.
This tweet is included in the article-
xEvery single @realDonaldTrump hotel and golf course is toast. Done. Over. Bernie Madoff now has a better brand.
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) October 8, 2016Plenty of issues have plagued the project since the beginning of his catastrophic candidacy, but as they point out and as Mother Jones pointed out on more than one occasion, many of the problems arose well before this mess.
Some of the issues even predate Trump’s presidential campaign: When the government inked a 60-year, $200 million lease with Trump in 2012, rival hoteliers took the unusual step of warning Uncle Sam that the deal could turn into yet another Trump business failure.
Those warnings look increasingly prophetic. While the break-even rate on the hotel rooms is more than $750 a night, by some estimates last weekend rooms could be had for under $500 per night — at a time when rival hotels were sold out weeks ahead of time. In his bid to win the lease, Trump promised to offer luxurious suites to lure business execs and diplomats, but many of the international elite appear to be avoiding it.
[...]
“You don’t see taxis stopping by like they do at the Marriott or the Willard, which are nearby,” says Pena, who works in the area. “It’s dark. There is no feeling of hospitality.” Locals aren’t eating at the restaurant for lunch either, she says.
“It’s a shame that it is called Trump because it’s a beautiful property. But overall, his brand is hurting,” the travel agent adds.
This was noted in previous articles but didn’t get too much attention-
Trump won his lease from the General Services Administration with a bid $60 million higher than competitors like Hilton Hotels, Hyatt, and Marriott, all of whom complained to the GSA that his plan was uneconomic and would lead to another failed effort to renovate the property. The room revenues required to make the Trump bid work “are simply not attainable in this location based on the concepts for the redevelopment,” lawyers for Hilton told the government.
In their April 16, 2012, letter to the GSA protesting the acceptance of Trump’s bid, Hilton’s lawyers warned that the government was setting itself up for a “devastating failure for the historical landmark with a business partner whose history of repeated failure demonstrates that it cannot be counted on to deliver what it promises.” Eighteen pages of the letter detailed Trump’s business failures and lawsuits against him.Trump was forced to put more than $40 million of his own money into the deal after his first business partner, private equity firm Colony Capital, backed out. Deutsche Bank, the troubled German bank, is putting up $170 million for the project.
and just to add this phenomenal disaster
New York has also learned of allegations that the hotel is breaking labor laws by forcing some employees to speak English only, which the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission considers illegal discrimination. Hotel managers are forcing some workers whose native tongue is not English to speak English at all times, even in casual conversations among themselves, says Brent Wilkes, executive director of the Hispanic advocacy group LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens).
The Mother Jones article linked above discusses the problems his hateful speech has created regarding contracts he had for two high-end restaurants he intended to feature
He had originally signed up two celebrity chefs, José Andrés and Geoffrey Zakarian, to open highly anticipated restaurants in the hotel. Then Trump launched his presidential bid by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, and both restaurateurs backed out. Trump is now suing each of them.
The big Trump maintains the sole ownership, but Ivanka, who has, per the article, been “deeply involved” in the project, and her siblings Donald Jr, and Eric have minority stakes as well. So the failure muck will hit them too.
The closing quote from the Mother Jones article regarding the suits over the restaurants is a thing of beauty-
In a recent deposition, Zakarian, who owns a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City and who is a judge on the Food Network show Chopped, said the Trump kids may want to reconsider whom they were fighting in court. "If they should be suing someone, they should sue Donald senior, because he fucking did this. He did this," Zakarian said. "He rendered this Chernobyl. He did it. So they should sue their dad."
How many more ordinary people get run over….again?