Evidence is mounting that adding "President of the United States" to your signature line isn't necessarily a path to continued success as an international hotelier.
According to research by FairFX, a U.K.-based currency and payments provider, rates at Trump Hotels have taken a noticeable slide since Donald Trump's inauguration in January, reports The Telegraph.
Of the 13 properties investigated in the study, all but one-Irish golf resort Trump Doonbeg-have seen rates drop between January 2017 and January 2018.
Collectively, all 13 properties have seen a decline of an average 36 percent.
For travelers seeking a deal on luxury travel, the best value can be found at Trump Las Vegas, where nightly fees have dropped 63 percent over the past year. According to FairFX (h/t The Hill), a room at the Las Vegas property, which cost around $844 for a two-night stay in January, can now be had for around $314.
Similarly affected, Trump Washington D.C., Trump Doral, Trump Turnberry and Trump Vancouver have all seen their rates cut in half (or more) since the beginning of the year. At Trump Washington D.C., where guests paid around $1,650 for a two-night stay last January, the same rooms are available for around $792 during the early part of 2018.
For clients booking premium rooms, even bigger savings can be found.
An executive suite at Trump Panama, which was priced at nearly $4,000 for a two-night stay last January, can now be booked for about a quarter of that, at $1,061 for January 2018.
"While big events, like the inauguration in Washington, will usually cause prices to rise in that city for a particular weekend, the decreases in other places suggest that it doesn't necessarily pay to be president," said Ian Strafford-Taylor, CEO of FairFX in a statement to The Telegraph.
Nick Trend, the consumer editor for Telegraph Travel concurred. "Hotels cut [rates] when sales are weak, so a drop in average room rates must reflect a fall in demand for Trump hotels."
Both FairFX and Trend agree that other factors are also at play.
"The strong dollar has reduced tourism to the US generally, for example," said Trend. "But there have been falls in his hotels in Scotland and Vancouver too, and these price cuts are so significant, that it seems likely that many potential guests have been put off by the association with the controversial policies, tweets and opinions of the current US president."
Last year, there were reports that Trump's campaign was also hurting his hotel business. Online travel company Hipmunk reported a drop in bookings during his presidential run last May.
While the president no longer manages the hotels that bear his name, he has also not divested from that business, raising conflict of interest concerns among Democrats and other business leaders. Since being sworn in as president, his hotels have also attracted their share of vandalism and protests.
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