Donald Trump’s At It Again

Andrew Calvo | October 11, 2007 | 0 Comments

At first, I have to preface this post with a disclaimer – I’m not too fond of Donald Trump – not because he’s successful, not because he’s rich, not because he’s famous, but because he is rudely ruthless, self-centered, and takes credit for more than he deserves. There are plenty of ways to succeed in business without having those three qualities. I don’t respect people who build their “reputation” on those traits.

The Trump Organization is big – he is clearly the leader, yet 75% of his “properties” he really has no control over, and instead simply licenses the “Trump” name. Yes, the Trump name is valuable, pretty well respected, and known world-wide, but lately I feel as though the Trump name has lost its luster, he has less than a 10% interest in “his” casinos, and besides a few buildings in New York City (Trump Tower, Trump International Hotel & Tower, 40 Wall to name a few), he merely licenses his name to companies who build buildings, bottle water, distill vodka, publish magazines, sell meat, mortgages and cologne in his name.

That to me is NOT a real estate developer.

The Donald Trump of the 80′s and early 90′s was a real estate developer. Today’s Donald Trump is just a celebrity.

Anyway, today Trump Organization announced the Trump Hotel Collection, a “new” hotel brand which will build on the brand originally created at 1 Central Park West – also known as Trump International Hotel & Tower. It’s about time Trump has decided to make a “hotel brand”, after all, the majority of the hotels under development (see list below) are already named “Trump International Hotel & Towers <City Name Here>”, and have been promoted that way for months, if not years. I always wondered why Trump does not have a central reservation system, or one phone number that people can utilize to make reservations at all their properties, so hopefully the Trump Hotel Collection will herald that change.

Each hotel in the Trump Hotel Collection is supposed to have a Spa, “Attache” service – a personal concierge for all guests – think W Hotel’s Whatever/Whenever service, and of course all the rooms will be luxuriously appointed to Trump standards.

Here is a list provided on the press release where the hotels are Under Development, and I’ve linked each location to that development’s website. Something I’d like to point out, I don’t think there is one hotel which being completely developed by the Trump Organization.. Simply a franchise/franchisee relationship - the only difference is you dont see Bill Marriott talking about all of the Marriott hotels as his personal creation – which is how the Trump properties are advertised. Baja, Mexico; Cap Cana, Dominican Republic; Chicago; Dubai, U.A.E.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Las Vegas; New Orleans; New York’s SoHo; Panama City, Panama; Toronto; Aberdeen, Scotland; and Waikiki, Hawaii.