Skift Take
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.
A lot has happened since we sat down with members of the Trump Hotels executive team on January 25 during the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles.
At the time, the hotel company's founder and namesake had only been in office for a total of six days and generally, there was an air of optimism among the nearly 3,000 attendees who'd gathered at the JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. Live.
That optimism was shared by Eric Danziger, CEO of Trump Hotels, too. He said, "This has always been a very good conference. You know, I've been doing this conference for 25 years or something. It was interesting to see how it's gone from a couple hundred to a couple thousand. Very productive, always good."
But a lot has happened since then, including the extremely controversial travel ban President Trump signed as part of an executive order just a few days after our meeting, prohibiting people from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the U.S.
Prior to meeting with Danziger and his fellow executives, EVP of Hotel Operations, Jeff Wagoner, and EVP of New Brands & Innovation, Kathleen Flores, we were specifically asked by the Trump Hotels public relations team to refrain from asking anything too political during our on-record interview.
And given the fact that the Trump Organization's lawyer has said no part of the company will make any reference to President Trump, we weren't holding our collective breath.
But during our conversation, we did get a better glimpse into just how Trump Hotels plans to proceed, and just how it intends to deal with the very unique challenges of having a founder who just happens to also be President.
Still, plenty of questions remain, including just how many conflicts of interest exist with regard to Trump's businesses, including his hotels. New reports have surfaced suggesting Trump the President may not be as distanced from his business as his lawyers suggest. This is likely not the last report of its kind we will see in the coming weeks, either.
Through all the challenges and potential conflicts, however, Danziger and his team seem doggedly determined to continue growing the Trump Hotels brand, as well as its newest one, Scion. Just last week, it was announced that the first Scion hotel would likely debut in Dallas, with the help of individual investors from the U.S., Turkey, Qatar, and Kazakhstan.
Below is our conversation with Danziger, Flores, and Wagoner. It has been edited for length and clari
