Newly released data reveal that Donald Trump's D.C. hotel is performing far worse than its rivals except on measures of rampant corruption.
Donald Trump's Washington, D.C., hotel is far emptier than the national average, which makes its role as a hub for corruption and influence peddling even more sordid than it first appears.
CNN reports that the Trump International Hotel had an average monthly occupancy rate of 50 percent for the first 11 months of 2017. That's about one-third below the industry average "for a broad group of luxury hotels in Washington over the same period," according to CNN, which looked at data from January 2017 through November 2017.
Hotel industry research firm STR's analysis indicates that hotels comparable to Trump International had an average monthly occupancy rate of 77 percent.
Trump's properties both domestically and internationally have struggled over the past year as his embrace of racism and bigotry, along with his daily displays of incompetence, have trickled down to the properties bearing his name. Several of them have tried sometimes under legal threat from lawyers to physically remove the Trump name.
The new information echoes trends at other Trump hotels, which have seen the rates they charge collapse over the last year.
Despite the D.C. hotel's miserable performance, it is charging a premium for rooms there. STR reports that top tier D.C. hotels charge $334 on average per night, while Trump's hotel is charging an average of $559 per night.
That discrepancy highlights one of the major roles Trump's hotel has played for the last year: corruption hub.
Because Trump has not divested from the business a departure from the long-standing presidential norms the money that comes into the Trump hotels goes into Trump's personal bank account.
That loophole has been exploited by entities both foreign and domestic. Republican organizations, including the party itself, have held multiple events at the Trump hotel. And every time the party hosts an event for Trump or other Republican organizations at a Trump property, the fees for hosting, catering, etc. are going into Trump's pockets.
Corporate and foreign businesses have also been using the Trump hotel as their hub in Washington. So companies and countries with business before the United States government that requires Trump's personal input worth potentially billions of dollars have an incentive to throw a few thousand dollars in the direction of the hotel, which is just half a mile away from the White House.
On the open market, the Trump hotel in Washington is following the same Trump pattern: failing. But on the measures most often associated with Trump corruption and influence peddling it continues to succeed beyond he could possibly dream.
