How Is Trump Hotel In Washington Doing Post-Presidency, Amid Coronavirus Pandemic?

Donald Trump's hotel in Washington, D.C., has seen a sharp decline after he left the White House and as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, a report says.

CNN reported seeing few visitors during a recent visit to Trump International Hotel, which opened only months before Trump's 2017 presidential inauguration. According to the outlet, the hotel's main elevators were only used a "handful of times" over a span of three hours and its halls "appeared mostly lifeless" by 7 p.m. on a Friday.

CNN also witnessed one man asking a waiter, "Where is everyone?" after entering the lounge where guests usually had breakfast and finding it empty. The waiter "slightly threw up his hands, as if to express uncertainty."

With COVID-19 already severely affecting the entire hotel industry, one hotel employee told CNN that they noticed another decline around the time Trump was set to leave office.

"Since the coronavirus we weren't doing so bad until I'd say probably a month ago. It really, like, slowed down," the anonymous hotel staffer said. "It's normal during this time of year to have this kind of slow down, but because of everything going on, it kind of really had -- a different time."

This was a much different scene compared to Trump International Hotel's September 2016 opening.

"I mean, we were very busy," Shawn Matijevich, a former executive chef at BLT Prime, the hotel's restaurant, told CNN. "With so many every day, you know it almost got overwhelming at times -- how many VIP's and members of our government that you know are making headlines are all together in the same place."

But the Trump hotel isn't the only one that has fallen on hard times. According to data from the hospitality analytics company STR, there were also sharp declines in other luxury hotels in Washington.

"So basically, one-in-four rooms was empty," Jan Freitag, vice president at STR, told CNN of occupancy at high-end hotels in downtown D.C. in 2019. "Today, four-in-five rooms are empty."

Eric Trump, who manages the Trump family's real estate business, did not provide specific figures when asked by CNN regarding the D.C. hotel's current occupancy and revenue numbers.

"Our location is unrivaled and we are incredibly proud to have the best hotel in our nation's capital," he said in a statement.

The former president has $170 million in loans from Deutsche’s private bank on the property due by 2024, Mother Jones reported. Trump could sell assets to pay off the debt or find another company willing to lend him the money to continue running the hotel, according to Zach Everson, a freelance journalist focused on the Trump Organization.

The organization tried to sell the Trump hotel for about $500 million in 2019, but Jones Lang LaSalle, who was hired to shop the property, told CNBC last year that the move has been put on "indefinite hold."

However, unnamed sources "familiar with the deal talks" told the outlet that bids for the property were much lower than the asking price, with several offering less than $250 million.