Earlier this summer I began researching ways to quantify how Donald Trump’s political brand has affected his business one, especially in terms of his hotels. It was tough–like Trump’s own financials (i.e. tax returns), he keeps the books on his business under wraps: Because Trump Hotels is a privately held company, its isn’t required to make its revenues, profits or any other data public.
I considered analyzing room prices at Trump hotels. I also considered trying to get evidence from individual hotel employees. But ultimately I failed to make any headway. Where I failed, it looks like Foursquare–these days calling itself a “location intelligence” company–has succeeded, harnessing its location-based user data to determine that foot traffic to Trump hotels has suffered significantly over the past year. Some key takeaways:
- Foot traffic to Trump hotels has declined across the board by about 10 percent this year over last.
- Foot traffic to Trump’s hotel properties began to decline almost immediately when he entered the race last summer. The usual seasonal uptick failed to materialize, and it went downhill from there.
- The declines have been worse for the brand in blue states than in red or more neutral states.
- Women have steered clear of Trump hotels in greater numbers than men.
Read Foursquare’s complete analysis of Trump hotel trends over on Medium.
Photo credit Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons.
