Logos Consulting Group president Helio Fred Garcia was quoted in the Washington Post on election day, Tuesday, November 8, 2016 on the Trump campaign’s choice of venue for its election night festivities.
The story, by Washington Post business reporter Abha Bhattarai, notes,
“Donald J. Trump kicked off his presidential bid at the Trump Tower last summer. Since then, he has repeatedly hawked his business ventures on the campaign trail and made several stops to promote his newest property, the Trump International Hotel in Washington. But on election night, Trump won’t be celebrating — or conceding — at one of his hotels. Instead, he has booked what he’s called his “victory party” at the New York Hilton in Midtown Manhattan, just around the corner from the Trump Tower and about a half-mile from the Trump International Hotel & Tower. A third property, the Trump Soho, is about three miles away.”
She then notes that the likely reason is the size of his New York properties — too small — compared to the New York Hilton.
“Trump’s properties are not large enough to accommodate the kind of crowds he’s expecting, says Helio Fred Garcia, president of the crisis management firm Logos Consulting Group. “’The Hilton is huge,’ said Garcia, also an adjunct professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. ‘I don’t think it’s so much that he’s embarrassed to hold it in his own place or that his brand has been tarnished, but rather that he expects a large crowd. And so he booked the largest venue that he could.’”
She notes that
“The Hilton, which boasts ‘Manhattan’s largest self-contained function space,’ can hold more than 3,000 people in its 24,000-square-foot ballroom. The ballroom of the Trump Soho (the largest function space in a Trump property in Manhattan) measures about one-sixth the size and has capacity for 400, according to its website. The atrium of the Trump Tower maxes out at 350 guests, while the largest space in the Trump International Hotel is a 665-square-foot boardroom.”
She notes that Hillary Clinton’s election night event will be in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
She adds,
“But even if size wasn’t a concern, some say Trump may have good reason to look beyond his brand on Election Day. The candidate’s business ventures have taken a hit during his campaign. Foot traffic to Trump-branded hotels, casinos and golf courses has slipped roughly 24 percent since he announced his candidacy, according to location-based app Foursquare. And last month, the Trump Organization announced that its newest line of hotels, to be called Scion, wouldn’t bear the Trump name, a move that caused many in the industry to wonder whether the billionaire was trying to distance himself from his commercial ventures.”
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