Shoveling money in his pocket from the very first day.
- Thread starter Syskatine
- Start date
I guess you have never traveled very much. Let me educate you.. Hotels change their rates most every day. Weekdays are much more expensive than weekends 90% of the time because that is when business travelers stay. Happens all over the world.
Now if there is a major city event.. lets say.. Mary Kay brings in 20,000 people or the Super Bowl brings in 200,000 people the rates increase as well.
Anything else I can help your dumb-ass with?
Now if there is a major city event.. lets say.. Mary Kay brings in 20,000 people or the Super Bowl brings in 200,000 people the rates increase as well.
Anything else I can help your dumb-ass with?
So you didn’t actually read the article...let me educate you...
“top inaugural planner emailed Ivanka and others at the company to “express my concern” that the hotel was overcharging for its event spaces, worrying of what would happen “when this is audited.”
I guess you have never traveled much either. I have traveled all over the world and have experienced this hundreds of times. Now, I am not saying that I like it at all...it pisses me off, but it happens and is not illegal at all apparently because it has been going on for at least the 25 years that I have been staying in hotels.
I bet if you really took a look at hotel prices in Washington during any Presidential event the hotel costs have increased ~200% every time.
Get over it... It happens all the time and it does not matter who the President is. This is fake news.
Oh, and do not try to educate me on stuff you have zero knowledge about, Toon.
There’s a difference between market rates and blatant overcharging that could easily be sniffed out....like this.
Oh, and to your point.. I dont give a shit if some jack at a hotel that may or may not know crap about the hotel business sent an email to anyone about the cost.. Even if it actually did happen..
This is a freaking stupid fake news event.
This is a freaking stupid fake news event.
Want to bet some money that there is ever anyone charged with crap?
Let me save you some money and tell you that every hotel in Washington overcharged everyone. Now if the Trump hotel can get a higher rate it is the same as a Holiday Inn vs. the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. (ever been?.. I have)
Again, there’s a difference between adjusting rates based on market conditions, such as a major local event...and blatantly suspicious overcharging that could be considered pay for play
How is charging for a Hotel "pay for play"? If you stayed there that weekend how would you have been rewarded? Was the hotel closed down to the general public? There has been nothing, but a fake news post made about this as far as I know so please post your information... Let me help you yet again.. there is none and there never will be. If you want to bet some money I bet there are a bunch of takers here that would enjoy the odds..I am first in on this though.
If they charged more than the market rates locally for similar hotels, it’s pay for play.
Toon, you are dead wrong and are being stupid about it. Give it up and stop this foolishness or tell me how much money you want to bet. You have zero personal knowledge about this..
How much experience do you have even traveling and staying in hotels? Please list some places you have been and the hotels you have ever stayed in so I can figure out how much money you will lose.
Thank you for that explanation. Those hundreds of times -- we aren't referring to some shitty flophouse in a third world country, or even an upscale hotel room. The author was plainly referring to a ballroom and meeting rooms during an inauguration. And the lady that was head of the Met Gala and may or may not have the event planning experience that you do was offended and noted other places were letting the inaugural committee use their facilities for free. Have you gone to hundreds of inaugurations? Have you attended even one single inaugural function?
But you've had hundreds of hotel rooms priced at the last minute. Thank you for that heady observation.
Any word on the unaccounted money? Sure seems strange in comparison to other inaugurations. Way more money, fewer events, fewer employees...
Self dealing slime from the first opportunity.
While I agree with the crux of your argument I can see a scenario where this could be a pay for play situation. If a person, company, foreign government, etc. was attempting to gain access to the new Trump administration, one way it might happen would be to pay an exorbitant fee for hotel rooms or meeting rooms with the understanding that information about those payments would be passed on to the upper administrative echelon with the advice that people in upper positions ought to meet with the payer. I’m not saying that’s what happened. But it certainly could have.
It's BS like this that makes the rest of the country disbelieve anything the left throws at Trump. You cry wolf so damn much.
No, I have not ever attended an inaugural function. Have you?
So you are trying to say that when the Super Bowl or any other major function comes into a city that meeting rooms do not increase prices? Yes, the do.. Do you not think there are other events that go on around the city during the Super Bowl week?
Good grief you have to be smarter than that..
I will give you the same deal as Toon. How much money do you have to lose?
Here is the deal..This goes on all the time all around the world. Are you saying that it happens every day of every week in every hotel all over the world? Let me use my example again.. The Holiday Inn cant get as much as the Trump Hotel that is just the way it is, but they will all try to get as much as they can out of the deal. Let me also say it again.. I do not think it is right or fair, but it is the way it works and there is nothing you nor I can do about it.. Wish we could but we cant.
I stayed at an Embasy Suites in San Diego at 600 per night when a conference oversold and once in San Fran for another conference for 800 per.
Happens all over. Just good business.
Happens all over. Just good business.
I disagree with you one one point. I think it is absolutely “right and fair” for a privately owned establishment to charge anything it wants, anything someone else is willing to pay, for any reason it wants.
I said I agree with your main point. I’m just saying I can see how a corrupt scheme could be hatched.
The might have the right in some cases, but that does not make it fair, IMO.
I just wonder how hotels can get away with price gouging and a gas station cant when demand overcomes supply..
Well, I would defend gas stations’ right to “price gouge” rather than insist the government regulate what hotels can charge.
There is almost no piece of economic knowledge more important than price. All products and all services are scarce. Prices are the only way for us to understand just how scarce they are. On Super Bowl Sunday hotel rooms are very scarce as a reflection of the demand for them. Seeing that a hotel wants $800 for a room on Sunday that went for $300 on Saturday gives you the information you need to make a purchase. Let’s you know just how scarce the rooms are. It is an economic mistake for the government to intervene and tell the proprietor what he can charge. It completely disrupts the public’s knowledge and understanding of scarcity.
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Great points.
I dont have all, or really any, of the answers that is for sure. I hate price gouging and think it is just wrong.
I used to stay at a hotel in Prague 3 to 4 nights every 6 weeks or so. I had a great relationship with the management and paid ~$70.00 per night each for two. They once told me that they had a guy that would come in sometimes the same weekends and pay ~$300 per night for his room. The hotel was not over booked so why should he have had to do that? Can they charge that.. well yes, but at what point should they stop. Now, I am not saying that it is not a great business move, and I have owned and run my own business. I just I am not cut out for that kind of crap. Profit is not a dirty word, but there is is difference between greed and legitimate ambition.
Price gouging when you’re the president isn’t a big deal tho...”fake news”...right?
Did I ever say that I agreed with it? NO.. I did not.. What I did say is that this goes on all over the world and if anyone thinks that this story is anything but fake news is wrong.
Nothing has been done by the Trump hotel that is illegal or that any other hotel did during that same time or during any other presidential event under any president has been done. That is the fact.
My challenge is that you and the OP have been making stuff up.
You have ignored the article, cited irrelevant experience to justify the money grab, and have pretty much made out of the worst defense I've ever seen. The people that were in charge of the inauguration put in writing how concerned they were. You don't know what an Inauguration ball room costs any more than a hog knows about a sidesaddle.
Hotels charge whatever they think they can get just like any other service.
An Uber ride in Manhattan on New Years eve can cost 500 dollars to just go 5 blocks away.
I'd bet rates in DC go up a 1000% or more on inauguration week. Nothing illegal or unethical about it.
An Uber ride in Manhattan on New Years eve can cost 500 dollars to just go 5 blocks away.
I'd bet rates in DC go up a 1000% or more on inauguration week. Nothing illegal or unethical about it.
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This sounds like a negotiation took place on the price of a premium event space location. If you have any experience in events and/or marketing this happens every single day and it's reasonable to assume that market prices will skyrocket with outside forces (ie a Presidential Inauguration).
Original offer unknown...then...
"Damelincourt responded with a new rate of $175,000 per day for use of the Presidential Ballroom and meeting rooms, offering a $700,000 charge for four days of use."
Wolkoff didn't like the price...
"It is not clear what the earlier price was, but Damelincourt’s revised rate did not satisfy one of the lead organizers of the inauguration, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff."
She (Wolkoff) counters...
“I understand that compared to the original pricing this is great but we should look at the whole context,” Wolkoff wrote, suggesting a day rate of $85,000, less than half of the Trump hotel’s offer.
And then...we don't even know what the final price was.
"A former Trump hotel staffer confirmed that the inaugural committee paid for inaugural week events at the hotel. It’s not clear what price the committee ultimately paid."
I mean, come on this is pretty much a non-story.
Original offer unknown...then...
"Damelincourt responded with a new rate of $175,000 per day for use of the Presidential Ballroom and meeting rooms, offering a $700,000 charge for four days of use."
Wolkoff didn't like the price...
"It is not clear what the earlier price was, but Damelincourt’s revised rate did not satisfy one of the lead organizers of the inauguration, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff."
She (Wolkoff) counters...
“I understand that compared to the original pricing this is great but we should look at the whole context,” Wolkoff wrote, suggesting a day rate of $85,000, less than half of the Trump hotel’s offer.
And then...we don't even know what the final price was.
"A former Trump hotel staffer confirmed that the inaugural committee paid for inaugural week events at the hotel. It’s not clear what price the committee ultimately paid."
I mean, come on this is pretty much a non-story.
If they under charge we are talking illegal contributions/influence/whatever. Sys fail. Next.
Waaaay too logical and not enough Trumpspiracy. This isn't going to get a passing grade from the thread creator. If you throw in some pissing hookers, Russian twitter bots, and soiled golf pants, he'll probably approve.
Never stayed in a hotel in Stillwater on a random summer day and also on homecoming Saturday?
Oh, I totally get gouging. That's capitalism.
What I don't get is
1. the POTUS using his inauguration to generate revenue. He's the POTUS, making money from his office. Set aside the employment issue, at a minimum it's awful taste. No moment is too big or solemn or important for biff to use it to line his pockets. Nothing.
2. The head of the Met Gala was offended. The MET GALA. I wonder if she, a pretty experienced Manhattan event planner, has any judgement at this?
3. It wasn't a good, clean, gouge. It was the presidents daughter negotiating with herself. It is a screaming conflict if interest.
4. Emoluments much?
5. The sheep's slavish defense of Biff's clutching, grasping, greed is in itself entertaining.
Man, you pack a punch. You're a modern day Perry Mason minus the deep voice.
The excuse box that I have is pretty small.. It only holds dollar signs followed by numbers and I dont see any in your post. Either put some in the box to prove you really stand by your statements or go away.
1. Anything in the $100k - $175k per day for an event space of that size, in DC (during that Inauguration time) is a pretty good deal.
Honestly, they probably got a better deal at his own hotel for the party than others in the area.
https://www.wdsu.com/article/this-w...25-million-during-trumps-inauguration/8463341
http://news.marriott.com/2016/11/ma...tivities-ring-58th-presidential-inauguration/
Also, you're not taking into account that this particular event space was likely to be rented out if they didn't have the event there and very likely took less money to use the space than another member of the 1% that wanted to throw their own party.
2. Yes, she's super "concerned" about the cost of the rental space. I've used that term about 25 times this last calendar year when trying to get a better price on a venue, F&B vendors, construction/build out companies, etc. It's a negotiating tactic and she's an experienced event planner, it's what they do.
3. Your article clearly states that she didn't do the negotiating. She connected two people who then proceeded to go back and forth on a price.
1. Good for Marriott. They're not the POTUS. Gouge away.
2. She was concerned internally, that wasn't a negotiation.
3. Yeah look at the email that signed off in the deal. Convicted felon Rick Gates. I'm sure it's a deal was clean if he is the guy that signed off on it and he was satisfied. He is a great shepherd of inauguration money. Hell just looking at the people involved, Gates and Ivanka, that alone should send off bells and whistles.
And in your experience, is self-dealing frequent? Especially among elected officials?
1. That was just one example, how many do you need? My point still stands.
2. It was absolutely a negotiation or she wouldn't have offered up an alternative rate that SHE felt was best. I ask you, what should the rate have been for the venue?
3. You changed the subject from Ivanka to Rick Gates, who do you want to bring in next? Until you have specific evidence that Ivanka negotiated the deal instead of connecting two parties - which your own article states...I won't engage again on that point
Self-dealing happens a lot. People make use of their own facilities for parties, events, galas and yes, they do pay for the space in some capacity. It's a business.
Also, full disclosure - I'll be out of pocket for the remainder of the night but feel free to respond and I'll get back to you in the morning.
Have a blessed day
