Donald trump’s skyscraper in Chicago. Stacy Thacker / AP file
Gill returned to Chicago for the holidays, staying elsewhere this time. “It was a totally different hotel with a different facing view and you could still see [the tower],” she said. “I was like ‘You gotta be kidding me!'” The next time she visits, Gill said, “I’ll definitely consider asking for a south facing view, or even say one that’s not facing the Trump tower.”
Frequent Request
For the most part, hotel management is aware of the issue and willing to assist. At the Club Quarters hotel on Chicago’s Wacker Drive, an employee at the front desk even acknowledged that accommodating such requests happened “frequently.”
Related:
Trump Hotels Took a Beating During the Presidential Campaign
For other travelers, it’s the thought of sleeping inside a building with the name on it that sends them packing.
Kate A. (who asked to use an alias), a pediatrician moving cross country last summer with her husband and their cat, booked a hotel in Las Vegas using Priceline Express Deals, where the hotel is not identified until after the purchase. “After they charged our credit card, to our horror we learned we had a room reserved at the Trump Tower,” she told NBC. “I am a pro-choice, feminist woman married to a Muslim immigrant. To say that Trump was not my candidate is an understatement.”
The Trump Hotel is the tallest occupied building in Las Vegas. Christoph Dernbach / dpa via AP file
Kate feared for their safety, imagining “stereotypical, angry Trump supporters shouting at me and my Pakistani-American husband as we walked in,” she said. Though her husband assured her they would be safe, she didn’t want to give their money to the then-candidate. But with the site’s no refund policy and their limited travel budget, she resigned herself to the stay. They arrived, cat in tow — and learned there would be a $200 fee for their pet — twice the cost of the room. Kate had her escape route.
The moral of the story? If what you see out the window matters, plan ahead and ask your hotel for a view you can face.
