Another hotel owner is trying to drop the Trump brand

Owners of a luxury hotel in Panama want to shed the Trump brand as room rates, according to some, plummet.

The Trump International Hotel in Panama City is legally required to hold onto the Trump brand, representatives from the Trump Organization told Bloomberg. The Associated Press reported that the hotel’s owners were attempting to drop the brand, marking the third time a hotel has tried to do so this year.

“Not only do we have a valid, binding and enforceable long-term management agreement, but any suggestion that the hotel is not performing up to expectations is belied by the actual facts,” the Trump Organization said in a statement. The company said the hotel has outperformed the market in the past three years. In September, the hotel did 37 percent better than competitors, the Trump Organization claimed.

But London-based FairFx found that room rates at the Panama hotel have dropped 32 percent since President Trump’s inauguration.

Last week, the New York Times reported that the Trump Organization signed a deal with Trump Soho’s owner, CIM Group, to drop its licensing agreement and remove its name from the property. In June, a hotel owner in Toronto reached a similar agreement to drop the brand from the Trump International Hotel & Tower in downtown Toronto. [Bloomberg] — Kathryn Brenzel