| | | Trump Incompetence is nothing new:
NCMountainGirl
This whole idea of reopening the economy in a few weeks has many parallels with the disastrous opening of the Trump Taj Mahal. Both appear to be examples of magical thinking.
As with his Administration, before the Taj opening Trump had not fully staffed his hotel casino with competent, experienced managers and employees. Two, he forced his Taj Mahal managers to commit to an opening date that was based on his desperate personal need to generate cash to pay the interest on all his junkbond financing rather than on whether the place would be fully operational on that date. Three, he showed a lack of understanding as to both the short and long tern consequences of rushing the Grand Opening and ignored warnings that it was too early. Four, he oversold the state of the property in the opening day promotions. And in what is all but sure to be a fifth parallel, he blew his lid but could offer no solution other than to whine about the need to hire "some tough guys" when it all blew up in his face.
On the casino side, in Trump's eagerness to pack in as many slots and tables as possible, the casino layout incorporated too few cashiers to buy and redeem chips and far too few kiosks for slot players to obtain more coins. That resulted in long lines on opening day. The more serious problem, however, was the people in the counting room had not yet mastered the procedures for providing the regular reconciliation reports required by the State Gaming Commission. That almost got the place shut down on its first day. The simple concepts of cash at beginning of day, plus cash received for chips issued, less chips redeemed during day equals unredeemed chips outstanding and cash at end of day eluded them.
On the hotel side, many of the amenities in the promotional materials, the shops, spas, health club and some of the restaurants, were still under construction. In addition, not all the hotel's systems had gone through a complete shakedown. So from the keycards to open the rooms that didn't work to inconsistent room service and sloppy valet operations, customers did not get the promised level of luxury accommodations and first class service.
Finally, Trump's attention was constantly wandering to which comped celebrities had shown up and then getting photographed with them rather than correcting the poor service to paying customers.
The travel industry critics in attendance noticed. As the old saying goes, you only get one chance to make a good first impression. |
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