NEW YORK – NYU hotel investment conference chairman and Loews Chairman Jonathan Tisch on Tuesday interviewed Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter, about her involvement with the Trump Hotel Collection and how she balances motherhood, work and being a brand herself.
TWITTER: Join Barb on Twitter
FRONT PAGE: See Travel Update’s most recent headlines
As the daughter of a real estate dad myself, one of my favorite moments was when Tisch asked her about what it was like being raised by the infamous Donald Trump. She told the audience that her father – not surprisingly – wasn’t exactly your typical dad. During her childhood, she said, he wasn’t “in our backyard playing catch.”
Instead, he routinely would gather his three children kids in a car and drive with them to different job sites so he could tell them about his development projects.
“I had a stack like this,” she said gesturing with her hands, “of memos starting from when I was four years old and couldn’t read” that talked about projects and told her that the building was “going to be great.”
Other highlights from the Tisch-Trump chat:
Ivanka hotels? “I’ve been approached about creating an Ivanka line of hotels,” she disclosed, but said her “energies are better spent growing the Trump brand… There’s plenty to be doing with the Trump Hotel Collection.”
Balancing brand, company, Trump business and family: “It’s a challenge. It’s a struggle as it is for every working mother – and for men, as well, with the role that husbands are taking in the house.
The way I look at this is, I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing if I wasn’t legitimately passionate about it. I love designing hotels. I love acquiring hotels and working with our hotel teams. That said, my No. 1 role in life and is mother to my children and wife to my husband. Balance is difficult. It means very little sleep.
Nobody can plan to balance. A child gets sick, and you have to leave the office. Or a deal comes up. I try to think about my priorities and sit down every single week (to review the prior week). Did I make decisions that were inline with my priorities? It’s not always perfect. I ask myself if I was in the right place at the right time. That’s how I guess I handle it.”
FACEBOOK: Join Barb & travel pals on FB
Doral resort renovation: Speaking about the Trump Organization’s recession-era purchase of South Florida’s iconic Doral resort and its pending $250 million renovation, she said they have “tremendous confidence” in Miami. The property needed a massive overhaul because “it always made so much money that at some point they stopped investing it. We saw tremendous potential.”
Hotel ownership: “We’re a hotel management company that doesn’t go asset light. We’re intimately involved” with properties.
Readers: Comments? (Easy registration required :))
Photos above and below by Barb DeLollis.
