EarnAway, a website that allows members to earn cashback on hotel bookings, said it had made the decision in response to Trump’s ongoing controversial bid for the US presidency, and in protest at the billionaire’s imminent visit to the UK. It also said it had received complaints about Trump’s hotel properties appearing on the site, and no longer wished to “effectively help fund the campaign”.
The news comes just ahead of Trump’s expected visit to the UK, during which he will officially open his latest property, The Turnberry Hotel in South West Scotland on 24 June.
Co-founder of EarnAway, Robert Berrisford, said: “We have made the decision to remove all of [Trump’s] hotels and resorts from our website as we feel it’s ethically and morally wrong for us to effectively help fund and contribute to a political campaign that we have such strong opposition to.
“I am not at all worried about this decision having a detrimental effect on our business; in fact, we have already had a number of complaints from some of our regular customers who don’t appreciate the fact that we promote Trump’s hotels in the first place. Hopefully, we can inspire other online travel agencies to follow suit and dissuade Britons from sending any extra money his way.”
The site previously listed a number of Trump hotels, including The Trump SoHo in New York, The Trump Plaza in New Jersey and Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City.
EarnAway is a joint venture between Berrisford, Joshua James, and Maple Syrup Media. With a list of over 500,000 hotels, it offers its booking members the cashback money that would otherwise traditionally go back to the website as commission.