Late last year, in a Miami conference room, a consultant for President Donald Trump's company said business at his prized 643-room Doral resort in Florida was in sharp decline.

At Doral, which Trump has listed in federal disclosures as his biggest moneymaker hotel, room rates, banquets, golf and overall revenue were all down since 2015. In two years, the resort's net operating income — a key figure, representing the amount left over after expenses are paid — had fallen by 69%.

Even in a vigorous economy, the property was missing the Trump Organization's internal business targets; for instance, the club expected to take in $85 million in revenue in 2017 but took in just $75 million.

"They are severely underperforming" other resorts in the area, tax consultant Jessica Vachiratevanurak told a Miami-Dade County official in a bid to lower the property's tax bill. The reason, she said: "There is some negative connotation that is associated with the brand."

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The troubles at Trump Doral — detailed here for the first time, based on documents and video obtained under Florida's public-records law — suggest the Trump Organization's problems are bigger than previously known. This is also the first known case in which a Trump Organization representative has publicly acknowledged the president's name has hurt business.

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To explain the declines at Doral, the Trump Organization issued a statement to The Washington Post that implicitly contradicted its own tax consultant and blamed factors that had nothing to do with Trump's name. The company cited fears of the Zika virus in 2016, and hurricanes in 2016 and 2017, for driving tourists away from South Florida.

But the statistics provided by the company's consultants to Miami-Dade County — which are legally required to be accurate — showed competing resorts in the same region of Florida still outperformed the Trump resort in the key metrics of room occupancy and average room rate.