World Cup hotels are sitting empty after FIFA cancelled up to 70% of its reserved rooms

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According to a recent report by the American Hotel & Lodging Association, most US hotels in cities hosting World Cup games aren’t seeing the number of bookings they expected. The report suggests FIFA may have overestimated how much demand there would be.

A recent survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) of over 200 hoteliers in the 11 cities hosting the tournament revealed that despite years of planning and large investments, bookings haven’t been as strong as expected. While more travelers are coming from within the country, the hotels haven’t seen the influx of high-spending international visitors they anticipated. The tournament begins on June 11th.

World Cup hotel bookings fell short after FIFA block-booking debacle

According to the AHLA, a drop in hotel demand was mainly caused by cancellations of room reservations made for FIFA, difficulties with international travel, and increasing costs. Hotels reported that FIFA had previously reserved a large number of rooms in host cities, creating a misleading impression of high demand that influenced their financial predictions, staffing, and investments.

After FIFA adjusted its plans, about half of those surveyed said they cancelled large blocks of hotel rooms they had reserved. In cities like Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Seattle, as many as 70% of the rooms FIFA had set aside went unused.

Most survey respondents (65-70%) said visa issues and global events were the biggest obstacles to international travel, impacting the hotels that had been anticipating a surge in foreign visitors. Hotel bookings in Boston, Philadelphia, and Seattle were slower than usual for this time of year, even without any major local events competing for guests.

FIFA disputed claims about how it handled hotel room bookings, stating that all cancellations were made according to the terms of its contracts and that it consistently kept hotel partners informed.

Okay, so most cities didn’t really see the hotel boost we expected for the World Cup. But Miami and Atlanta totally surprised everyone! They had dedicated team hotels set up, are popular vacation spots anyway, and it was easy to fly in and out. Still, those two cities only made up about 25-30% of the hotels we surveyed. On the Airbnb side of things, they’re saying this World Cup is going to be HUGE – even bigger than the Paris Olympics next year in terms of how many people they’re hosting!

FIFA is facing more problems, with a lack of hotel bookings being the newest one. This comes after criticism regarding expensive World Cup tickets – some reaching $11,000 – and the controversial decision to cover up a popular mural in Dallas, a city not even hosting any games.

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2026-05-20 20:49