Tariq Zehawi/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK
FIFA’s gambit to sell World Cup tickets at extraordinary prices seems to be blowing up in their face. According to reports, 80% of the hotels in 11 World Cup host cities are struggling to sell the amount of rooms they initially projected they would.
According to a recent report from Forbes, with the 2026 World Cup just about a month away, a survey conducted by the American Hotel & Lodging Association covering nearly 80% of hoteliers across all 11 U.S. host cities — Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle — found that bookings are running below forecasts in virtually every market.
Hotel chains are struggling to sell rooms ahead of the 2026 World Cup, with some hoteliers calling the tournament a “non-event” thus far
Making matters worse is the fact that several hoteliers used the phrase “non-event” to describe what the tournament has meant for their business so far. Some of the main reasons that sales seem to be lagging are the geopolitical issues caused by the current administration’s scrutiny of foreigners and visas.
“Last year, FIFA told tourism officials in World Cup host cities to expect a 50/50 split between domestic and international visitors. But roughly seven in 10 respondents in the AHLA survey said visa barriers and broader geopolitical concerns are significantly suppressing international demand.”
“‘The lack of international inbound is certainly going to hurt the overall economic impact,’ Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality market analytics at CoStar, told Forbes. “
“’A key difference is that this tournament’s much bigger than other World Cups,’ Alan Fyall, associate dean at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, said. ‘It’s more spread out, it’s more expensive, and travel is more complicated.’”
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will kick off on Thursday, June 11 with Group A matches between Mexico and South Africa, and South Korea against Czechia.
The United States Men’s National Team’s opening group stage game will be the following day on Friday, June 12 as they take on Paraguay.
Heading into the tournament, France and Spain are curretly the betting co-favorites, followed by England, Brazil and Argentina rounding out the top five.