Hotel executives take bullish outlook on World Cup as uncertainty persists

Executives from publicly traded hotel companies remain generally bullish in their outlook for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, even as negative sentiments from revenue managers and industry analysts pile up less than a month out from kickoff.

The optimism comes with some caveats, though. Some of the confidence lies in the ability to gain traction with transient travel demand closer to the tournament's start and as it shifts to the knockout stage in July.

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December 04, 2025 03:02 PM

Hoteliers hope to net global demand surge from 2026 FIFA World Cup

The anticipation is building for the 2026 FIFA World Cup hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Here's a roundup of relevant coverage useful for the hotel industry.

Dan Kubacki

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Here's what hotel executives said during their first-quarter earnings calls about expectations for the upcoming World Cup.

"Really, the two big markets for us are New York and Boston, and these are two markets that typically have been 90% occupied during this time frame in June and July. So it's really kind of a rate play. I think the positioning right now is good in those two markets around the matches. I think it remains to be seen clearly.

"There's a lot of uncertainty around this event, but right now we think we ... have a good position. We wouldn't say it's fantastic, like people had thought coming into the year. But we said about the impact between those two markets considerably make up the most of the impact for the year for the portfolio. We probably said 35 or so plus or minus basis points.

"It might come up a little bit from that, from our expectations today, but still a demand generator, still a positive, but I wouldn't say as dramatic as we thought, necessarily. As we go into it, we'll see. It could change. But there's a lot of things, a lot of unknowns around this event right now."

“Finally, I thought I'd provide a few thoughts about this year's World Cup. We've always thought of it as a large collection of college football bowl games. Like the college bowl games, we believe demand for World Cup games will vary dramatically depending on the teams involved and the impact from each game will vary not only by the out-of-town attendance of the games, but also by everything else that is already going on in the specific market.

“Most of the 48 teams have based themselves in locations across the U.S., including many markets without games. For example, we have a team at The Nines in Portland even though there are no games in Portland.

“I'm sure you've seen the media reports about FIFA dropping large blocks of rooms in many markets. Our understanding is that these blocks were intended mostly for fans who could choose to purchase hotel rooms through FIFA. Obviously, fans are not choosing to purchase hotels through FIFA in a major way and will likely book their rooms individually through normal hotel booking channels.

“With teams and ticket holders moving around the country, many on extended trips that include non-World Cup destinations and visas and visa waiver documents required, we expected and continue to expect most of the demand to book very short-term, certainly within the 60-day window, which we're in now. And consistent with that, we are seeing some of that demand book on and around game dates in our markets.

“We've also booked some group demand from teams, sponsors and FIFA. We're currently contracted for about $1.9 million of group room revenue. Over half of this group business is booked in our Boston hotels. We don't have an estimate for the total impact of the World Cup on our overall performance, but we do think it will be positive with most of the benefit coming in terms of higher average rates and increased non-room revenues. Occupancy will be aided by the World Cup.

“However, it comes at what is already a very busy time of year with high occupancies in June and July than norm in our World Cup markets. We also remain concerned about the impact of the conflict in the Middle East on airline ticket pricing, airline capacity, jet fuel availability and especially inbound international travel. As a result, our forecast for the World Cup and Q2 remain conservative.”

“And our current guidance does not include potential upside from World Cup, though we have seen strong bookings, especially in some of our smaller markets, which we do anticipate would be incremental to the strong demand trends that we're already seeing. …

“It's difficult to determine specifically what's driving demand in markets outside of markets that will benefit from FIFA games. That said, when we look at current bookings, a very small percentage of our current bookings are international. That's consistent with past experience. The bulk of what we have on the books now is domestic, and we continue to anticipate that will be a primary driver. Should we see, as we get near to the games, an uptick in international bookings, that would be incremental.”

“We continue to expect an estimated 40-basis-point net benefit from special events for the full year with an estimated 60-basis-point lift from the World Cup, partially offset by a 20-basis-point headwind from the presidential inauguration in the first quarter of 2025. …

“It is important to point out that bulk of the demand around the World Cup is expected to materialize within the 30-day booking window. That said, we are encouraged that transient revenue pace for our portfolio in World Cup markets is up nearly 40% year-over-year, and has been steadily picking up occupancy as we get closer to the match dates.”

"The pace that we're seeing into the cities that are hosting World Cup are very strong. New York is, I think, a significant driver of that because that's where the finals will be. The July pace for New York is really extremely strong. Interestingly, we've got real group business, significant group business that's also pacing well ahead in those cities. It's not just transient, which is inherently shorter term, and so our visibility to how much transient we actually pick up between now and the time that we get to World Cup is low, but our visibility on the group side is quite good."

“Despite what you're hearing and reading in the press, we continue to feel confident in our 30- to 35-basis-point impact globally from World Cup. We did extensive research before we guided that number. We benchmarked against other large citywide events that we had experienced. The total revenue is pacing up nicely over the match dates and in line with our expectations, though there obviously is still a lot left to book, which is expected given where we are in this booking window and the fact that we haven't gotten the exact matchups for the latter half of the competition.

“The FIFA room block cancellations, we expected for this type of event and had baked that into our forecast. And just a little bit on the mix. We expect the group occupancy for this type of event to be closer to the 15% range versus something like the Super Bowl that's in the 40% range. So, we continue to be optimistic about the opportunity.”

"We expect the third quarter to benefit more than the second quarter from the World Cup, because there's a higher demand for the later-stage games. And then you layer in the 250th anniversary on top of an existing holiday and obviously Salesforce.

"I would also just sort of say as it relates to World Cup, it's still early, but we are encouraged by what we're seeing. We were very thoughtful in how we approached our perspective around building our blocks.

"We were really thoughtful about focusing on blocks really related to teams, media and sponsors, and we wanted to have really strong revenue management and focusing on length of stay and making sure that we were disciplined about rate. So today, what we're seeing is that those blocks that we anticipated are actually picking up because we were thoughtful, and we're getting deposits around teams and media, and then, as it relates to transient what we're seeing today is promising.

"It's early, but around game day, we are seeing ADR come in line with our expectations. I think that the World Cup, when you look at high occupancy markets, it's really a rate game in markets like LA, New York and Miami, but overall, these trends we're seeing are in line with our expectations and our original assumptions that we had in our guidance."

"Pace trends in June are particularly strong, supported by a favorable event calendar highlighted by our significant exposure to major demand catalysts, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where we have exposure to six U.S. host markets representing approximately one-third of our total room count and 44 scheduled matches."

"As far as the World Cup goes, we’ve had really good events in the market this year, national championship, F1 last weekend was fantastic. World Cup, we continue to be measured in our various markets where we have matches. At this point, it’s a good time in the year for Miami because the summertime tends to be the lower season. Having additional international travel coming into the market will be good for the market. Again, as we get closer, we’ll have a better understanding of the ultimate impact. Right now, we continue to be somewhat measured across our markets for World Cup."

"... Demand continues to benefit from tax refunds and is expected to be further supported by event-driven travel this summer, such as the FIFA World Cup and the U.S. 250th anniversary."

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