The 2026 FIFA World Cup has shifted into the single-elimination knockout stage, with each match of even more heightened importance as teams vie for a chance at soccer immortality.
Hotels in the 16 host markets generally performed as expected throughout the group stage portion of the tournament — rates were pushed up tremendously year over year while occupancy meandered. Hoteliers can expect more of the same in the knockout stage.
"Coming into the World Cup, we had stressed that this was not going to be an occupancy event — this is going to be a rate event," Didio Pequeno, director of hospitality market analytics for the Northeast and Midwestern U.S. at CoStar Group, said on the latest episode of the "CoStar News Hotels" podcast. "That's what we had been told from general managers, revenue managers, hotel owners all around the country, and that's definitely proven to be the case thus far."
Hotel performance could vary more in this stage of the tournament due to the matches being more spread out.
"The level of growth that we've been seeing could probably be expected to continue, but with the knockout matches being further apart, there might be more ebbs and flows in performance, especially with demand and rate," he said.
Of the markets to monitor, Philadelphia is one that stands out, Pequeno said. The City of Brotherly Love will host France v. Paraguay on July 4, which will garner demand from one of the largest fanbases in France and additional demand from America's 250th anniversary celebrations.
Other markets to note include Dallas and Atlanta, which will host the semifinal matches, and Miami, host of the third-place match.
East Rutherford, New Jersey, will be home of the World Cup final on July 19. Pequeno said New York City hoteliers can expect a Super Bowl-esque effect on demand for the highly anticipated match.
"You have reports of people paying thousands of dollars to attend matches, travel, hotels and all of that," he said. "Personally, I think New York is most likely going to absolutely crush it for the final."
Teams with large fanbases such as Germany, the Netherlands and Japan have been eliminated, which could have a downstream effect on hotel demand in the markets they would have played in. On the other hand, teams such as France, Brazil and Spain are still in the running, and each host country — the U.S., Canada and Mexico — are still alive as well.