by Jen Mallia
Last updated: 2:05 PM ET, Mon May 25, 2026
Hotels in cities hosting FIFA World Cup games in North America were anticipating high occupancy rates thanks to an influx of soccer fans travelling to witness the high-stakes international competition, a boom that, thus far, has failed to appear.
It’s not just in Canada. A report from the American Hotel & Lodging Association cited disappointing bookings earlier this month after surveying hoteliers across host cities in the United States.
It "found that anticipated demand has not translated into strong hotel bookings and that domestic travellers are outpacing international visitors," with 80 percent of respondents saying hotel bookings were tracking below initial forecasts.
The disappointing numbers have some people blaming sky-high prices associated with the event.
Jarrett Vaughan, an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder school of business, told the Canadian Press "one of the biggest challenges that visitors have when coming to Vancouver is just simply the cost."
With airfare surging thanks to a fuel-shortage crisis and ticket prices for matches reaching into the thousands-of-dollars range, hotel prices are contributing to costs that are simply out of reach for many fans.
"Hotel accommodations are very expensive in Vancouver no matter what's happening, and so you then add this layer of visiting guests and this added pressure drives, obviously, room rates higher," Vaughan points out.
Some fans are hopeful that soft bookings will drive the cost of hotel rooms lower, a scenario Luana Carcano, a lecturer at Simon Fraser University Beedie school of business, finds unlikely. Carcano told the Canadian Press "basic economics" says hotel prices will not decrease as the tournament nears.
"When supply is structurally constrained and demand is event-driven, hotels have no incentive to discount," she said.
Hope for a last minute turn around is still alive in the industry. Destination Vancouver is reporting that June hotel bookings in the city are down 20 percent this year when compared with the same time in 2025. However, it said in a statement that it remains hopeful they fill up closer to kickoff.
"Data is dynamic and we’re optimistic of a late surge," it said, noting that air arrivals to Vancouver between June and August are up six per cent from last year.
It’s a sentiment shared by major hotel brands, including Marriott. “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,” Jennifer Mason, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Marriott International says, reports CoStar. “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.”
Meanwhile, some analysts suggest the economic benefit for the host cities may play out in the long run, rather than as a last-minute run on hotels. Wayne Smith, director of the Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Research at Toronto Metropolitan University, told CTV News Toronto that the economic benefits for Toronto will be a long game. He predicts the direct tourism gain from the World Cup will be incremental and more of a long-term marketing play.
“All of these events are going to compound over time and you’re going to get more tourism, which is going to lead to more economic development because people will see when the city’s good to live in and have good quality of life,” he said.
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