The world may be gearing up for soccer’s biggest spectacle — but hotel rooms across North America are still sitting more empty than expected.
With less than a month until the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off, early booking numbers suggest the hospitality industry may have overestimated just how many fans would shell out big bucks to follow the action in person.
Despite the hype surrounding the first-ever 48-team World Cup — expanded to a whopping 104 matches spread across 16 cities — hotel occupancy rates in several host hubs are lagging where they were this time last year, according to data from property analytics firm CoStar.
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