High ticket prices mean hotels risk having no rooms during the World Cup season.

With less than a month to go before the 2026 World Cup kicks off, initial booking figures suggest the hotel industry may have overestimated the number of fans willing to spend big to watch the matches live.

Despite the attention focused on the inaugural World Cup with 48 teams – expanded to 104 matches across 16 cities – hotel occupancy rates at some host locations are lower than the same period last year, according to data from real estate analytics firm CoStar.

Giá vé đắt đỏ, khách sạn mùa World Cup nguy cơ ế phòng - 1 — The 2026 World Cup will be the first tournament to feature 48 teams competing in 104 matches across three countries (Photo: Lighthouse).

Several cities are still expected to see high revenue. Mexico City, Monterrey, Dallas, and San Francisco all recorded fairly positive booking numbers, according to The UK Times.

However, hotels in Vancouver (Canada) only achieved an average occupancy rate of 39% on match days, down from 53% during the same period last year. In Boston (USA) – where Norway will face Iraq on June 16th – hotel occupancy rates hovered around 32%, only reaching 44% compared to a year earlier.

Even the confrontation between Brazil and Morocco in nearby New Jersey (USA) did not bring the expected boost to New York City hotels. Occupancy rates on June 13th were only around 31%, a sharp drop from last year's 43%.

According to another recent report from the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the gold rush at the start of the World Cup season may be more of an illusion than a genuine source of revenue.

In a survey of hotel owners across 11 major markets—including New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, and Seattle—80% reported lower hotel bookings than initially anticipated.

Approximately two-thirds of hotel operators in New York City reported lower-than-expected bookings, while nearly 80% of hotels in markets such as Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle said they were operating below typical summer demand.

Only about 25% to 30% of the market saw significant growth in hotel bookings due to the tournament, primarily those markets with a stable number of leisure tourists or those with confirmed training camps for the participating teams.

Meanwhile, approximately 65% to 70% of respondents cited visa barriers and geopolitical concerns as reasons for their reluctance to book hotel rooms to watch the tournament. Many fans also expressed concerns about high ticket prices and price gouging on the "black market," as well as travel costs associated with attending the matches.

According to reports, some tickets for the 2026 World Cup are still on sale, but prices remain high, with the highest being $4,105 (over 108 million VND) for the opening match between the US team and Paraguay in Los Angeles.

The 2026 World Cup will kick off on June 11th and will be held in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Eleven cities across the US, including Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Miami, and many others, will host matches this summer.