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U.S. Hotel Industry Braces for Impact from FIFA Club World Cup and Anticipates 2026 World Cup Boost – Image Credit Pexels
The FIFA Club World Cup in the U.S. is showing varied impacts on hotel occupancy across different host cities, with some markets experiencing significant gains.
This past weekend, the United States kicked off its duties as host of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup (CWC), a precursor to next year’s World Cup, which will be hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
This year’s 63-match tournament kicked off in Miami on 14 June and culminates with the title game in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on 9 July. Overall, matches will be played in a total of 11 U.S. markets:
- Atlanta
- Charlotte
- Cincinnati
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- Nashville
- New York City
- Orlando
- Philadelphia
- Seattle
- Washington, D.C.
Organizers have hopes that this year’s Club World Cup will be a full-fledged preamble for the 2026 World Cup. While STR’s Forward STAR data indicates that the CWC will result in hotel occupancy gains for some markets, those gains are not consistent across all host markets nor are they consistent for all matches within same market.
Occupancy on the books and average occupancy differentials on match days (an average of the occupancy ppt change for match nights and prior night) suggests that some markets have indeed sold more rooms as a direct result of the event.
The heat map above shows varying gains and decreases in occupancy on the books during the group stage. Several host markets, including Charlotte, Philadelphia and Miami, show more consistent occupancy gains.
A second pattern indicates that later stage matches, where the participating teams remain undetermined, are presently showing a lower lift than earlier stages. Invariably, club fans are waiting for their favorite teams to advance beyond the Round of 16 stage before booking stays. We expect significant boosts from current levels, particularly as teams advance through brackets.
The average occupancy lift results across host markets for the first two stages of the CWC tournament are summarized below:
There are currently thousands of unsold/resale tickets for a majority of CWC games, including the championship match. But that is not exactly surprising given recent broad trends of more last minute “wait-and-see” travel along with fans waiting for their favorite teams to advance.
However, there are also broader headwinds that could be adversely impacting future bookings around the CWC. Foremost, there are fewer international travelers entering the U.S.
Aside from sociopolitical and logistical impediments for international leisure travelers, the U.S. dollar also remains relatively strong against other currencies, thus making spending/travel more costly for international visitors. On the domestic front, economic uncertainty and reduced splurge travel among most U.S. travelers may also be a factor.
Looking ahead – 2026 U.S. FIFA World Cup
Adding a “stadium’s worth” of outside fans (plus the extended entourage of logistics/media) over the extended World Cup tournament period should result in significant demand lifts next summer. Yet, market forecasters should keep in mind that those demand gains can be balanced by room supply in a market as well as the event’s accessibility to nearby (but external) markets.
Prior World Cup and Olympic analyses show significant performance gains for markets’ average daily rate (ADR). Similar to the Super Bowl, corporate sponsors along with wealthy superfans are expected to lift market room rates on the basis of higher-class bookings.
Assuming that economic and international travel conditions remain favorable in 2026, STR’s models indicate that U.S. markets are forecasted to have sizable monthly ADR premiums across World Cup host cities, ranging +5% to 25%+ depending on the market.
This article originally appeared on STR.
