Football World Cup host city hoteliers are facing making further price cuts during the tournament despite prices already tumbling by up to 50 per cent as a booking bonanza fails to materialise.
Research using data collated on 8 May released by hotel revenue data experts Lighthouse Intelligence shows that a month before the FIFA tournament kicks off on 11 June, hoteliers are now focusing upon optimising occupancy levels as opposed to charging as much as possible.
Lighthouse commercial strategist Daniel Foreman argues that while certain host cities are already rethinking their pricing throughout the whole tournament, it is the in-between-matches period which is most likely to see further price drops.
He says: “Pricing for all 16 markets of the World Cup is technically still up year on year and in some places like Guadalajara and Mexico City it’s still really significantly up by over 100 per cent and in some cases over 200 per cent when you are looking at the entirety of the group stage and the entirety of the World Cup.
“But the thing that is catching a lot of headlines now is many matches, in fact most matches, are off of their peak pretty significantly.
“When we started tracking this about 200 days out from arrival and there was a lot of pricing optimism especially when tickets went on sale.
“There was a little boost in pricing and in general hoteliers were very optimistic about this because the story line was this will be the Super Bowl times 100.”
Own goals
Foreman says three cities that have been worst impacted are New York, Vancouver and Mexico’s Monterrey.
New York has seen accommodation prices, which peaked at $963 the night before the final, drop by between 20 per cent and 40 per cent across the entire tournament from prices 200 days out.
Foreman believes that New York hoteliers were initially swayed by optimism generated by the impending World Cup as opposed to a realistic assessment of pricing strategy.
He says: “New York City is such a weird market. Even if you announced the Super Bowl times 10 it would just absorb that and we have seen prices across the board come down.”
Meanwhile in Monterrey, Foreman believes the draw, which will see the city host group games involving teams from Sweden, Tunisia, Japan and South Africa, has dented demand.
This has meant hoteliers have introduced price drops of up to 42 per cent from a peak of $889 the night before the first game as they also face higher competition from local domestic rentals than can be found in the US and Canada.
He adds: “They were unlucky that they did not get a Mexico home game. There’s no real connection locally and it’s a bit inconvenient for fans who want to go to Monterrey.”
Meanwhile, Vancouver hoteliers set room prices as high as $1,600 in anticipation of the tournament but are now being forced into making the biggest price drops out of any of the 16 host cities as prices are slashed by as much as 51 per cent.
Despite witnessing the biggest falls in prices, Foreman is confident that hoteliers in the city will enjoy a strong summer.
He says: “Vancouver is still going to be going gangbusters in the summer as all the Canadians go to Vancouver and there’s still a lot of people who don’t want to travel to the US for the summer vacations.
“It’s also one of those weird markets where Vancouver hotels are 200, 300 or 400 per cent higher because it’s such a hot destination in the summer and very premium one too.”
Lighthouse director hospitality research Blake Reiter agrees that while hoteliers might be following their natural instincts to bump up prices at the first opportunity, they will always change their strategies once reality kicks in.
He adds: “It’s not an uncommon story for hotels to start high and then bring it down until they get the build-up that they want.”
Foreman adds the most noticeable price drops have been during the quieter periods in between games while minimum lengths of stay policies are also being reconsidered.
“The problem is the hoteliers who do a minimum stay of two, three or four nights and they blanket it across the whole tournament, those are the one who are having to lower should stay like Boston,” he says.
“They probably priced too aggressively or the stay restrictions were too aggressive and now they are really looking for occupancy.”
Champions league
Foreman adds despite the dose of reality which has set in for many of the host cities, there have been some clear winners with Houston hoteliers benefiting the most as prices remain up to 50 per cent higher- close to $300 - on match days and the nights before.
He says: “They’ve got a pretty good international airport that is served well by Lufthansa and there are a lot of direct flights from the countries that they have in the draws.
“They also started super low on pricing and they have that Ronaldo game as well.”
Nor is Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo the only football superstar who has been credited with keeping room rates up – Kansas City has seen a bounce driven by the forthcoming appearance of Lionel Messi and his Argentinian team mates which means room rates are currently at $444 per night, 20.5 per cent down from the $558 peak but more than double the standard $214.
Foreman says: “The Messi game alone is enough to really impact the market in a huge way. This is also one of the markets where a lot of domestic fans see Kansas City as a value option and a lot of mid-western people see this as a once in a lifetime thing for them.”
Meanwhile, Mexico’s Guadalajara, which hosts four matches, has maintained some of the biggest prices increases, largely thanks to its hosting of a Mexico match in the group stages which has seen prices stick at more than 31 per cent compared to 200 days before the tournament at $443 on the night of the game.
The news comes as research released by Tourism Economics reveals the number of headwinds the US travel industry is facing despite the upcoming World Cup.
Director of industry studies Aran Ryan says despite a 5.5 per cent decline in in US overnight arrivals last year there should be growth of 2.2 per cent this year with the football tournament being a contributory factor.
Much of the growth is anticipated to be driven by Western Europe and the UK with traveller numbers expected to grow by 3.5 per cent while Northeast Asia should see increases of 5 per cent.
Elsewhere, last year’s biggest market to the US Mexico is predicted to grow by 3.1 per cent while even Canada, where overnight arrivals to the US fell by 20.9 per cent in 2025 as Canadians vetoed the country following President Donald Trump’s re-election, is expected to grow by 6.3 per cent this year.
While President Trump remains a divisive figure for even the most ardent football fan keen to experience the tournament, Ryan says it is his decision to launch the Iran War with its ensuing impact on flight prices and availability that will cause the biggest impact.
“Negative sentiment affects some of the travellers that we relied on and the Iran War has exacerbated that,” he adds.