FIFA Slashes Hotel Room Blocks In At Least 3 World Cup Host Cities
FIFA, soccer's global governing body, canceled hotel blocks in all U.S. host cities, a potential blow to hoteliers with a lot riding on the 39-day 2026 World Cup.
The tournament organizer released 2,000 of 10,000 previously booked rooms in Philadelphia, 800 of 2,000 in Mexico City, and an undisclosed number in Boston, the Boston Business Journal reported. FIFA backed out of hotel blocks in all 11 U.S. host cities, a spokesperson for Meet Boston, the city's tourism arm, told the outlet.
Bisnow requested comment from FIFA on the number of room cancellations in several other U.S. host cities but didn’t immediately receive a response. FIFA hasn’t publicly given a reason for its pullback in room reservations.
Alberto Albarrán Leyva, the director general of the Mexico City Hotel Association, told ESPN that FIFA booked 2,000 rooms in the city to ensure it had sufficient capacity to run its operations, then canceled them when it realized it wouldn't use them. Meet Boston told the BBJ that the reduction in rooms is due to an overestimate of booking needs from two to three years ago.
The canceled rooms in Philadelphia were part of a block reserved for teams, referees, operations personnel and technical staff, a FIFA spokesperson told 6abc. Those rooms will now be available to fans, Philadelphia Hotel Association President Ed Grose told the outlet.
"While we were not excited about that, it's not the end of the world either," Grose said. "These are rooms that are going to be put back out on the marketplace and sold to fans who want to come to Philadelphia."
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has touted the demand for the event, saying the organization had received more than 500 million requests for the roughly 7 million tickets that FIFA has on sale. But some fans have railed against the tournament's high ticket prices, which are the subject of a formal European Commission complaint.
A packed 2026 sporting schedule in the U.S., with much of the impact centered on the World Cup, has led hoteliers in some markets to pin high expectations on this year's recovery.
Philadelphia is hosting six matches, the MLB All-Star Game, celebrations for the country's 250th anniversary in June and July, and a few March Madness games.
"This year, with those particular events, is going to be the best summer Philly has ever seen from a hotel sector perspective," Hersha Hotels and Resorts Senior Advisor Ashish Parikh told Bisnow earlier this year.
Miami, which hosted the College Football Playoff national championship game and several World Baseball Classic games earlier in 2026 and is set to host the annual Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix in early May, will also host multiple World Cup games. The cumulative economic impact from all of the events is expected to be near $3B.
But a cloudy geopolitical picture that has diminished international travelers' ability and desire to travel to the U.S. could be another thorn in the side of hotel operators banking on the event for growth.
"We’re not necessarily assuming best-case scenario where every single person who wants to come is going to come," Rod Clough, Americas president at HVS, told Bisnow in February.
