Less than 40 days before the 2026 FIFA World Cup gets underway, some host city hotels say bookings have not met the expectations they set a year ago.
The American Hotel and Lodging Association says some hotels in Kansas City are not seeing the surge in visitors they anticipated.
Jeff Keeley, general manager of InterContinental Kansas City at the Plaza, said the reality of the booking landscape looks different than what the hotel projected.
"It's probably not the bloom that we were expecting, but it's still early," Keeley said. "I wish it were, not the peaks and valleys. I wish it were peaks all the time."
RELATED STORY | Certain tickets for the FIFA World Cup final listed for an eye-watering $2.3 million each
Ryan Hiser, owner of Aida KC, described a similar feeling.
"We like to say, you know, instead of being like these 10, these big mega events, it's going to be, you know, just several Taylor Swift concerts, which no one can complain about. That's still a great day," Hiser said.
The Scripps News Group in Kansas City reached out to more than 15 hotels. Some declined to answer questions about World Cup bookings, and others said they were not available. Visit KC was also not available for an interview but provided the following statement:
"While hotel occupancy in Kansas City has not followed the expectations originally projected by FIFA to this point, our hotel community continues to fine tune their approach to existing demand, leveraging this once-in-a-generation event. That said, there are positive indicators on the horizon.
As with all other host cities, Kansas City is seeing a change in travel booking behavior for potential FIFA World Cup 2026 visitors. Booking windows are shortening with more last-minute travel decisions being made, particularly for international visitors, and ever-changing global landscapes are impacting all aspects of travel. However, while increasingly concentrated and domestic-led, demand is growing in the market.
We are seeing positive data for travel to Kansas City, including air demand peaking over World Cup, with June (+48% YoY) and July (+32% YoY) showing the strongest considerable growth as well as forward booking data showing Kansas City International Airport (MCI) outperforming both its competitive set and the U.S. average across domestic, international and overall demand growth this summer, with the strongest gains occurring during peak match windows. Additionally, Kansas City was named the No. 1 trending summer travel destination, according to Google Flight data, proving there is significant interest in the destination.
While airline capacity alone doesn’t capture the full picture, especially for a strong drive market like Kansas City, momentum is building and with more than a month until the tournament kicks off, Kansas City is still expecting to welcome record-breaking numbers of visitors to the Heart of America."
"It's going to continue to get better and better. It's going to be a good year, a good two months for us. So we're excited about it," Keeley said.
This story was originally published by Fernanda Silva with the
