Soccer governing body FIFA has returned some World Cup hotel rooms it booked in advance in Atlanta, though it’s not clear how many.
Atlanta’s hospitality industry has for years awaited the World Cup, the biggest sporting event in the city since the 1996 Olympic Games, estimated to bring hundreds of thousands of visitors and pack an economic punch.
But less than 80 days out from the event, several hoteliers told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the pace of hotel bookings has been slow so far, though they remain optimistic they can sell out rooms during World Cup matches.
At Atlanta’s largest hotel, the Marriott Marquis, FIFA blocked in advance about 400 to 500 rooms but gave them all back, said Erica Qualls-Battey, area general manager for Marriott International in Atlanta. The Marquis is a downtown convention hotel with more than 1,600 rooms.
“As soon as they gave them back to us, we started selling,” Qualls-Battey said in an interview Thursday.
The Marquis is now roughly 30% occupied for the approximately monthlong stretch in June and July when Atlanta will host eight World Cup matches, including a semifinal match. But Qualls-Battey said she is not worried and estimates the hotel could end up 80% occupied for the month overall.
“I’m not as concerned because I know we’re going to sell out all those games,” she said. “People are going to want to be downtown, and they’re going to want to stay and be part of the environment and the excitement.”
FIFA dropped rooms in other cities
A FIFA spokesperson declined to share how many hotel rooms the governing body returned in Atlanta but confirmed it exercised a standard contractual provision.
FIFA had set aside hotel rooms for staff, media organizations and operational stakeholders, the spokesperson said. As the event drew closer, it adjusted its hotel room bookings based on attendance numbers. FIFA has exercised similar opt-out clauses at previous World Cups, the spokesperson added.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
It’s common for big event organizers to trim or expand hotel bookings when attendance figures become clearer, industry experts told the AJC.
“It’s a normal course of business. … Conventions do that all the time,” said longtime Atlanta hospitality consultant Paul Breslin. But he acknowledged it can be tough for hoteliers when commitments are reduced.
“When you’re the person who is selling it, it hurts,” said Breslin, managing director of Horwath HTL’s Atlanta office. “It’s real. It’s reservations.”
FIFA also dropped 2,000 of its 10,000 hotel room reservations in Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Similar media reports have come out in other World Cup host cities, including Mexico City, Vancouver and Boston.
FIFA also reportedly cut its World Cup 2026 operating budget by more than $100 million, according to The Athletic.
Questions linger about how much economic impact the World Cup could ultimately bring, especially amid a more challenging travel situation. The war in the Middle East has driven up gas prices, and a partial government shutdown recently disrupted airport operations across the U.S. Heightened immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump could also affect international travel demand.
“It’s not going to be 48 Super Bowls. Trust me on that,” Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality market analytics for CoStar, said earlier this month during the Hunter hotel investment conference held in Atlanta. Officials have often equated the economic impact of the World Cup to other big events like a Super Bowl.
“Because we are hearing, ‘Wow, the FIFA room blocks are washing tremendously,’” Freitag added, referencing an industry term that’s used when hotel room blocks are reduced. “We can imagine inbound (travel) is still a wild card.”
Atlanta hotel bookings
The Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau said 163,000 hotel rooms are now booked during the approximately 30 days that Atlanta hosts World Cup games, spanning the downtown, Midtown and Buckhead markets.
William Pate, president and CEO of the ACVB, estimated about 55% are rooms that “FIFA accounted for with the teams, the staff, corporate sponsors.”
One thing that has affected the pace of hotel bookings, Pate said, is FIFA has released tickets in phases. Atlanta also still has two unnamed countries for certain group stage matches.
“It is a shorter booking window than other big events,” Pate said at a Thursday executive committee meeting of the ACVB. “People can’t do anything until they know they have a ticket.”
FIFA said it will begin its “last-minute ticket sales” April 1, with tickets available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis. FIFA said it will continue to sell tickets through the end of the tournament.
Kevin Richards, president of hotels for Atlanta-based Legacy Ventures, said he expected to have a long lead time on bookings, similar to the Super Bowl. Legacy Ventures owns and manages metro Atlanta hotels, including two downtown near Centennial Olympic Park, the Embassy Suites and Hilton Garden Inn.
Richards, though, expects an influx of reservations when there is more clarity around World Cup tickets.
“We do think that the games will still be very, very strong,” he said, but geopolitical turmoil could shift its mix of visitors.
“We think the international demand is going to be down because of outside influences,” he said. “But we do feel like there’s enough domestic interest that’s going to make it a phenomenal event.”
Pate said with the current June and July hotel bookings in Atlanta, about 21% represent international travelers, which is up from 11% in a typical year.
Pate added that he believes crowds will build through the end of the World Cup tournament, when Atlanta hosts a semifinal match. He said there are watch parties and a fan fest, so people without tickets can still come and enjoy the experience.
“World Cup provides us with this wonderful opportunity to reascend to the world stage,” Pate said in an interview. “It is a great opportunity for us to kind of refresh everyone’s perspective on what’s going on downtown.”
The ACVB also said it is planning an Expedia marketing campaign, geared at boosting “non-FIFA-related bookings” in Atlanta, said Andrew Wilson, chief marketing officer, at the Thursday meeting.
“So we’re doing an $80,000 campaign to drive June and July bookings amongst people who aren’t soccer,” he said.
‘The flood gates are going to open’
Pete Patel, founder and CEO of Nexera Capital, said he is both optimistic and anxious about the World Cup.
He’s one of the developers of a new Moxy hotel in downtown, which opened just weeks ago about a mile from Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the home base for the World Cup.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
“We made a huge push, obviously, to get it open before the World Cup,” Patel said. The hotel features 183 rooms and three food and beverage outlets, including the first Georgia location of breakfast spot Eggslut.
“The booking pace hasn’t been great,” he said, but the hotel just opened its booking window, and more calls come in every day.
“We’re still optimistic. … This is the biggest sporting event in the world, right?” he said. “I do think we’re definitely going to get the sellouts that we’ve all expected. … The floodgates are going to open.”
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