Forecasters were skeptical that U.S. hotels would cash in on World Cup travel. The data says otherwise.
Hotels in host cities have posted three straight weeks of game-day gains, driven almost entirely by higher room rates, according to CoStar data.
For the week ended June 27, hotel revenue per available room (RevPAR) rose 25% year over year on game days across the 27 World Cup matches played in U.S. host cities.
It's a rate story, not a visitor numbers story, as noted by Truist Securities analyst C. Patrick Scholes and his team. Occupancy mostly held flat or slipped. In Atlanta, the average daily rate jumped 23% year over year on the June 21 match day, while occupancy fell 4%.
Bookings haven't come in via a last-minute surge either, Truist noted. Data doesn't show a sudden jump in bookings within the month.
Higher prices likely priced out some regular travelers. But hotels still came out ahead on balance. From June 11 to June 26, average daily rates across host markets rose 22.6%.
"That is over double the national growth over that period and over five times the national growth experienced in April and May," said Ryan Meliker of Lodging Analytics Research & Consulting.
Marriott arguably made the biggest bet on the World Cup by becoming an official sponsor. Besides many ads in stadiums, it has two World Cup-related ads on TV, with 71 airings reaching an estimated 123 million people so far, according to iSpot, an analytics firm, with variations on social media, such as its “For Fans Everywhere” reel on Instagram.
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Sean had fun joining the This Week in Hospitality podcast. The hosts dug into:
What actually keeps hotel group CEOs up at 4 a.m. (The answer's not AI)
What’s the broader significance for independent hotels of Palisociety joining Design Hotels by Marriott.
What’s a seismic shift that will create alpha in hospitality. (Hint: Social commerce and agentic AI browsers have tossed the distribution gameboard up in the air.)
Plus, Amex vs Capital One, the most overhyped trend in travel, the health of the brand factories, the membership club boom, and (scary!) raccoons.
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