With less than a month until the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off, hotel bookings across host cities, including the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metro areas, are running below initial projections.
According to The American Hotel & Lodging Association’s FIFA World Cup 2026 hotel outlook, 80% of hotels say bookings are behind original forecasts. Approximately 70% of Dallas- and Houston-area respondents report booking pace below forecasts, though still broadly in line with a typical World Cup buildup.
FIFA room block cancellations, international travel barriers and rising costs were identified as key drivers of softened hotel demand in the study. Though matches are expected to sell out, the report stresses that high costs, travel barriers and policy uncertainty are threatening that upside…