Seattle hotel owners are frustrated: bookings for the upcoming 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, which kicks off June 11, have fallen far short of expectations. Organizers had forecast that nearly 150,000 fans from around the world would require accommodation during the six matches to be held at Lumen Field (69,000 capacity) from June 15 to July 6. Nearby the main venue is T-Mobile Park, used for training sessions and fan zones. The nonprofit Visit Seattle had predicted local hotels would be full to capacity, but reality has looked very different.
According to a survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Association, nearly 80% of Seattle hotel industry professionals surveyed said booking pace this summer is behind their projections. Moreover, even with such a large tournament, booking levels are trailing a normal summer season. “Host-city hotels spent years preparing for the World Cup, and while the enthusiasm is real, the data point to a more mixed picture,” said association president and CEO Rosanna Maietta in a statement.
Seattle ranks tied for second on unmet expectations alongside Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco, trailing only Kansas City, where the gap between expectations and reality was largest. Many respondents described the tournament in their cities as a “non-event,” citing weak international visitation and FIFA’s sudden release of a large block of hotel rooms that had been reserved for sponsors, teams, media and officials. “Because those commitments were withdrawn just three months before kickoff, hotels are now scrambling to find new guests and adjusting their sales strategies,” the report said.
Seattle is especially vulnerable to a drop in international tourism compared with other host cities. Unlike New York or Los Angeles, the city relies heavily on visitors from the Asia-Pacific region (China, Japan, South Korea), who are currently facing visa hurdles and rising airfares. Geographic isolation compounds the issue: the city is bounded on the west by Puget Sound, on the east by the Cascade Range, and Interstate 5 remains the sole overland route, susceptible to congestion. With cutbacks in flights from Asia and Canada—major source markets—Seattle hotels lose more than hotels in cities with a more diversified visitor mix.
Other factors cited for weak bookings include international travel barriers, geopolitical tensions and high costs. Travelers are concerned about long visa processing times, rising visa fees and uncertainty around entry procedures. Travel restrictions affecting 19 countries, along with incidents of detentions of tourists and noncitizens, have chilled international travel to the U.S. International arrivals to the country fell 5.5% in 2025 compared with 2024, and a strong dollar and higher prices make the U.S. a more expensive destination.
Seattle’s transportation infrastructure also presents additional challenges. Both stadiums sit in the SoDo neighborhood, which is connected to downtown and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport by the Link Light Rail (about a 40-minute trip from the airport). Transfers from Vancouver, Canada, use the Washington State Ferries terminal in downtown—the ride to the stadiums is then 10 minutes by streetcar or a 15-minute walk. However, on match days the SoDo area becomes congested because of narrow streets and freight routes to the port, so officials plan to temporarily alter truck traffic.
Still, Visit Seattle staff urge hoteliers not to panic, noting that World Cup bookings typically pick up in the weeks just before kickoff. “There are concerns within our hotel industry that they’re not seeing the expected demand yet,” said Kelly Sailing, chief commercial officer of Visit Seattle. “I say ‘yet’ because there’s optimism we will see a surge in bookings as the tournament approaches, hoping to mirror what was observed during the last World Cup and international tournaments in 2025.”
Based on: Seattle hotel bookings ‘below expectations’ for World Cup