The British Columbia Hotel Association is blaming what is it says is flawed “messaging” for vacancies heading into next month’s FIFA World Cup that has left tourists with the false impression no rooms are available.
Instead, the association says June hotel occupancy rates in downtown Vancouver are pacing about 15% behind the same period last year.
It says the World Cup has “has not generated the broad hotel demand many expected,” although booking activity suggests travellers are making plans closer to arrival.
The association says a move by FIFA to release previously booked blocks of rooms was partly behind the room inventory that “continues to return to the market.”
It says it’s time to switch to a simple message, that “Vancouver is ready, rooms are available, and visitors should make their plans.”
The association’s statement comes less than four weeks before June 13, when Vancouver hosts the first of seven World Cup matches in the city.
Next month’s occupancy rates across the broader Vancouver and Lower Mainland markets are meanwhile pacing about 9% behind June 2025, the association says.
While fans have complained about being priced out of attending the World Cup due to ticket and accommodation costs, the association makes no mention of financial considerations in its breakdown of the reasons behind the vacancies.
The association says a false “public story” about the city being booked out “can reduce the very demand the event is meant to support.”
The association says recent visitor modelling also points to a “different mix of demand than many first assumed,” saying a significant share of attendees are expected to be local or regional same-day visitors.
Destination Vancouver said last week that hotel bookings for June were down, but noted that air arrivals to Vancouver between June and August are up 6% from last year.
Prices ‘hard to justify’
Jarrett Vaughan, an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder school of business, suggested the accommodation industry is likely pricing some visitors out of the market.
“Hotel accommodations are very expensive in Vancouver no matter what’s happening, and so you then add this layer of visiting guests and this added pressure drives, obviously, room rates higher,” he said.
World Cup Facebook forums are filled with people listing their homes for rent during the games, seemingly under the table.
Vaughan said that’s not surprising. “What people do is they kind of black market or grey market or backdoor the system by renting out your place in exchange for tickets or renting it on Facebook and taking the insurance risk on something like that,” he said.
Luana Carcano, a lecturer at Simon Fraser University Beedie school of business, said “basic economics” says hotel prices will not decrease as the tournament nears.
“When supply is structurally constrained and demand is event-driven, hotels have no incentive to discount,” she said. “Stack that on top of ticket prices, and the total cost becomes hard to justify for most people.”
After hotels that cost upwards of $900 per night, tickets between $500 and $2,700 and a heavily surcharged flight, the “total trip for an international fan easily exceeds $10,000 to $15,000,” Carcano said.
“At that level, this stops being accessible sport tourism, which changes who comes, how long they stay, and how broadly the local economy benefits,” she said.
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