The 2026 World Cup is being billed as the biggest and most exciting in the tournament’s history. Eight matches, including the final, will take place just across the river at MetLife Stadium, with millions of fans expected to travel to the region and take advantage of New York City’s cultural institutions, restaurants, and tourist attractions.
At first glance, hosting the World Cup might appear to offer a major windfall for the city’s hotel industry. But the reality, as recent data make clear, is far more complicated — and far more concerning. Attracting visitors to the region is one thing; incentivizing them to stay in our hotels is another.
New York is approaching this global moment while actively losing hotels, hotel rooms, and hotel workers. The city now has thousands fewer hotel rooms and workers than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic.
When adjusted for inflation, hotel profits are down across the board, and room rates at all but the highest-end hotels haven’t kept pace with inflation. The hotels that remain are grappling with soaring operating costs, inflation, tariffs, and an ongoing tourism slump. In 2025, New York welcomed 2 million fewer visitors than projected, and is expected to see half a million fewer visitors this year than 2019.
These pressures are distorting the market. Rates at high-end hotels that employ union workers earning strong wages and benefits are rising as a result, pushing visitors to cheaper, non-union hotels or outside of the city altogether. Consequently, hotel workers face greater instability, the broader hospitality sector suffers, and $6.8 billion in annual tax revenue hotels generate for New York to help fund essential public services is compromised.
As widely reported, hotels have raised room rates in anticipation of increased demand during the World Cup. While this may initially suggest hotels will make a tremendous profit, history tells a different story. Mega-events like the World Cup rarely deliver a sustained boost for local hotel markets. Time and again, data show that while hotels advertise higher rates well in advance, prices often fall sharply as the event approaches.
The Paris Olympics followed this exact pattern: average hotel prices dropped sharply in the month before the games, with rates at three- and four-star hotels dropping dramatically from their elevated prices posted a year before. Luxury properties fared better, reinforcing a K-shaped recovery in which only the very top of the market benefits.
New York’s hotel inventory mirrors that vulnerability. Of the city’s more than 700 hotels, more than 300 are smaller, select-service or three-star properties, the very segment most likely to see declining rates and thinning margins as the World Cup nears. The result is less stability for workers and fewer long-term gains for the city.
Yet instead of addressing these challenges, some host cities are moving in the wrong direction. Los Angeles, for example, is considering additional hotel taxes tied to the World Cup. This measure will only further squeeze operators, raise prices for visitors, and accelerate the shift away from union hotels.
If New York wants to capture the full economic potential of the World Cup, it should pursue the opposite strategy: lowering costs, reducing tax burdens, and creating conditions that allow quality hotels to remain open, retain staff, and continue paying good union wages and benefits. Just as importantly, the city must ensure that room rates remain competitive so visitors choose to stay in New York.
Dandapani is president and CEO of the Hotel Association of New York.
