With less than two months until the World Cup kicks off in Toronto, several hotels in the city are now adjusting their bookings after FIFA released thousands of room reservations.
At Hotel X, just steps from Toronto Stadium, which will play host to Canada’s first match, marketing director Matt Black says staff were recently notified about the release of thousands of rooms booked between June 11 and July 2nd, rooms that were part of the contract signed with FIFA back in 2017.
“We were surprised that it went down,” explained Black.
“Typically, what would happen is they would put out what their estimated block is, and then they would be taking in all of the inquiries, and they would be the ones facilitating the actual reservations.”
As for why thousands of rooms were released so close to the games, FIFA says it’s part of its process, adding that rooms were set aside for FIFA staff, media organizations, and tournament stakeholders with the organization adjusting inventory as it finalized its numbers.
The situation is not just affecting Toronto hotels. Vancouver is also seeing an impact with roughly 15,000 hotel nights released by FIFA, according to the B.C. Hotel Association.
Economists say the move could make room for European visitors who they say seem more inclined to visit Canada than our neighbours to the south.
“Things like the Greenland showdown has soured Europeans to travel to the United States, and there were calls by some in the soccer industry to boycott the World Cup games in the United States,” said Kiefer Van Mulligen, an economist at Signal49 Research. “So if you are a European fan and you are keen on attending the World Cup and you felt this way, then potentially this would incentivize you to visit Canada or Mexico instead.”
It is something Destination Ontario staff have also been tracking with longer visits, helping fill the FIFA-sized gaps in hotel bookings.
“When someone comes to visit, how long will they actually stay? So the interesting thing with European visitors or visitors overseas is that they are going to stay for a lot longer. We saw some recent research from Destination Ontario that showed that they will be here for a minimum of five nights,” said Kelly Jackson, vice-president of Destination Ontario.
The good news for some is that those previously reserved rooms have now been re-released to the public, and anyone who was hoping to book a stay in the downtown core and cash in on all the action might still have a chance to do so.
