With less than two weeks to go before World Cup matches kick off in Seattle, excitement is building, but hotel bookings aren’t quite matching the early hype. Local hotels are working to find ways to attract late bookers as ticket prices drop.
The Washington Hospitality Association, which represents about 6,500 businesses statewide, says the outlook is positive, although it’s falling short of the most optimistic forecasts.
CEO Anthony Anton explained that while some initially anticipated Super Bowl-level attendance for each match, reality is a bit more tempered.
“I think what we’re learning now is we’re going to have a good summer, but it’s going to be more like a pre-COVID summer — like 2018, which was a really good summer and we were glad to have it,” Anton said.
Anton said the hotel industry would be happy to have a similar summer after a challenging year. He noted that travel from Canada and Asia has been down, and hotels are facing rising expenses.
Anne Johnson, general manager of The State Hotel downtown, said initially, she expected rooms would sell out immediately. Instead, bookings have been coming in much later, as tickets are released and prices drop.
“Everything is last-minute,” Johnson said. “The soccer fan — and this is what FIFA has shared with us — is a last-minute booker.”
That booking pattern is a major shift from the typical cruise traveler, Johnson pointed out, who tends to plan well in advance. Compared to this time last year, The State Hotel is behind on bookings, but Johnson remains confident. The hotel, which has just 91 rooms, is already around 90 percent full for the USA-Australia match on Friday, June 19. However, for the first match in Seattle on Monday, June 15, occupancy is only about 65 percent.
To attract more guests, Johnson said the hotel has opened availability by removing blackout dates with corporate partners, adjusted pricing downward, added specials on online booking sites like Expedia, and reduced minimum stays for certain games. They’re also ramping up marketing efforts to Canadian tourists.
Johnson said from what she’s been hearing, as the tournament goes on and it becomes clearer who will be playing in the later rounds, bookings will pick up.
Anton emphasized that World Cup coverage will provide the region with valuable free advertising, boosting Seattle’s tourism industry in the long run.
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