The upcoming month will see a surge in hotel room bookings in a city where the England football team is set to stay. However, the spike in bookings is not due to the World Cup but rather a school softball tournament. Hotel managers in the United States have expressed surprise at the sluggish uptake of rooms for the highly anticipated global soccer event, with a much higher demand seen for the school competition.
Thomas Tuchel’s England squad will be situated in a suburb of Kansas City, where six games, including a match featuring Lionel Messi’s Argentina, will take place this summer. Despite the exciting matches, fans are not rushing to visit the city in the midwest.
This situation could be advantageous for the England WAGS (wives and girlfriends) who plan to make quick trips to see their partners during the tournament, as it means more affordable rooms will be available.
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Overland Park has reported full bookings due to the softball tournament preceding the World Cup. Although World Cup bookings have been slow, the general manager, Mieke Swanson, remains optimistic that reservations will increase in the coming days.
The Kansas City stadium is scheduled to host multiple group stage matches, a Round of 32 game, and a quarter-final involving teams like Argentina, Algeria, Ecuador, Curaçao, Tunisia, Netherlands, and Austria.
Despite concerns from organizers of the softball Top Gun Invitational event, which attracts thousands of players and families, about the World Cup’s potential impact, the situation has been resolved with sufficient room availability.
With 360 teams coming from 30 states, over 3,000 room nights are required for the softball event. Initially facing a room shortage due to FIFA reserving large blocks of rooms, the organizers have since found a solution to accommodate all needed officials and teams.
A recent report by the American Hotel and Lodging Association has highlighted that hotel bookings in Kansas City are falling below expectations, with the city being deemed the most negatively affected World Cup host market.
Hotels are witnessing strong bookings for the Top Gun softball tournament, while the pace of World Cup reservations remains slow. Hotel managers are cautiously optimistic and await closer to the first match before drawing conclusions.
As the city prepares for the World Cup kick-off, hotels continue to monitor and manage their bookings, adapting to the evolving demand for accommodations in the area.