The World Cup was bad for some businesses in Los Angeles

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Set us as preferred The surge in soccer fans this summer was bad for some businesses in Los Angeles.World Cup host cities had lofty economic expectations for the summer tournament.

But the city’s hotels only got a 1% bump in occupancy, according to a report published this week by Hospitality Education and Research Organization, a project of the Hotel Assn.of Los Angeles.Seventy-two percent of surveyed hotels said the tournament hurt their 2026 finances, and 48% called the impact “extremely negative.” Just 2% said it met projections.Downtown occupancy reached 66% in June, down from 71% a year earlier, the report says.

Room nights fell between 10% and 12%.Ahead of World Cup tournaments, FIFA holds large blocks of rooms.

But FIFA canceled or released up to 70% of the hotel room blocks it had reserved in host cities, including Los Angeles.“We understood that we were maybe going to be disappointed with attendance going into the World Cup simply by the volume of cancellations that came out of the room block agreement,” said Jackie Filla, president and CEO of the Hotel Assn.of Los Angeles.The disappointing turnout led to staff reductions.

Of the hotels surveyed 82% reduced seasonal staff and more than six in 10 reported reducing employee shifts, scheduled hours, or permanent staff.Hotels did raise prices, with the average daily rate hitting $228, the highest of any comparable L.A.event in three years.

But occupancy was 71%, well below the 83% recorded during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.The survey drew 58 responses from 210 hotels, and the analysis was done by travel-data firm Rove using CoStar and AirDNA data.

International visitors were also scarce, with Los Angeles welcoming 700,000 international arrivals in June and July — roughly 80,000 visitors below 2024 levels for the same period, the report says.“We parti...