Here’s how hotels, short-term rentals in Atlanta fared during the World Cup

About 442,000 hotel rooms were booked in the city of Atlanta between June 13 and July 16, according to estimates from the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. This included the downtown, Midtown and Buckhead markets.

Late booking was the name of the game. In May, ahead of the start of Atlanta’s matches, only half the total hotel and short-term rental rooms were booked. This was unusual, said ACVB President and CEO William Pate. About 40% of the total hotel rooms were booked within the last few weeks.

Still, hotel occupancy during this period was down by 4% from this time last year. Part of this was because of the expectation that the matches would bring wall-to-wall crowds, Pate said, deterring usual summer travelers from passing through the city.

However, the revenue hoteliers received per available room was up by 11% from this time last year.

“Even though we’ve booked fewer rooms (than) in a typical summer, the revenue has been much higher,” Pate said. “So that’s been good; that’s obviously been very beneficial for the hoteliers.”

ACVB’s current data only tracks hotel occupancy for the first six matches in Atlanta. During that period, hotel occupancy was at its highest June 20, the day before the noon match between Spain and Saudi Arabia. About 80% of hotel rooms were booked, according to ACVB. This was followed by June 27, the day of the evening match between the Congo and Uzbekistan, when 74% of rooms were booked.

ACVB will release occupancy data beyond July 4 in the coming weeks, which will account for the later matches, including Argentina vs. Egypt and Wednesday’s semifinal between England and Argentina.

Hoteliers faced a few headwinds. There were fewer international guests than ACVB initially anticipated. About 8% of hotel bookings were from international travelers, versus the expected roughly 20%. Plus, afternoon matches also impacted hoteliers: Instead of staying the night, visitors who lived within a few hours’ distance from Atlanta could just drive home, or to another hotel outside of the city limits.

“I think that’s one of the great things about Atlanta,” Pate said. “We have three interstates that crisscross downtown. So for a Southeastern resident, it’s a fairly easy drive to come to an event if you don’t need to fly.”

Short-term rentals

Short-term rentals in the city of Atlanta also experienced a flurry of late bookings. ACVB said about 50,000 short-term rentals were booked in May. The number ended at 109,000.

The Argentina vs. Egypt match drove the greatest increase in demand for short-term rentals, increasing by 18% year-over-year, according to data from analytics firm AirDNA. Spain vs. Cape Verde drove the greatest increase in rates, which was 39% year-over-year.

The late increase in bookings didn’t directly benefit all short-term rental operators. Kelly Gross, the host of an Airbnb property in the Sagamore Hills neighborhood in Decatur, said only two or three of her bookings during June and July attended matches. A question in the booking form for her listing asks guests their reason for visiting.

Credit: Estela Muñoz/AJC

Credit: Estela Muñoz/AJC

Gross was disappointed to see how expensive some of the tickets were. She said that made it difficult for many people to attend a match or to justify spending money on lodging. Gross also noticed Airbnb’s pricing algorithm spiked the rates for her rental, and she eventually chose to intervene, lowering her prices.

In a statement, a spokesperson at Airbnb said hosts are always in control of the prices they set for their listings. Some hosts choose to use Airbnb’s pricing tool, which can automatically adjust nightly rates based on changes in demand. Hosts set the minimum and maximum prices and the tool adjusts rates within that range.

Gross didn’t sink thousands of dollars into her property ahead of the matches, so she believes she will end this summer profiting. For future major events like the World Cup, she cautions Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms and hosts to keep pricing more standardized to give people a chance to book, especially those who are traveling to Atlanta for other purposes.

“Sure, I want to be as profitable as possible, but also, I don’t want to completely miss out on opportunities to be able to house people,” Gross said.

Long-term payoff

For Pate, there are two economic impacts: what occurs during the event, and what occurs over the next five years.

He uses the Super Bowl LIII, held in 2019 at Atlanta Stadium, as an example. Ahead of the game, ACVB invited 11 of its clients to the city. Over the next several years, Pate estimated ACVB booked about $1.5 billion worth of business with the relationships forged during the game.

“One of our salespeople said that one of their customers was coming out of the (Georgia World Congress Center) and looked at Cosm. It was game day, so people were everywhere. And she said, ‘You know what? If you can do this, you can definitely host my convention.’ That’s the mindset you get when you get people in town and tour them around.”

For the World Cup, ACVB invited 95 of its clients to attend matches with salespeople, Pate said.

“I feel really confident we’ll book more than $2 billion worth of business coming out of this for the next, you know, five or six years in the city, so it’s a great investment for us,” Pate said.