8. June 2026

Anatomy of a FIFA booking

We’ve heard many hosts worry about not being booked for FIFA. The World Cup definitely hasn’t held what so many people and companies promised. We’ve been following the market data since last year, and our strategy has changed with the way we’ve been interpreting it:

• Miami’s booking window is between 10 and 15 days.
• The first two games in June won’t move the needle much.
• Scotland - Brazil and Colombia - Portugal will increase occupancy and nightly rates. At our last meetup, we said the data showed a year-over-year rate increase of 173% to 207% within a 10-mile radius of the Miami Stadium.
• Larger groups of guests will book longer stays to catch a few matches.
• We said that guests will come from the US and South America, specifically Colombia - we’re running ads there.

You saw Jacomina’s post on our first FIFA booking yesterday, and our second listing just got booked today - let’s see how our predictions (based on market data) did:

• Our booking window is 13 days.
• We don’t have a booking for Saudi Arabia vs Uruguay yet.
• Booked for the last two games in June, with a year-over-year increase of our nightly rates between 193% and 242% for the Colombia vs Portugal match.
• This booking is for a large group of guests, for an 8-day stay (our average stay is 4.75 nights). They are here for 3 matches.
• The guests are coming in from North Carolina.

In other words, we’re beating our estimates on pricing, and all other conclusions we’ve drawn from watching the market data have proven to be correct.

We also said that the non-match nights need to be priced differently from the match nights. And July matches will have an even shorter booking window, because fans won’t know where their team is playing until elimination matches begin. The longest booking window for Miami in July is 9 days; the shortest is 3 days. Three. Days.

• July 3 1st team 06/24 (9 days)  vs 2nd Team 06/26 (7 days)
• July 11 1st team 07/04 (7 days)  vs 2nd Team 07/05 (6 days)
• July 18 1st team 07/14 (4 days)  vs 2nd Team 07/15 (3 days)

Currently, the Miami market isn't deviating from its traditional July booking pattern, but once we get closer to those matches, that’s gonna change. Hosts will have to pay attention to which teams advance to the tournament. And once we know who will compete, you will need to make good decisions and execute those quickly.

One word of caution: Airbnb allows guests to Reserve Now and Book later, which means a guest can book your listing and block your calendar without being charged for the stay until a few days before they arrive. I believe savvy fans will book multiple listings in all the cities that their team may play in, before they know for sure, and then cancel once they figure out where their team is not playing. The good news is that this option only applies to listings with flexible or moderate cancellation. We’re sticking with the limited or non-refundable cancellation options to avoid this possibility.