During the World Cup, tourists chose Airbnb over unionized hotels in Vancouver

During this summer’s World Cup in Vancouver, the city saw a surge of tourists, but many did not choose to stay in a hotel. Instead many opted for a short-term rental through websites like Airbnb. 

As a result, some hotels felt a financial squeeze. The World Cup was expected to be a boom for the hotel industry, many of which are unionized with staff earning a living wage, but turned out to be somewhat of a bust.

A number of the visitors to Vancouver booked accommodation through Airbnb — a tech company that has come under fire in recent years for increasing the precarity of Vancouver’s hospitality industry and exacerbating the rental affordability crisis for years.   

The British Columbia Hotel Association reported in June that hotel occupancy rates in downtown Vancouver were about 15 per cent lower than the same period in the previous year. The games didn’t generate “the broad hotel demand many expected.” Some tourists even searched for cheaper accommodation outside the city, in cities such as Richmond.

One staff member who works at a downtown hotel told Ricochet in an interview that they’d normally be far busier. “Typically around this time of year, if not being sold out every single night, we would probably have at least an occupancy of 90 per cent every day.” But with FIFA, there has been, “anywhere between 20 and 30 per cent a night, decrease in occupancy.”

Michelle Travis, a spokesperson for UNITE HERE Local 40, representing workers in hotels, food service, and airport industries throughout British Columbia, said an occupancy drop by 15 to 20 per cent “is significant for summertime.”

The hotel worker, who requested anonymity for fear of workplace repercussions, highlighted how, in anticipation of the FIFA games, hotels across the city increased their nightly prices. “The highest rates I’ve ever heard of was about $2,000 to $2,200 a night. Typically around this time, when we’re in our busy season, I would say an average rate would maybe be anywhere between $400 and $600.”

The worker describes how tourists, upon seeing the exorbitant hotel prices, instead “booked through alternative means like Airbnbs.” While it makes sense for the consumer to find the most affordable option, the worker says it seems that hotels shot themselves in the foot by inflating prices, because of their willingness to prey on the surge of expected international attendees during the World Cup. 

That may have something to do with lobbying by Airbnb. Last year, in anticipation of the World Cup, Airbnb launched a campaign to roll back and soften short-term rental regulations, using the hype around the tournament as a way to push for policy change. Airbnb spent millions lobbying the three host countries to relax short-term rental rules, according to Fairbnb.

There are more than 6,500 vacation rentals in Vancouver, according to Inside Airbnb. In the midst of an affordability and housing crisis, the database shows that more than 5,000 are entire houses or full apartments, units that could likely be used for long-term tenants.

Earlier in the summer, the Vancouver Tenants Union issued a warning to tourists that if they do use short-term rental sites like Airbnb to be on alert for rentals that would be considered illegal under the city short-term rental bylaws. The union says there were “landlords and property owners evicting people” ahead of the games to make room for tourists who would likely be willing to pay more than long-term tenants.

While the competitive pricing of Airbnb may have been a wake up call for hotels, the side effects further exacerbate the high cost of living crisis in Vancouver. The service industry is a major source of income for Vancouver residents, accounting for 11 per cent of the city’s total employment. More than 7,200 people are employed by the hotel industry in Vancouver. 

However, Travis said short-term rentals are not exclusively to blame for the low levels of demand at hotels during the World Cup. “The drop in hotel occupancy was precipitated by a number of factors including costly travel, expensive FIFA tickets, the particular game match-ups, FIFA’s room blocking arrangements, higher room rates, and regular guests deciding to postpone travel, to name a few.”

Travis adds that hospitality staff did not see any of the success that was generated from FIFA trickle down to them. 

“Hotels reduced staffing and cut shifts. For example, some long-term room attendants were working only one or two shifts a week during the World Cup when they would have otherwise been working full schedules. They rely on the busy season to support their families year-round,” Travis said. 

Hospitality workers say many tourists are feeling the same financial squeeze as everyone else. Tips have not been anywhere near as good as it would be if we had primarily our usual cruise ship clientele,” the hotel worker said.  

In 2024, it was predicted that the city would face a shortage of hotels for the FIFA World Cup, and that demand would far exceed supply. And, in the lead up to the games, as the city prepared to welcome hundreds of thousands of projected new tourists, unionized hotel workers rallied to demand a fair contract and fair working conditions during the World Cup. 

As it turned out, demand for hotel rooms in Vancouver did not meet those expectations, up just one per cent year-over-year, the lowest of all World Cup host cities.

“Hotel workers should not have been treated as an afterthought.” said Travis, “They absorbed the financial consequences of inflated forecasts and aggressive pricing. Developers, owners, booking platforms, and government who hyped the World Cup hotel shortage overshot and under-delivered, exposing that we don’t really have a hotel room crisis. 

“Workers paid the price when industry hype didn’t materialize. That should be a lesson for the next major international event that comes our way.”