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Officials have contended that the 2026 FIFA World Cup will bring millions of visitors to North Texas, and some of that tourism traffic is already starting to pick up.
It’s an event that has been so big, so hyped and so far-off for so long, it doesn’t feel real that we are now only six months away from hosting nine matches of the Beautiful Game in Arlington. The hype started to materialize earlier this month, when Dallas won the match schedule lottery.
Reigning World Cup champion Argentina will play two games in Dallas, and England, Croatia, Japan and the Netherlands were other big-name pulls that have helped build the buzz.
Since the group-stage match schedules were announced on Dec. 5, Dallas has seen a 102% spike in hotel and short-term rental bookings, according to data from the short-term rental (STR) management firm PriceLabs. Hotel room bookings around the England vs. Croatia game, which will be played on June 17, doubled in the 24 hours after the match was announced. As of Dec. 7, the average hotel room was going for $457 a night, a 500% increase from the same dates in 2025.
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Booking.com data shows a similar influx of international interest. Travel search inquiries made by Austrian travelers between Dec. 5 and Dec. 9, looking to visit Dallas next summer, increased 384,233% year over year. Austria will face off against Argentina on June 22.
(That number may sound shocking, but is it really that surprising that there wasn’t a major Austria-to-Dallas summer pipeline prior to the World Cup? The lower areas of Austria experience daytime highs in the low 80s in June, while the mountainous regions are noticeably cooler. We’d take that over a sweltering summer any day.)
“The good news is that the DFW region has over 1,200 hotels with over 140,000 hotel rooms, not counting short-term rentals,” Craig Davis, president and CEO of Visit Dallas, told The Dallas Morning News this summer. “So, in terms of capacity, we’re not worried at all.”
One factor that could complicate matters is North Texas’ inconsistent stance on short-term rentals booked through websites like Airbnb and VRBO. AirDNA, a company that tracks short-term rental analytics, has seen a 300% to 500% increase in Dallas bookings for next June compared to this year. That increase is even higher for Fort Worth STRs. This increase in traffic comes as the state Supreme Court considers whether the block on Dallas’ short-term rental ban can continue.
“[T]ime is of the essence,” an October filing from the city’s legal team that asks the court to allow the ban to go into effect states. “The world will soon converge upon Dallas for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. STRs will be in high demand. And with the ordinances erroneously enjoined, it will be more difficult for the city to proactively ensure the health, safety and quality of life for residents and visitors alike.”
That layer of “regulatory uncertainty” could throw a last-minute wrench into North Texas’ rental market ahead of the games, the PriceLabs report found. Perhaps the most significant effect would be that interested local homeowners would be unable to list their homes for rent — a hustle that short-term rental operators in Dallas have promised to be a lucrative opportunity.
“If the injunction is lifted, Dallas would be able to restrict unregulated short-term rentals, limiting how much new, often part-time supply can come online ahead of the tournament,” PriceLabs found. “If supply tightens while demand continues to build, pricing pressure could increase further. If not, additional inventory may still temper rates. Either way, Dallas remains a market where early signals look strong, but outcomes are still very much in motion.”
