Ingram's June 2026

Thought Leader Insights: Regional Hospitality

Q&A . . . W ith A ndrea O’H ara Key executive in the regional hospitality sector takes the measure of FIFA World Cup impact and what’s in store for a vital employment sector that drives commerce on a broad scale.

Q: After FIFA’s recent bulk room cancellations for World Cup reservations, what’s your honest assessment of how that arrangement was structured? A: I think the big headline is that FIFA released 75 percent—that’s the number we’ve seen a lot—of the originally contracted room blocks. It’s not uncommon for major events like the World Cup to involve complex agree ments negotiated years in advance, with built-in review and cutoff dates where a percentage of rooms can be released without penalty. That framework exists for good reason—no one can predict demand with perfect precision that far out. In this case, the volume released was certainly more than expected, but context matters. Q: What does that experience say about the leverage—or lack of it—that host cities have when negotiating with an organization like FIFA? A: What makes FIFA uniquely difficult to forecast is that it only happens every four years and rotates to vastly different parts of the world each time. With most major events, we have recent comparable history—similar host cities, similar demand patterns—to inform our planning. That simply doesn’t exist for FIFA. Add to that the current politi cal climate and its impact on international travel, and you have a set of circumstances that made accurate forecasting genuinely dif ficult, not just for hotels, but for FIFA itself. Q: What does that experience say about the challenge of Kansas City pursu ing and landing such mammoth events? A: The broader takeaway is that hosting an event like this requires flexibility and close collaboration between hotels and the organi zation, communicating regularly so no one is surprised when the review period comes around to release rooms. From the hotel per spective, our focus is on this being a positive experience and embracing the opportunity we

A: It does create some competition among the hotels in this market. We’ve had a lot of development over the past several years that helps us compete for larger groups. At the same time, building new hotels is a sign of confidence in the destination’s future. The additional inventory allows KC to pursue larger events, accommodate more visitors, and grow the convention business we already have. We’re still in the process of absorbing that growth, but KC has built a strong pipe line of future business. Q: How would you characterize the efforts of hotels here to manage aggres sive pricing vs. the risk of damaging the region’s hospitality brand? A: It’s definitely a balancing act. Hotels have a responsibility to maximize revenue during high periods of demand, but they’re always mindful that long-term success depends on a positive reputa tion—the affordability and perception that those rates create among leisure guests and meeting planners. KC has histori cally done a good job striking that balance. The market builds a significant amount of repeat business—whether convention, cor- porate travel, sporting events, or leisure— and hotels understand that today’s pricing can affect future bookings and influence what meeting planners do down the road. With the World Cup’s unique demand pat terns, it really challenges hotels to stay nimble and adjust as needed. Rates moved based on supply and demand, mixing peak pricing on match days with softer periods in between. There’s nothing to suggest KC lost sight of maintaining rate integrity through it. Q: How is Kansas City performing in the convention and tourism segment right now, and what’s the outlook for the back half of 2026 and into 2027? A: Definitely more convention busi ness. That remains an incredibly important

do have—hotels are filling up on match days. I don’t think anybody questions or doubts that the World Cup will have a lasting impact on our host city’s notoriety and give us a chance to be put on a stage like never before. Q: And your longer-term expectations of how this affects the market? A: What we’re seeing—and what FIFA prepared us to expect—is that this World Cup visitor is a very last-minute planner. We’ve seen booking pickup happen much closer to the event than it normally would for a convention. In addition, especially with KC being centrally located, we’re seeing drivers coming from within about a 1,200-mile radius—Nebraska, Oklahoma, areas like that—making a vacation out of it, even if they’re not going to games. Fan Fest is part of that draw as well. Q: Beyond FIFA, Kansas City hotels were already navigating a complicated summer before that news broke. Where does the local sector stand heading into the back half of 2026? A: As far as this year goes, despite the attention FIFA has captured, we had a great Q1 and Q2—the first half was very positive. Each hotel has a different experience, but speaking as a whole for KC, we performed very strongly in the first and second quarters, and while we’re seeing some softness in Q3 and Q4, that still holds real opportunity. Good events will create compression in the back half, and the hope is for hotels to stay aggressive with short-term business. Even more positive is our pipeline into 2027 and beyond—our next few years have very strong momentum. Our city has done a great job recently investing in and focusing attention on what attracts visi tors, leaning into those strengths to effectively compete against peer cities. Q: How has hotel construction in recent years changed the competitive dynamics among properties here?

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June 2026

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