What the FIFA World Cup Revealed About Hospitality Brands’ Support Plans

The 2026 FIFA World Cup brought together 48 teams, 16 host cities, and millions of fans across North America.

The tournament ran from June 11 to July 19 across host cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

The New York/New Jersey host region projected a $3.3 billion economic impact and more than 1.2 million visitors.

The tournament's scale created a specific operational challenge: demand for guest support could shift quickly across cities, channels, and stages of the event.

Support teams had to be prepared to respond before arrival, during stays, and even after the tournament ended.

“For hospitality brands, the harder operational question was how to support guests when demand arrived in uneven waves,” says Travis Low, VP, CX Practice at Hugo, an outsourcing partner that builds and runs dedicated customer support and operations teams for companies across industries, including hospitality brands managing guest experience at scale.

Peak Demand Doesn’t Arrive on Schedule

The World Cup showed why forecasting demand for major events remains difficult.

Planning teams can estimate visitor numbers, match schedules, and expected booking periods, but actual guest behavior often changes once the event begins.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) reported softer-than-expected demand in several host markets, as international travel barriers and other factors contributed to uneven booking performance between cities.

Unpredictable demand like this creates pressure across the entire guest journey.

Hugo noted that the first wave typically involves bookings and availability, with guests asking about accommodations, proximity to venues, and options across host cities.

“The next wave is where operations are most likely to break,” Low notes.

Itineraries change as event schedules firm up and travel plans shift around them, and cancellations/rebookings are very common as flights & visas fall through.

There are also questions about local logistics, transport, timing and what's accessible on a match day.

“And then the disputes and escalations: refund eligibility, policy questions, complaints when something didn't go as promised,” he adds.

Each interaction creates a point where information can be lost between teams, channels, or systems.

This is why support operations can struggle during sudden spikes even when staffing numbers appear sufficient.

The challenge is maintaining continuity while requests move through the operation.

Staffing to a Forecast Creates Problems in Both Directions

A workforce planned around a single demand estimate creates risk during peak events.

"Overstaffing creates unused capacity, while understaffing leaves the team exposed with every unexpected surge,” Low says.

Access Hospitality’s survey of 1,000 hospitality businesses in the U.K. found that 87% of operators viewed forecasting and revenue management as a significant challenge, while 85% cited staffing and operational efficiency.

The failure is often a lack of readiness: when teams are overloaded, agents move requests between departments and are unable to resolve them because they lack the required context.

That creates a slower support experience at the exact moment guests need faster answers.

For major events, the problem is that demand can change faster than a traditional hiring model can respond.

One of the biggest planning mistakes hospitality companies make is not preparing for a range of possible outcomes.

"Teams build a single forecast and staff to it,” says Janell Scott, VP, Talent & Delivery at Hugo. “But that forecast is often wrong, so the question becomes by how much and in which direction."

Low also pointed to a gap between having coverage and being ready.

“An agent who can answer the phone but doesn't know the property, the policy, or the systems just resolves the issue by handing it off. And every handoff strips context, which the guest has to supply again,” he adds.

Flexible Teams Help Hospitality Brands Prepare Before Demand Changes

The way around this is planning the workforce to scale from the start.

"It’s safer to build a workforce that can expand and contract once the spikes begin instead of trying to guess the right number ahead of time,” says Scott.

When demand spikes, trained capacity is ready to expand into it, and if it falls, the core team keeps serving while unused capacity flows to where it's needed.

Hugo’s buffer model is designed for this.

Instead of reducing skilled agents when demand slows, the model keeps team members trained through the Hugo Academy or reassigned to support other client needs before returning to higher-volume periods.

The model’s three-tier structure includes:

• Core staff who handle baseline demand.
• Buffer staff who provide additional capacity when volume rises.
• Surge Protect, which provides additional coverage ahead of periods where demand is expected to increase and become less predictable.

This approach allows clients to prepare ahead of demand changes rather than reacting once queues have grown.

Hugo’s model also supports hospitality teams that require additional capabilities during major events, including 24/7 coverage, support in more than 60 languages, and rapid team creation.

Scott said multilingual support is one part of a broader readiness strategy for teams that can absorb spikes without degrading.

“During international events, demand spikes in a different language mix than most baseline operations were built for,” she adds.

“A team staffed for one market suddenly needs coverage for guests arriving from a dozen countries.”

These capabilities support the buffer model by giving brands access to trained resources when demand patterns change.

The Lesson Extends Beyond the World Cup

The same operational challenge appears during retail peaks, product launches, seasonal travel periods, and other events where demand can increase quickly without following a predictable pattern.

The ability to prepare teams before demand changes helps companies handle periods of uncertainty while maintaining consistent service.

Hospitality brands are moving toward volume-aware guest support operations that adjust with demand instead of relying on fixed headcount forecasts.

The World Cup created an extreme example of this challenge, but the lesson applies to any business where customer volume can change faster than traditional workforce planning can respond.