Thousands of hotel rooms in Qatar which had previously been blocked off by FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 organisers are being released to the general public for booking, Bloomberg reported.
Some properties are “still under construction,” Bloomberg said, with only two months to go before kick-off.
The Qatar Supreme Committee and the FIFA governing body had previously held back the rooms, in order to prioritse the teams in the competition, sponsors and their guests, royal guests, officials and fans who had booked hospitality packages.
As the World Cup nears, several unallocated rooms are being released “after a contractually agreed-upon deadline,” a person familiar with the process told Bloomberg.
Additionally, hotels are expected to open more rooms in early October. “The availability picture will become much, much broader,” Guy Hutchinson, president and chief executive of Rotana Hotel Management Corp., said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Hutchinson added: “A lot of those concerns are going to be answered in the very short term.” He expects occupancy at his properties to be 90 percent or higher for the duration of the tournament, Bloomberg said.
Qatar is on track to provide at least 130,000 rooms for the tournament, and that more than 117,000 rooms are currently available, according to an official spokesperson for the country.
Fans can choose from lodging options include purpose-built housing, tents, Airbnb-style accommodations and at least two cruise ships with almost 4,000 cabins.
The tournament is estimated to bring 1.2 million fans, with a bulk of visitors arriving on the first two weeks of the event.
“Many will fly in and out on the same day, staying in neighboring countries like the United Arab Emirates. Qatar reopened a secondary airport to the public to handle a surge in flights,” Bloomberg said.
Additionally, Qatar has been working nonstop to get the country ready, including an overhaul of sewage systems to handle the surge of fans.
“The stadiums, mostly built from scratch, are done. But at least a half-dozen hotels, including five-star properties, are still under construction with the goal of completing work by November 1,” Bloomberg said, adding that some properties plan to open all of their rooms and restaurants, while others will only have a portion of their rooms available in time for the tournament.
Fan villages, which include “rows and rows of quickly built housing resembling mobile homes or shipping containers visible from the air,” are still being worked on.
In the present scenario, the tournament’s official website still shows very limited availability for hotel room bookings for the first few nights before any teams are eliminated, Bloomberg said.
Follow us on
