In case you have been living in the woods for the past few months, completely cut off from polite society, and this newsletter is the first time you’re getting news from the outside world, we’d like to inform you that the 2026 FIFA World Cup is underway.
Not only is this quadrennial event a celebration of soccer, it’s also supposed to be a moneymaker for hotels, motels, and other short-term dwellings in the tournament’s host cities. Indeed, many entrepreneurial Canadians saw it as an opportunity to get into the short-term rental game and signed up for the first time on sites like Airbnb. But has demand kept up with their expectations?
According to data provided to The Peak by Airbnb, over 4,000 new hosts in Vancouver and Toronto signed up on the platform between October 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026. The two cities ranked among the top for the highest level of uptake on the New Host Incentive program — an initiative the company introduced in February to boost World Cup capacity, where people who started an Airbnb listing by July 31 would receive a ~$1,000 bonus.
One freshly minted host is Laurence (whose name we’ve changed to protect his privacy), a retired real estate developer who worked in Vancouver. Ahead of his retirement last year, he decided to renovate the studio suite at his North Van home and turn it into an Airbnb listing that could generate some passive income during his golden years. The catalyst for the decision was the World Cup, with Laurence fixing things up more than a year in advance to ensure he was ready for a potential deluge of footie fanatics. In total, he estimates that he spent around $90,000 getting the place up to snuff and officially opened for business last month.
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