Hospitality venues struck with World Cup forecasting and staffing challenges

Forecasting and revenue management are the number one concerns for hospitality operators during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, according to Access Hospitality data.

The hospitality AI tech company surveyed 1,000 businesses across six international markets, with 87% of business owners reporting forecasting and revenue management as a significant challenge.

When looking further at forecasting, Access also found that 47% of operators struggle to predict restaurant or bar traffic, and 45% find it hard to forecast guest demand.

Staffing and operational efficiency ranked second among the biggest issues hospitality operators face, with 85% of businesses citing it as a problem.

Data reveals that training and coaching staff are a pain point for UK and Irish hospitality operators, with more than two-fifths (42%) citing this as a challenge.

Similarly, 41% of UK and Irish hospitality businesses said staff scheduling was amongst the biggest obstacles operators faced every day.

In excess of four-fifths of hospitality operators (83%) admitted that stock and inventory control are among the biggest challenges in hospitality, with larger businesses with more than 25 venues citing this as their biggest issue.

Around one-third of UK and Irish hospitality operators (34%) said real-time price optimisation is a challenge, and 33% admitted to missing upsell opportunities daily.

With England now reaching the tournament’s last 16, Access’s data showed that just in the first seven days of the tournament, booking data reveals a 60.2% increase in total bookings, with predicted spend up 39.1% (+£2.75m in additional spend in just seven days).

To cope with the surge in demand Champa Magesh, managing director at Access, said: “Adopting AI-optimised solutions, such as Access Hospitality’s Access Evo Analytics, allows operators to centralise front-of-house, back-of-house and CRM data into a single, cohesive dashboard.

“With intelligent predictive analytics, Access Evo highlights opportunities, such as anticipated spikes in customer demand, enabling them to make more informed decisions around staffing levels, stock ordering and promotional activity.

“With hospitality operators in the UK and Ireland losing on average 4-5% of annual revenue per site due to operational inefficiencies, having real-time visibility of performance data can help operators respond quickly to changing circumstances and maximise revenue opportunities.”