The World Cup kicks off this week in 16 cities across Mexico, the U.S., and Canada. The smallest of those metros is Kansas City, Missouri, which will host six matches over the next month. For months leading up to the tournament, area leaders prepared for a challenge: The region didn’t have nearly enough hotel rooms for the hundreds of thousands of fans expected to visit during the World Cup. So some homeowners and developers were hoping to reap a windfall by renting their places out. Others worried the uptick in vacation rentals would make life more challenging for local renters.But now, as the tournament begins, the market for short-term rentals in Kansas City looks like much more of a mixed bag.Lily Stork admits she was a bit late to the game.At first, she was reluctant to list her family’s five bedroom Kansas City home during the World Cup. But then, she started hearing how some other homeowners were charging thousands of dollars a night for their places.“We kind of have this really wonderful space that's closer than anything else we've seen to where the games are going to be, and so we thought we can't really pass it up,” Stork said.Her house even has an indoor pool. So, in March, she and her husband paid a property manager to list it during the World Cup at $5,500 a night. But so far, soccer fans aren’t going for it.“We've had thousands of inquiries, but no bites.”Kansas City's Union Station is decked out with banners for the World Cup, as the city prepares to host six matches over the next month.Sylvia Gross/MarketplaceThat’s not the situation Kansas Citians were expecting just a few months ago. The local tourism bureau, Visit KC, projected the World Cup would bring 650,000 visitors. That’s 10 times the number of hotel rooms in the region, according to Susan Brown, president of the Kansas City Short-Term Rental Alliance.“We were worried in the beginning, will they be sleeping on the streets? Where will they stay?” Brown said.So, Brown’s organization, and municipal officials, made efforts to get more people to offer up their homes for rent.Kansas City, Missouri reduced its registration fees for short-term rentals. Brown’s group held training sessions for prospective hosts who wanted to make money from the influx of soccer fans.“Everybody whooshed in, opened up their homes, hoping to get a piece of that, and then what that does, it's just an economics lesson,” Brown said. “Supply and demand.”As in, the supply of Airbnbs and VRBOs outpaced demand. That’s held prices down, Brown said, leaving some property owners with solid business, others with none.“You might get lucky, you might get that booking, or you might not.”Overall, short-term rental bookings are up in the area, 47% higher than the same time last year, according to AirDNA, a site that tracks global short-term rental data. Rates are up too, 65% higher compared to last year.And yet, Jamie Lane, chief economist at AirDNA, said there are still a lot of available places in the region.“Demand can be really strong while overall occupancy seems a bit weak,” he said, “because of the massive increase in listings into that market.”Some would-be hosts in Kansas City, like Roxana Shaffe, threw in the towel months ago.“We knew by January that maybe the World Cup thing wasn't going to quite be the boon,” Shaffe said.Roxana Shaffe and her husband bought a townhouse back in 2024, specifically to rent it out as an Airbnb during the World Cup. They figured they’d get a few years of experience hosting a short-term rental before the games.But after listing their place in late 2025, the place wasn’t getting booked for the Cup. Then, in mid-January, some folks who’d just rented the townhouse asked if they could buy it. Shaffe ran the offer by her husband.“I texted him, and he immediately shot back with ‘yes,’” she said. “Not, ‘Let's talk about it,’ not, ‘Let's think about it.’ Just immediately, ‘yes.’”They closed in late February for just over $300,000, which was about what Shaffe said they paid for it. Ultimately, she said, moving on was for the best.“We never got a single World Cup booking up until we closed.”Charlie Hooper's, a bar in Kansas City, flies flags representing the countries playing in World Cup matches in the city. Kansas City is preparing to welcome thousands of tourists during the tournament.Sylvia Gross/MarketplaceFor homeowners still waiting for bookings, there is some time. The last two matches in Kansas City are in the later stages of the tournament. We won’t know which teams are playing for a few more weeks. And Visit KC, the regional tourism bureau, confirmed that it still expects 650,000 visitors over the next few weeks, but the group declined an interview request.For now, Lily Stork is keeping her listing up and preparing to potentially move her family of four kids to her parents’ house on short notice.“If for some reason we got a bite, we would have to scramble, but we would. We would do it,” she said.Stork’s property manager, meanwhile, has dropped the price of her place from $5,500 a night down to about $2,000.