Five hundred million ticket requests. Nearly ninety percent of available inventory sold. By any measure, the appetite for the World Cup is unlike anything the sport has ever seen.
But walk into any hotel in the US right now: Houston, Atlanta or Seattle, and the picture is far more complex than the extraordinary ticket demand might suggest.
Something doesn't quite add up, and a growing number of hoteliers, economists and football fans are trying to make sense of it.
Some hoteliers and analysts say demand and room rates are tracking broadly as expected, with the tournament generating the positive momentum they anticipated.
Others, however, have reported slower-than-expected bookings, attributing it to a combination of factors including immigration restrictions, Fifa's own cancellation of pre-reserved room blocks and elevated ticket prices.
