Maureen Hosty is still waiting for takers. The Kansas City resident became a first-time short-term rental host in February in hopes of catching a financial windfall from the surge of tourists who will visit the city during the FIFA World Cup tournament this summer.
Hosty is attempting to rent out a portion of her River Market home that includes two bedrooms and two bathrooms for guests.
Still, less than two weeks from the kickoff of the tournament, she said, "I have not gotten anything — not a single bite."
Hosty is not the only short-term rental host awaiting bookings that haven't yet materialized. Last year, Kansas City officials moved to make the short-term rental process cheaper during the monthlong World Cup.
The goal, officials said, was to open up an avenue for residents to financially benefit from the 650,000 visitors they estimated will come to Kansas City during the tournament — a number that influenced first-time Airbnb hosts to cash in on the supposed tourism boom.
"This has been kind of a bust for me," Hosty said. "There's just nothing out there. It's been very discouraging."
According to data from short-term rental analytics website AirDNA, Kansas City, the smallest host city, saw the largest increase of Airbnb listings since June 2025 among all host cities.
AirDNA's May report shows Kansas City's listings grew by 43%, and 13.6% of new short-term rental listings in Kansas City are only available for the World Cup.
Data from the city's Neighborhood Services Department shows there are 398 major event short-term rentals, out of a total 1,100 short-term rentals. Since June 2025, the city has seen a 48% increase in the number of registered short-term rentals.
The opportunity for extra cash wasn't the only motivating factor for Hosty, who said she lived in Argentina for a year and wanted a chance to meet with Argentinian soccer fans.
"I would love to show them around, because I was living in the same town that Lionel Messi is from," she said. "I love soccer. I just thought it'd be so fun and great to have international visitors."
Hosty's high hopes began fading in April, the point at which she thought she would be booked for at least 30 days.
"But now, I'll be lucky if I even get one or two nights," she said.
Kansas City homeowner Bryce Langford is in a similar boat. About five months ago, he listed his entire Midtown home, with four bedrooms, on Airbnb for the World Cup.
"We have not had a single interested person contact us," he said. "It's still listed just to see if anything happens, at this point. I would say we're just curious to see if we have any interest at all."
Langford said he and his wife listed the home at a higher price point to make sure they got a significant return for the effort they put into preparing the home for guests.
"When we first started doing it, we were thinking: What's the best-case scenario, what's a middle-case scenario," Langford said. "And there's really no worst-case scenario for us."
Ultimately, Langford said he's satisfied they went through the process.
"I'm glad that it's not just a missed opportunity, and that we're not sitting here wondering if we could have rented it out," he said. "Now we know, and I don't feel disappointed."
Seeing what happens
Susan Brown has been a short-term rental host for almost 10 years, and rents out five properties in the metro. So far, Brown, who is also president of the Kansas City Short-Term Rental Alliance, said she's gotten two World Cup bookings: one from Argentinian tourists and another from an out-of-state family.
Properties that are more expensive have not yet been booked, Brown said.
"Unlike maybe some people that are newer, we've been doing this for so many years, we're not under a lot of pressure to get those higher prices," she said. "We can kind of sit and wait a little bit and see what happens."
Brown's group co-organized several crash course programs aimed at helping prepare prospective hosts for the World Cup. The courses, also organized by the Missouri Vacation Home Alliance, offered advice on how to apply for the right permits, following city laws and how to determine a nightly rate.
When Hosty attended one of the workshops, Airbnb staff helped her price her home and set the minimum number of days for a booked stay.
"But since then, I've reduced the price three times and I've changed the minimum to only two nights," she said. "But that doesn't seem to do anything — still haven't gotten a single bite."
'You've got to pivot'
While some hosts bemoan Kansas City's short-term rental supply expansion ahead of the World Cup, Brown said it's a good thing for visitors.
"They're not going to have to pay exorbitant prices," she said. "They have been booking at lower prices, and that's just what people do."
And, while the actual number of visitors may not end up at the levels people thought a year ago, "if you've been in business for any amount of time, you know that things change, you've got to pivot," Brown said.
"The good news is, there's going to be plenty of space for people to come and to enjoy Kansas City," she said.
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