Was anyone able to get a hotel in Rio in 2014 without going through FIFA Accommodations? I paid four times the price for a hotel in Copacabana just because they had taken up all the rooms and we had to book through them.
Don't know about Rio but I booked hotels without FIFA in Sao Paulo and Recife. The former was easy (and cheap) the latter was difficult and expensive. Guess its going to depend on the city again for Russia. I suspect it won't be too difficult to get a hotel in St. Petersburg or Moscow. Some of the other cities might be difficult though.
OK, thanks for the reply. Just as a trial run I went on FIFA's website for the Confed Cup and tried to book rooms for the last week of June and none of the listed hotels had availability, but I went on Trivago and there are rooms in multiple hotels. How far out did you book your rooms in Sao Paulo and Recife?
for Brazil 2014, I used AirBnB in Rio as hotels there were hard to come by. But there was plenty of good AirBnB options. The FIFA hotels were ridiculously expensive. I think some opened up later, but were way above my budget. As @BocaFan said, hotel cost and availability varied massively city to city. In the huge Sao Paulo, they were giving hotels away (like in the US$100 range) as it's a huge city with tons of business hotels and there was little business being done in June 2014. Good business class hotels were very available at great prices. The smaller cities also varied. I recall Natal had a shortage as it's a small tourist town. I paid the most of any city I stayed in (~$300/night) for a really crappy room with no windows. That same room books for $20/night usually. The big hotel web sites like booking.com show a lot of variety and it's easy to compare prices too.
Already booked a few hotels and airbnb, but more options should come out next few months, especially with the chain hotels. Flying looks to be a pain, as unless things change, the lack of direct flights between host cities route mainly via Moscow.
Thanks to all who have replied. We have been looking at hotels via Booking.com and for Moscow City Center have found some decent hotels for $100-150 a night during the time we want to go. Now I can only hope that lightning strikes twice and I am able to get tickets to the games there via the FIFA lottery like I did in 2014.
I decided to go ahead and book a Moscow hotel for just my first 3 nights, 12-15 June. I want to attend the Opening Match, and I'm almost surely going to attend the first USA match, so I figure this way I'll at least have something for my first few days in country. I used booking.com, although later I plan to check out AirBnB also. With the draw not until December, and ticket sales after that, I don't plan to do much else. Maybe book my return flight for the end of the R16 round which is when I'll probably be coming home. Once the draw happens I'll go into overdrive on booking lodging and flights (or trains).
SA was way worse as MATCH took virtually all the hotels and seemed very reluctant for anyone to stay in them. thank goodness that SA is a land of BBs. For Brazil I used two FIFA hotels in Rio and Fortaleza and separate B&B/Small hotel in Salvador. Already booked a hotel in SP and Sochi and waiting for Moscow to come out from under the bedclothes and actually let people stay in their hotels. Like they are doing us a favour.
Just booked six nights in St. P'burg and 5 nights in Moscow from 21 June to 2 July. Four matches in those cities during that period played in 3 different stadia. Anyone know if, for e.g., "E1" means there will automatically be a seeded team involved in the match? I'm pretty sure that was the case in Brasil (seeded teams got placed in the "1" spot while the remaining teams were randomly placed in either the 2, 3 or 4 spot)
hmmm.... just had to cancel my reservation for a St. Petersburg hotel and re-book at the same place because I saw the same room listed for $250 less than I had reserved it for just a couple of days earlier (same hotel, same room type, same booking website)! That works out to about $40/day less! So yeah... you guys might want to keep browsing for hotels even if you've already made reservations. Just be careful that sometimes the deal includes or excludes breakfast, which would account for any price difference. But in my case, I found the same room for $40/day less and breakfast (for 2 people) was still included in the cheaper deal.
I have been to the past 3 world cups and the last European Cup last year in France, in all of them I have only attented playoff games. It's easier for me to make hotel reservations based on cities and dates.... I plan on going to Russia 2018 for late 1/8 and beginning 1/4 thus I have made these 3 reservations July 2 -July5 Moscow (July 3 there is a 1/8 in Moscow I plan to attend and worst case scenario there's also a game in St Petersburg, if that game is way more appealing i'll just go for 1 day and come back. July 8 - July 11 : St Petersburg for Semifinal 1 in St Petersburg on the 10th July 11 - July 16 : For Semi #2 in Moscow on the 11 and Final on the 15th. I've done the reservations directly from IHG and the prices were reasonable considering the period and the location of the hotels... and all of them I can cancel the day before. In the meantime I will keep looking for better and better prices. I am so excited about the whole process, can't wait for ticketing phases....
I am still surprised that hotels go in for this no charge if you cancel the day before. Did Booking.com start it? I went out for a meal with a friend and could not believe she had booked three different restaurants until I said which I wanted! Anyway take advantage of it while you can, just surprised hotels do it.
In Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Sochi there are a lot of hotels even under $50 a night. Kazan a lot already sold out but on Booking there are a lot of apartments options. Nizhny Novgorod is going to be a struggle, there are not a lot of hotels in general. The worst one is going to be Saransk complete disaster.
Ntc342 "Sorry all, I know this is the ticket thread, but any tips (or where I can check for tips) on accommodations? In Brazil I used the fifa site for hotels but I was splitting it with a friend so it wasn't that bad but I will likely be alone for this one and I can't tell if most airbnb is just booked already (Moscow, first week) or there's really only poor overpriced accommodations for now and I should just keep playing the waiting game..." I should wait but keep an eye on things every day especially before the draw. Despite FIFA taking most hotels and releasing very few at hugely inflated prices I am very surprised to see so many hotels not with FIFA still not releasing prices. I don't know what they are waiting for as they can only sell their rooms once. On thing that always amazes me is that host nation companies always think people that go to these tournaments are mega rich and cost does not matter so they over price and panic come March/April because they have so many rooms left. I have been checking all sites daily for 6 months and it has been very frustrating in Moscow. I don't know about airbnb as there were too many horror stories in Brazil about them.
How can it be that I wasn't able to find a single hotel (not hostel) in Moscow for the final date? Only hostels and apartments.
I don't understand their logic. they don't even have to have the cancellation policy if thy are worried about that. I can only think it is a greed issue and they are waiting to see what others are charging. They are certainly not full that is for sure. One hotel in SP told me they were full and a week later released their prices. One in Moscow said they would release prices in September yet nothing.
A lot of them (esp. popular western chain hotels) will be tied up in overpriced "hospitality" packages. If the demand for those is lukewarm (which is likely now that the comfort loving, money spending yanks are out), then they will release rooms at some point in spring.
So what you recommend me? So far I'm planning to book an airbnb in Moscow to be used as hub, but I've read that I can have problems with the registration. Is that correct? It's almost impossible to stay in a hotel for a month...
You will need to make that "registration" by yourself. Go to the police station and fill some papers within 24 hours. Maybe the organisers will think of some better way to do it. Let's wait and see. AirBnB has some other risks like canceling your booking etc.
I used AirBnB before with success, particularly in Brazil where it worked well. But I stuck with those marked as "Superhost". I too am waiting for the hotel inventory to open up. I booked a highly rated small hotel in Moscow on booking.com several months ago and booked my first 4 nights thinking I could tack days on when my schedule firmed up. Turns out I need 2 extra days but now it is showing sold out those 2 nights so I need 2 nights somewhere.
Helpful info here worth a read it’s angled at Aussies travelling but still relevant to all https://russiau.com/2018-russia-world-cup-travel-guide/
So far have all my accommodation booked. First four nights in SP booked through airbnb and the host has said she will register us. Rest will be in hotels most booked through one of my work suppliers as I work for a travel company. Had some bad experiences with tentative bookings with Booking.com and other airbnbs. One hotel on booking.com in Sochi cancelled saying they were renovating, another after booking said the rate was not valid and had to get me to cancel. One airbnb allowed me to book, then said he was selling his property.
So strange. I booked a place via booking with free cancelation option and the hotel sent me a message to pay for the first night if I want to reserve... Strange, no? It appears as free cancelation via booking.