Probably not. I was just guessing they would try to do more than 4 matches per day since teams only play in 2 out of the 3 group stage matchdays.
AirBnb is the only site with accommodation listed at this stage. All the other usual booking sites seem to have everything booked out.
I can't speak for every hotel, but the three I deal with and how far in advance they open up booking are: (a) Marriott/Bonvoy - 50 weeks; (b) IHG - 50 weeks; (c) Hilton - 1 year. I realize these are US brands so there will be other options in Doha, but we are still 13+ months out, so I wouldn't expect many hotels to have released rooms so far in advance yet. But I really don't know for other brands. Also, I fully expect that for the chains I listed that there will be zero, or at best very few rooms released anyway. All of the rooms for the big chains are pre-booked or set aside for the many delegations and VIPs and nothing ever gets released to us non-connected people, even those of us at the highest levels of their customer loyalty programs. This was true in Brazil and Russia and also for the Tokyo Olympics, all of which I aggressively tried to book.
they're both shitty for different reasons. At least Australia has a group stage match every day in prime time (9PM). If you're a working stiff on the US West Coast you won't see any games during the week unless you stay up and watch a 2AM kickoff. But I agree the knockouts are worse for the Aussies. 2AM and 6AM is worse than 7AM and 11AM, especially for the final. So overall it is worse there. For me, the times are really perfect in Western Europe if on holiday and not working.
We only get the 9PM games for the first two rounds of group games (8 matches). The final group games are on knockout schedules as they play the games at the same times. Still, 8 games at a reasonable evening time is better than we normally do.
The real killer for Australia is having the WC final on a Monday morning. It would be okay if it was Sunday at 2AM. Possibly 2 of Australia's matches would be among those 8 early matches*. Didn't I read somewhere that FIFA were going to shuffle the matches of any given day around a bit to suit viewers in the countries that are playing? Or was that just starting in 2026? Of course, if its Australia versus a team from the Americas then you can only make one country happy. * assuming they qualify.
Depended on the city for Brasil. Sao Paulo and Fortaleza were easy (even if booking just a month or even 2-3 days in advance) and affordable. Recife very difficult and expensive. In Russia, Sankt Petersburg and Moscow were easy to find hotel rooms too. Not sure about the other host cities, but I imagine probably a bit difficult. Generally, the bigger the city the easier and cheaper a hotel room is (not sure why right on the beach in Fortaleza was so easy).
If we qualify the shifting of times depends on who we play. They moved the France match last time to a time that suited us and it was still OK in Europe although a little early. I'll settle for one 9PM game our time and then see what else we get.
We ended up in the same hotel (and same corridor) with the german team in Fortaleza it was Germany x Gana. I booked the hotel 7 months in advance and the hotel wasn't exceptional, probably 4 stars. But it seems it was the best in fortaleza
Smart one. Qatar airways working on stop over holidays. As expected Qatar wants tourists from Americas / Europe to stop in Qatar for few days before heading to their final destinations in Asia.. A tourist will not come to qatar only and they know it. A tourist will use qatar airways to go somewhere else (qatar airways leaders in connecting US/ europe to Asia) and will be tempted to stop in Doha. Nobody likes Qatar but stadiums will be over crowded..good plannification and marketing will play a big role in this world cup, things you did not need in Brazil 2014 for example. Example of failed plannification and logistics: look at huge game England x Italy in Manaus in Brazil. The stadium was half empty. some tickets were sold for 5000 usd for this game ! Thats an example between a desire to watch a game and visit a city and the difficilties to achieve it. QATAR is just the opposit.. http://www.travelnewsasia.com/news21/410-QatarStopover.shtml
Ha! I was there for the same match. I know exactly what hotel you are referring to. A couple of the Ghana players stepped out of the hotel and kicked the ball around on the beach for a bit. Good times.
No no i was with the german team in their hotel. It was quiet far and calm. I remember Ghana team were in a different one on the corniche (the maim sea road) just in the middle of the crowd and noise
There is also a chance that Europe will not go back 1 hour during winter time starting next year. (would have started this year but squashed by Covid). So if that happens we go forward 1 hour kickoff times in Europe.
Call me crazy but I checked the schedule, stadiums and transit time before stadiums already. I made a chart for this. Call me even crazier, I am planning to visit 3/4 matches (if they are interesting) Group Stage and ALL GAMES for the knockout round. The only concern I have: Yes, they did the metro, but the transit times are still ridicilously long compared to going by car accoring to Google Maps. You will se on the chart. So: Will we able to rent a car? Will be able to park next to the stadiums with cars? Or we have to use taxis - yes that can be pricey. Obviously if the 'middle' game is not that good during group stage, I can miss a game for a better transit time (or cheaper by mass transport) for the game after, I just wrote down all the transit times if they good games are actually starting after to each other. Be aware: In the konckout rounds, there are 4 hours between the matches (also last round of group stage) not like 3 hours in the group stage so even if there are penalty shots, you can make it between ANY stadiums, especially with a car.
So, here it is: Starting and ending point: Doha downtown (metro red line, Westbay, etc.) Group Stage: Day 1: Start: CAR 30-35 min 13:00 Al Bayt Stadium CAR 40-45 min PROBLEMATIC TIMEFRAME 16:00 Al Thumama Stadium CAR 15 min BUSZ1 hour 19:00 Khalifa International Stadium CAR 20 min, METRO 1 hour 22:00 Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium End: CAR 25 min, METRO 1 hour Day 2, 4, 6, 8: Start: METRO 1 hour, CAR: 25-30 min 13:00 Al Janoub Stadium CAR 25 min 16:00 Educational City Stadium CAR 30 min, METRO 1 hour 19:00 Ras Abu Aboud Stadium CAR 30 min, METRO 1 hour 22:00 Lusail Stadium End: CAR 20 min, METRO 25 min Day 3, 5, 7: Start: METRO 1 hour, CAR 25-30 min 13:00 Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium CAR 20-25 min 16:00 Al Thumama Stadium CAR 15 min BUSZ 1 hour 19:00 Khalifa International Stadium CAR 40-45 min PROBLEMATIC TIMEFRAME 22:00 Al Bayt Stadium End: CAR, 35 min Day 9, 11: Start 18:00 Al Thumama Stadium OR Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium 22:00 Khalifa Stadium OR Al Bayt Stadium End: Day 10, 12: Start: 18:00 Educational City Stadium OR Al Janoub Stadium 22:00 Ras Abo Aboud Stadium OR Lusail Stadium End: R16: Day 13: Start: CAR 20-25 min, METRO 40-45 min 18:00 Khalifa International Stadium CAR 20 min, METRO 1 hour 22:00 Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium End: CAR 25 min, METRO 1 hour Day 14: Start: CAR 25-30 min 18:00 Al Thumama Stadium CAR 45 min 22:00 Al Bayt Stadium End: CAR, 35 min Day 15: Start: CAR: 25-30 min, METRO: 1 hr 15 min 18:00 Al Janoub Stadium CAR: 20 min, METRO: 1 hr 30 min 22:00 Ras Abu Aboud Stadium: End: CAR 15 min, BUSZ 40 min Day 16: Start: CAR 20 min, METRO: 45 min 18:00 Education City Stadium CAR: 25-30 min, METRO 55 min 22:00 Lusail Stadium End: CAR 20 min, METRO 25 min QFs: Day 19: Start: CAR 20 min, METRO: 45 min 18:00 Education City Stadium CAR: 25-30 min, METRO 55 min 22:00 Lusail Stadium End: CAR 20 min, METRO 25 min Day 20: Start: Kocsi 25-30 min 18:00 Al Thumama Stadium CAR 45 min 22:00 Al Bayt Stadium End: CAR, 35 min Semis, Final: Al Bay Stadium: CAR 35 min Lusail Stadium: CAR 20 min, Metro 25 min
Actually many people do not realize how incredibly close these stadiums are to each. If we can find a good taxi service / parking at the stadiums it will be suprisingly easy to go between venues. It is almost like the olympics where you could attend 3-4-5 events a day. The only exception when you have to go to Al Bayt stadium that is relatively far (45 min by car) from other venues. Others should be okay to do, maybe if you are really risk averse, you can go 2-3 min before the end of the game to be first out the gate on Day 2, 4, 6, 8 but on the knockout stage it should be pretty comfortable to go from stadium to stadium, even after a long penalty shoutout you have like 1 hour 15 minutes to go until kickoff.
The funny thing is that they do not do Al Thumama and Al Janoub on the same day. And they do not do Education City + Ahmad Bin Ali (Al Rayyan) on the same day which makes my head hurt I just do not understand maybe they do not want a big crowd in a small area? Just to tell you, these would be like 10 minutes to each other even with mass transport or taxi. They spread out the games quite bit, they could have done much more logical match days. I also do not understand why they have the same times in each stadium. I.e.: Al Janoub Stadium only have early games, Ras Abo Aboud stadium only have night games. It would have been nicer to experience the stadiums at different lighting.
I just revisited the FIFA bid evaluation report (https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/3041e390c9c0afea/original/fd4w8qgexnrxmquwsb7h-pdf.pdf), it looks like the bid was claiming 45000 existing hotel rooms and 55530 extra to be built. The report says that the existing inventory (* I take this to mean where FIFA etc are using more rooms.) Searching the web for stuff like "qatar hotel inventory" is getting me figures like 28000 actual rooms now but still loads of projects ongoing with a target of 45000 by the time of the tournament. (Coincidentally that's the same number that the bid claimed already existed?) e.g. https://www.arabnews.com/node/1765371/business-economy Those numbers look pretty catastrophic so hopefully I'm missing something.
In fact it looks catastrophic... This seems to be the biggest bottleneck. I neither want to be on cruise ship waiting for my turn to get off/on every day, neither in a tent in a desert. Airbnb could be good but as they say, the only bars are in hotels so hotel would be the best by a mile.
I wouldn't dream of it Good luck. I usually have trouble keeping up when there are three matches per day, and I'm watching them all on TV. I'm not planning to attempt four - even from my sofa it's too hard!
Nice. I hope North America does the same. Even now the sun is setting at 6:15p. Why change the clocks so that it sets even earlier? So stupid...
Yeah it does not make sense whatsoever. And you get depressed as the sun goes down before you finish work.
Looking like Japan is headed to the playoffs. Seems like a long time since they didn't qualify directly for a World Cup. (?)
True, when i saw the figures i was shocked. But according to a friend of a friend working for the supreme comittee for delivery and legacy, they are profiting from every empty apartment / room to fill the gap and they will be good. However most of the accomodation offers will come a bit later so no panic if you didnt find a bed in Jan this year. Ull see many offers coming slowly till the event kick off..