San Francisco vacation rental hosts are hoping Australian sports fans decked in green and gold can lift a lagging World Cup travel market. 

Even for die-hard soccer fans, the lackluster slate of matches FIFA gave the Bay Area contains little to get excited about. That spells trouble for vacation rental hosts who’ve been banking on a major boost in business as part of San Francisco’s sports-reliant tourism turnaround. 

A possible Australian invasion could spell the difference between a hat trick and a missed shot. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi! Oi! Oy?

Airbnb hosts around the country (opens in new tab) have been facing a dearth of guests traveling in for the tournament, which runs from June 11 to July 19, scared away by a combination of rising jet fuel costs, sky-high ticket prices, and a tournament sprawled across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Keith Herrington has short-term rental properties in both Seattle and San Francisco, two of the tournament’s host cities. While his Seattle rental is fully booked for the World Cup at triple the usual summer rate, his Ingleside home is still available for many match days, at a much lower premium.

Filling those San Francisco dates is critical for him since, on a good month, half his mortgage payments come from Airbnb income. He’ll start dropping his rates in a few weeks if he doesn’t get any takers soon. 

“If somebody told me, ‘Hey, I want to do this as a career,’ I would tell them, find a better job,” he said. 

Before a “Trump slump” in tourism last year driven by the administration’s harsh tariff and immigration policies, Australia had traditionally been one of the top origin countries for international visitors to California. In 2024, high-spending — and occasionally hard-drinking — Australians ranked in the top five of overseas travelers coming to the state, according to Visit California. The average Aussie spent about $3,200 per trip — well above the average visitor from other countries. 

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“Australians really, really love to travel to California and are willing to do it,” said Bram Gallagher, an economist at AirDNA.

Vacation rental rates in San Francisco are up 25% over the usual summer premiums for the Australia vs. Paraguay match on June 25, the highest bump of any match at Levi’s Stadium, according to AirDNA data. Airbnb hosts in San Jose, which is less expensive and closer to the action, are fetching a 40% premium on Australian game day. 

Even so, compared with Australia’s two other group stage matches, in Vancouver and Seattle, tickets for the Bay Area game remain a relative bargain.  

The Australian national team — known as the Socceroos — has chosen the Oakland Roots and Soul Sports Club in Alameda as its training base for the tournament, and it is hosting several events playing up the partnership. A new United Airlines route between San Francisco and Adelaide — the first nonstop flight between the Australian city and the U.S. — is making the trip easier.

Melbourne native Loren Dawes, who serves as president of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Australian Football League, said that although soccer is generally outstripped in popularity by Australian Rules Football and rugby, Australians travel well to international sporting events.

“Sport is essentially a religion for us. So if there’s an opportunity to travel and support our teams, we always do,” she said. “The Socceroos are not going to win the World Cup, but we don’t care.”

Aussies like friendly competition, barbecue and beer — as well as a good deal, she said. Her countrymen opt for Asia when considering luxury travel, since the Australian dollar goes further there. Dawes notes that some traveling to the World Cup are likely trying to save money by staying with friends and family.

But some Australians are looking to go high-end. They are among the top 10 nationalities purchasing high-end hospitality packages for the games, according to Justin Sousa of FIFA’s official hospitality partner, OnLocation. Fewer than 10 tickets remain for the $3,000 package, which includes sideline seats, gourmet cooking stations, and premium beverage service before and after the match and at halftime. 

The Green and Gold Army, an Australian football travel company, has booked hundreds of rooms at the Hyatt Regency on the Embarcadero for 14- and 18-day World Cup tours, which travel from Seattle to Vancouver to San Francisco.

They have 550 Australian fans signed up so far to visit all three cities for the matchups, with clients excited to not just see the games but hit the sights in “iconic” SF, according to Michael Edgley, the tour company’s director.

Trips start above $11,000 per person, but tickets to the games themselves aren’t included.

There are a few historical quirks tying San Francisco and Australia. Australians were among the first group to leave their home country in the thousands to journey to San Francisco after gold was found at Sutter’s Mill in 1848. Sydney also became San Francisco’s very first sister city back in 1968, with both sharing a waterfront location and strong LGBTQ communities.

Still, those connections have yet to help Herrington fill his vacation rental, with nary an Aussie in sight, he said.

AirDNA’s marketing director Luke DaMommio has been on a vacation rental roadshow of sorts, traveling the country’s World Cup host cities to pitch Airbnb hosts on how to reap some of the economic benefits of the games. He feels it’s only a matter of time before more overseas visitors start to flood in.

If those tourists are only picking one spot, they don’t have to be Australian to see the benefits of the Bay. Other U.S. World Cup destinations may have bigger match-ups, but they’re also hot and humid in the summer, DaMommio said. Some are just plain boring.

“All due respect to Kansas City, but no one’s dying to go to Kansas City every summer like people are trying to go to Seattle and San Francisco,” he said.