ATLANTA — A new report from the American Hotel and Lodging Association finds hotel bookings ahead of the World Cup are lower than expected in Atlanta and several other host cities.

The report says about half of Atlanta hotels are reporting lower than expected bookings ahead of the tournament.

Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau President William Pate says many fans are still waiting to secure tickets before booking rooms.

“FIFA had an international lottery, they began distributing tickets at the end of February, but they’re continuing to distribute tickets now it looks like into the end of May; and so you can’t book a room until you know you have a ticket,” Pate said.

Pate says the booking pattern for the World Cup may look different than some initially expected.

“I do think the pattern is going to be a little bit different. I think there was a hope that people would come and stay for 2 weeks, I’m not sure we’re going to see that. I think it’s going to be more of just a couple of days before, and then the day of the game, and then out,” Pate said.

Despite the slower start, Atlanta is performing better than most other host cities, according to the report.

The association says hotel bookings in San Francisco are 70% below expectations. Miami is the only host city reporting stronger hotel booking numbers than Atlanta.

Pate says he expects demand to continue increasing as the tournament approaches.

“We’re doing very well and we continue to see the pace pick up as we get closer to the tournament,” Pate said.

Pate also noted that the ongoing ticket distribution process has created a shorter booking window than hotels are used to seeing.

“You can’t book a room until you know you have a ticket, so that is unusual and that’s a shorter window that hotel-ers are used to,” Pate said.

WSB Radio’s Jonathan O’Brien contributed to this story.