World Cup 2022: Accor hiring 12,000 temporary workers to help in Qatar

Hotel operator Accor is recruiting 12,000 temporary overseas employees to operate 65,000 empty rooms in apartments and homes in Qatar as temporary fan housing for the 2022 World Cup, its chairman and chief executive Sebastien Bazin said.

Qatar is working to avoid an accommodation shortage during the tournament and has hired Accor, Europe’s largest hotel operator, to manage the temporary operation.

My Bazin said “65,000 rooms is like opening 600 hotels, so we committed to hire enough people to serve it”, and a drive is under way in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and South America to recruit housekeepers, front-desk staff, logistics experts and others.

“All that is going to be dismantled at the end of December,” he said.

Qatar's official World Cup accommodation website has received about 25,000 bookings so far, and will offer more than 100,000 rooms, Omar Al Jaber, executive director of accommodation for tournament organisers the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy told reporters on Tuesday.

Bedouin-style tents are to be used by fans at the World Cup in Qatar. Courtesy Fifa

“We will be under pressure until the first match has started. This is normal and we are ready,” Mr Al Jaber said.

Qatar hopes to attract 1.2 million visitors, which is nearly half of its population, during the 28-day tournament in November and December.

However, the tiny Gulf Arab state has fewer than 30,000 hotel rooms, according to estimates by Qatar Tourism, and 80 per cent of those rooms have been block-booked by world football's governing body FIFA for official guests, World Cup organisers said.

Qatar is also offering 4,000 rooms on two cruise ships moored at Doha Port, 1,000 Bedouin-style desert tents and rooms in prefabricated fan