"150,000 Won a Night"—Busan Hotels Accused of Price Gouging Again on BTS Concert Day, Even Texting Guests to Cancel Existing Bookings

[Financial News] As BTS (Bangtan Boys) prepares to return in full as a complete group for the first time in four years, news that their world tour will include a stop in Busan has already sent shockwaves through the local accommodation industry. No sooner had the concert dates been announced than some hotels raised their rates by as much as tenfold, and at least one hotel even asked existing guests to cancel their reservations, fueling an expected backlash over alleged price gouging.

Starting April 9 at Goyang Stadium in Gyeonggi Province, BTS will embark on a world tour of 79 shows in 34 cities across North America, Europe, South America, Asia and beyond. In Korea, Busan will be the only stop outside the capital region, with concerts scheduled there on June 12 and 13. June 13 is especially significant as it marks BTS’s debut anniversary, and Busan is also the hometown of members Jimin and Jung Kook.
The problem is the sharp spike in accommodation prices. After the BTS concert dates in Busan were announced, room rates at local lodging facilities nearly quadrupled to ten times their usual levels.
At major tourist areas such as Haeundae, most of the online room inventory at hotels was snapped up within four to five hours of the announcement, and on some accommodation booking platforms, rooms that normally cost around 90,000 won surged to around 900,000 won during the concert period.
A deluxe double room at one luxury hotel was priced at 785,000 won, more than twice the rate of the previous week (298,000 won) or the following week (390,000 won). Some properties were reportedly charging close to 1.5 million won.


On social media platforms, some users have even claimed that hotels asked them to cancel rooms they had already booked.
One guest shared a text message received from a hotel. The hotel wrote, "Yesterday, after the BTS Busan concert schedule was announced, we received hundreds of bookings at the same time. Because the number of reservations now exceeds the number of rooms, we no longer have any available rooms. We are very sorry, but we kindly ask you to cancel your reservation." The guest responded, "Even if you received hundreds of bookings, I already secured a room, so what does that have to do with me? Are you just trying to raise the price?"
This is not the first time Busan has faced controversy over hotel prices.
Back in 2022, when a free BTS concert was held to support the bid for the 2030 Busan World Expo, accommodation prices in the city reportedly soared by up to thirtyfold, drawing widespread criticism.
In response, BTS fans began using the hashtag "Good Busan Accommodation List" to share information on reasonably priced places to stay while also calling out accommodations accused of profiteering.
At that time, the Busan Metropolitan City Government operated a lodging price reporting center and carried out joint on-site inspections, demanding corrective measures from businesses. Many are now calling for the city to take similar action again.
gaa1003@fnnews.com An Ga-eul Reporter