"Name Your Price" – Seoul Lodging Costs Triple for BTS Gwanghwamun Concert, Rooms Already Sold Out

[Financial News]"It’s usually hard to find vacant rooms in central Seoul on weekends, but with the peak season overlapping the BTS (Bangtan Boys) concert, securing rooms has become even more difficult."Ahead of the BTS concert at Gwanghwamun on March 21, bookings for accommodation in downtown Seoul are surging and prices are skyrocketing. The Seoul Metropolitan Government and police have pledged to crack down on price gouging, but the market appears to have already treated the BTS concert as a peak season windfall and moved into aggressive pricing. Attention is now on whether such warnings alone can cool the preemptive price hikes that are already in full swing, amid criticism that the authorities may once again be acting too late.
According to Booking.com on the 8th, even before the ticket lottery for the concert has begun, accommodations around Gwanghwamun have been filling up quickly, especially higher-priced rooms, and some areas are effectively sold out. Airfare to Seoul from overseas and searches related to BTS are also rising, signaling the start of a major influx of visitors.
For the nights of March 20–21, the day before and the day of the BTS concert, most rooms in the Gwanghwamun, Jongno, and Jung District areas are now priced between 400,000 and 700,000 won per night. Some properties exceed 1 million won, and around ten or so accommodations are already showing no remaining rooms.
Compared with the same areas on February 20–21, one month earlier, average prices have more than tripled. This month, many mid-range options are still available in the 100,000-won range, and even higher-end hotels can be booked for 200,000–300,000 won per night.
Industry officials say the third week of March is already a peak season when spring travel overlaps with business demand, and the BTS concert is further concentrating guests. A representative from Josun Hotels & Resorts explained, "Even before the concert was confirmed, March bookings were relatively strong, and since the schedule was announced, we have been receiving steady inquiries from individual guests and travel agencies," adding, "Rooms for March 20–23 are effectively expected to be fully booked."


Airfares to Seoul from overseas are also climbing. According to Naver’s flight search, the Bangkok–Seoul route averaged 120,000–150,000 won in March, but fares for March 19–20, just before the concert, have risen to 190,000–220,000 won, an increase of about 60%. One-way fares on the Los Angeles–Seoul route, which were around 900,000–1.61 million won on March 13, have climbed to 1.29–2.21 million won on March 19, roughly a 40% jump on average.
Concert tickets have not even been distributed yet. About 18,000 attendees are expected to be selected through a lottery on a fan platform, but competition to pre-book hotels and flights began well before winners are confirmed. On online fan communities, some say they are considering changing their schedules just to experience the atmosphere on-site, regardless of whether they can actually attend the show.
The surge in interest is also evident in search data. According to Google Trends, domestic search volume over the past three months for terms such as "BTS 2026," "BTS concert," and "BTS ticket" has increased by between 300% and 1,000%.
Experts are calling this concert a "mega event" on par with the Olympic Games or the World Cup. Lee Seul-gi, a professor of tourism management at Sejong University, noted, "The BTS concert is a large-scale event that draws global tourism demand in a short period of time, and because Seoul does not have ample room capacity, there is a high likelihood that price hikes and shortages will occur simultaneously."
The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) will launch a joint task force to respond to crowd control, traffic, and price gouging. The city plans to inspect whether lodging businesses are properly posting rates and to crack down on unfair practices such as inducing cancellations, using mystery shoppers for on-site checks. On the day of the concert, authorities will implement traffic measures such as non-stop subway operations through certain stations and bus detours, while also monitoring crowd density in real time.
An SMPA official stated, "We are preparing comprehensively for traffic management, crowd control, and the prevention of crimes involving foreigners, and we will work with the city of Seoul and the organizers to do our utmost to ensure safety."


425_sama@fnnews.com Reporter Choi Seung-han Reporter