Recently, Kpop group BTS officially announced the locations of the 2026 World Tour.
According to BigHit Music company, BTS's tour spans 23 countries and territories with a total of 79 shows - this is the "huge" tour scale among all Kpop artists to date.
Immediately after that, the media reported that room rates in many key areas in Busan (Korea) on June 12-13 - the time BTS's concert took place - had skyrocketed.
Not only during the 2 performance days, but also on consecutive days such as June 11 and June 14, it is easy to see many establishments increasing prices several times.
At a accommodation facility in Dongnae district, the room rate on June 10 was only 68,000 won/night, but by June 12-13 it had increased to 769,000 won, more than 10 times. Another facility in Gijang listed a room rate of 98,000 won on June 10, but by June 12 it increased to 502,000 won, and on June 13 it was 431,000 won.
In the area near Haeundae station, room rates during these days range from a minimum of 700,000 won to a maximum of 1.2 million won/night. Meanwhile, with these accommodation establishments on June 5th, there are only prices from 70,000 to 300,000 won/night - equivalent to an increase of about 4 to 10 times during the concert.
A accommodation facility in Seomyeon also removed the price list of days in June. Specifically, the room rate on June 9 was 101,000 won, but on June 10 it doubled to 212,000 won, and from June 11 to June 14, the price was completely not disclosed. This measure makes it impossible for consumers to check the level of price increase.
Even, on social networks, a post appeared from a netizen stating that, despite booking a hotel room in Busan for June, this person still received a request to cancel the room reservation from the hotel.
According to the announced text message, the hotel explained: "Due to the announced BTS concert schedule in Busan, hundreds of room bookings simultaneously poured in, exceeding the actual number of rooms, so there are no empty rooms available. We are very sorry, we hope you will sympathize and cancel your bookings".
However, this netizen angrily refuted: "I have booked rooms before, what does the fact that there are hundreds of other applications have to do with me? Are you planning to increase prices?".
In fact, the controversy about the situation of "overcharging" room rates related to BTS's concert is not the first time it has happened.
In 2022, when BTS held a concert in Busan to support hosting the Expo Busan before members enlisted, room rates in the area near the performance venue were once pushed up 30 times, causing a wave of fierce criticism.
At that time, the Busan city government operated a center to receive feedback on room rates and requested accommodation establishments to rectify. The city said that this time they will also build response measures if they detect excessive price increases or unfair business practices.
Meanwhile, a movement is appearing on social networks to share a list of "decent accommodation in Busan" for fans, aiming to introduce establishments that do not increase prices and do not cancel customer bookings. At the same time, establishments that are said to be overly profiting are also publicly shared by the online community.
