Lodging establishments in Busan suspected of canceling existing room reservations and reselling them at prices dozens of times higher to capitalize on the BTS world tour concerts in the city are now under police investigation.
The Busan Metropolitan Police Agency's Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit announced Tuesday that it has launched a fraud investigation into these accommodations.
Police are focusing on allegations that some establishments unilaterally canceled existing reservations immediately after the concert announcement and resold the rooms at sharply higher rates.
The controversy spread on social media shortly after the concert schedule was made public.
"A room I booked for 100,000 won several months ago was suddenly canceled on the grounds that it had been double-booked, and a few hours later the same room was relisted for 1.5 million won," one BTS fan claimed.
Other users also shared similar experiences, expressing frustration that hotels and motels had canceled their reservations citing "overbooking" before reselling the rooms at significantly higher prices.
After a thorough legal review of such practices, police concluded that fraud charges could be applicable and launched the investigation.
Concerns are also growing that the scale of damage to foreign tourists could be even greater.
According to the Korea Tourism Organization's Tourist Complaint Center, approximately 80% of tourism-related complaints filed between January and May this year involved foreign victims.
Many cases are believed to have gone unreported due to language barriers and the short-term nature of foreign visitors' stays.
"If criminal charges are substantiated, we will take stern action," a police official said. "We believe there are more similar cases of damage and will expand the investigation accordingly."
