Overcharging hotels risk losing star rating under new rules

“Hotels found to have overcharged customers could face a 30-point deduction in their rating evaluation, a penalty steep enough to cost a hotel its star rating. The move signals a tougher stance on price gouging, penalizing such offense three times more heavily than most other violations. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Thursday that it had issued advance public notice of a proposed revision to the guidelines governing hotel grading operations. Under the revised plan, tourist hotels face a new 30-point rating deduction for overcharging customers, compared with a 10-point deduction for most other violations, including hotel fires, illegal activity and administrative sanctions from sanitation or fire inspections. With up to 1,000 points given under the rating system and only a 100-point gap five-star and four-star thresholds, overcharging violations could push a hotel below its rating tier. The new criterion came after a price gouging controversy surrounding BTS' concerts in Busan, when many accommodations throughout the southern port city simultaneously raised their prices

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