9 out of 10 Seoul five-star hotels use ‘drip pricing’ in promotion

SEOUL – Most of the five-star hotels in Seoul are omitting mandatory additional fees from the room charges displayed on their homepages, the Seoul city government said on Sept 6.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government conducted a survey of 27 hotels given five-star ratings by the Tourism Promotion Act and found that only three of them show customers room charges complete with taxes and additional fees.

The rest use “drip pricing”, a tactic where only a part of an item is advertised and the final amount is revealed at the end of the buying process.

In one case cited by the city, a room charge of 697,500 won (S$680) was advertised as a special member-only fee at one of the hotels. But the actual price jumped to 843,975 won when taxes and service charges were included.

Seoul officials stressed that drip pricing can lead to consumer confusion when comparing room charges, as most hotels display the price complete with taxes and service charges.

While it is customary in some other countries to display pre-tax prices, most products in South Korea display the final price to be paid by the customer.

The South Korean government defines drip pricing as part of “dark pattern” pricing, and in February passed a revision of the Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce, to ban such techniques meant to deceive consumers. The revision goes into effect in February 2025.

Dark pattern pricing that will be banned in 2025 also includes raising the membership fees of a service without explicit notification and consent of the user. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK