It was confirmed that the "purchase voucher (compensation coupon)" paid by Coupang as compensation for the personal information leak can be applied to some hotel buffet products. That differs from Coupang's official notice saying it "cannot be used for mobile coupons (e-coupons) and hotel buffets."
According to travel platform Coupang Travel on the 20th, the "Sky on 5 Dining" buffet voucher at Jeju Shinhwa World, a hotel and resort, is sold for 50,000 to 130,000 won per adult. The product is offered as an e-coupon, but the 20,000 won compensation coupon can be applied. For the lowest-priced item, using the voucher reduces the actual payment to around 30,000 won.
This differs from Coupang's previous notice. Starting on the 15th, Coupang distributed a total of 50,000 won in purchase vouchers usable on Coupang Travel as well as Coupang, delivery platform Coupang Eats, and luxury platform R.LUX.
Coupang set restrictions for each purchase voucher. For the Coupang Travel purchase voucher, the usage guide specifies "excluding e-coupons and hotel buffets" and "excluding certain products, dates, and rooms depending on partner circumstances, inventory policies, and operating conditions," among other details.
Even so, among hotel buffets, Jeju Shinhwa World is currently the only place where the purchase voucher can be applied. Coupang did not disclose a specific reason for this.
In the industry, some suggest Jeju Shinhwa World may have been classified as an exception because it is a complex resort rather than a single hotel, or that the Jeju Shinhwa World side, which has been struggling with management difficulties, may have discussed applying the purchase voucher with Coupang.
Jeju Shinhwa World is a five-star hotel and resort built with about 2 trillion won in Chinese capital, and a significant number of its users are known to be Chinese tourists. The place is 100% owned by Landing International. Landing International is the Hong Kong investment corporation of Chinese real estate group Landing Group.
Jeju Shinhwa World fully opened all facilities in 2019, but losses have continued due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. On a consolidation basis, operating losses totaled 12.852 billion won in 2022, 25.526 billion won in 2023, and 24.146 billion won in 2024.
On Coupang Travel, there were more cases where, while not hotel buffets, purchase vouchers could be applied even though they were e-coupons. Representative examples include a meal voucher for a barbecue restaurant in Jeju and gift certificates for the N Seoul Tower observatory and restaurants.
Posts sharing examples of how to use the purchase vouchers are also spreading, centered on social media (SNS). On X, a user posted that "the original price of the Jeju Shinhwa World buffet is 65,000 won, but I ate for in the 30,000 won range with Coupang's discount and the compensation coupon," adding, "Jeju residents or prospective tourists, take note."
As posts summarizing "workarounds" and "tips" for using the compensation coupons have been uploaded one after another, some popular items have sold out on Coupang's R.LUX since the compensation coupons were issued.