A 1904 cartoon already warned hotel guests about this classic price trick

Price gouging, charging sharply higher prices when buyers have no real alternative, like hotel rooms during a sold-out fair or bottled water after a hurricane, is old enough that an 1904 cartoon warned World's Fair visitors about it. Economists are split: some argue high prices during shortages efficiently signal scarcity and ration limited goods to those who need them most, while most jurisdictions instead cap post-disaster prices by law, judging the fairness cost too high to accept.

— Wikipedia contributors, Price gouging — Competition and consumer-protection law