Figuring Out Those Hidden Hotel Room Costs : Rates: Most travelers are unaware until checkout time of the bed or occupancy tax that exists in almost every city. But it can add up to 20% to your bill.

When you make a hotel room reservation, either through a travel agent or directly with the hotel itself, the first thing you probably want to know is the room rate. And even if you can secure a discount for the room, you assume that the rate you are quoted is the rate you will be charged.

But in virtually every city in the United States (as well as most cities and countries overseas), there’s an additional room charge , and chances are you won’t find out about it until you check out. And in almost every case, it can add significantly to the cost of your room, no matter what your originally quoted room rate.

Some call it a bed tax, others a “transient” fee. Still other cities label it an occupancy tax. By any name, it can add as much as 20% to the total cost of your room for every night you stay.

But don’t expect hotels to tell you about this charge when quoting your room rate.

Recently, I called more than 25 different hotels in cities across the United States, and another 20 hotels around the world. With each call, I asked the room rate for a regular room for one weekday night.

In Los Angeles, the Century Plaza quoted me a rate of $205.

In Washington, D.C., the Four Seasons offered a room at $275 per night.

In Richmond, Va., the Marriott quoted a room at $135.

In Dallas, a room at the Loews Anatole was quoted at $160 per night.

A room at the InterContinental Hotel in Miami was $189.

And in Seattle, the Stouffer Madison Hotel offered a room for $149.

But are these the real rates? Not really.

In fact, not one of the hotels I called even mentioned the existence of a room tax, so the real cost of each hotel room is actually much higher.

In Los Angeles, the bed tax is 12.5%, making the real cost of a room at the Century Plaza more than $230 a day.

In Washington, there’s an 11% room tax (officially called a sales tax), with an additional fee (called an “occupancy surcharge”) of $1.50 per room per day, bringing the real cost of a room at the Four Seasons to more than $305 per day.

The room rate at the Loews Anatole, factoring in a 13% room tax, is actually more than $180 per night.

The room at the InterContinental in Miami, thanks to a 12% bed tax, turns out to be more than $211 a night.

In Seattle, the tab for a room at the Madison is more than $170 per night, thanks in part to a 14.2% occupancy tax.

And that Marriott room in Richmond? Because of a 9.5% room tax, the rate is actually more than $147 per night.

You can also expect a room tax of 11.9% in Denver. Baltimore’s bed tax is 13%. Cincinnati checks in with a 10% occupancy tax; Cleveland’s is 13%. The room tax in Salt Lake City is 10.35%.

And New York City is a killer--a room tax of 21.25%. This means that a $200 room in a New York City hotel will actually cost you $242.50 per night. If you stay five nights, that’s an additional $212.50 that you never planned on spending.

So how did all this room tax business start?

In many cases, it was a tax levied by cities to help build convention centers, stadiums and other public sites. Most recently, voters in St. Louis approved a hotel tax to fund an expansion of the city’s Cervantes Convention Center. The small 3 1/2% tax is expected to raise a quarter of the $250 million needed to build a new 70,000-seat stadium/convention center in the city.

San Francisco’s hotel room tax went into effect in July of 1961 at 3%. In January, 1987, it went from 9.75% to its current 11%. The room tax now puts more than $67 million a year into city coffers. In fact, revenue from the tax was used to build the Moscone Center. In San Francisco, the tax is added to the rental of all rooms with a daily rate of $20 or more. In New York, the tax applies to rooms with a rate of $100 or more.

“People are not that aware of the hotel tax,” says Ralph Martinez, a financial planner for the California State Controller’s office. “For cities that attract tourism, this is big money. And these taxes will most likely continue to increase because of their revenue potential.

“But people are often shocked when they pay their hotel bills. You expect a sales tax in California, not a bed tax.”

“Yes, it’s a hefty tax,” confirms Helen Chang, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. “But every city is in trouble fiscally and it’s one of those taxes that people will accept.”

Maybe so, but some simple arithmetic might surprise even the most accepting guest.

“If a room here costs $240,” explains Stan Bromley, general manager of the Four Seasons in Washington, “and you add both the room tax ($26.40) and the $1.50 occupancy surcharge, then that’s $28 you’re paying just in taxes. When you think about it, that’s about the price of a room at Motel 6.

“If I hit you with a secret $28 for a soft drink,” Bromley argues, “you’d go through the roof. But people just accept the room tax, most of the time because they don’t really know about it.”

Some of the loudest yelling at bill-paying time can often be heard in the lobbies of New York City hotels.

“These room taxes are positively Draconian,” says George Schwab, vice president and managing director of The Pierre hotel in New York. “This tax is the highest in the U.S. and it’s a burden not only on travelers, but on the industry as a whole. It puts us at a competitive disadvantage. And now we’ve given up trying to get the state and local governments to lower the tax. All we’re begging for is that they don’t raise it again.”

“The impact of this room tax is terrible,” says Vitto Pitta, president of the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, which represents about 25,000 New York hotel workers.

“We don’t think it’s a tax at all. It’s extortion,” he charges, “a deliberate attack on a healthy industry that will affect hotel workers, restaurant workers, cab drivers, theater employees and others who depend on tourism for their livelihoods. It’s crazy. The tax cuts off the goose that lays the golden egg. And we can’t move the hotels to New Jersey.”

New York is definitely feeling the impact. Because of the effects of the Persian Gulf War and a sluggish economy, occupancy rates at New York hotels for the last three months are at an all-time low of 53%.

Travelers can’t expect city hotel room taxes to disappear. And you can’t expect hotels to publicize the room taxes, since none of these hotels want to take the rap for the perception of higher official room rates.

But you do need to factor these taxes into your travel budget so there won’t be any surprises at check-out time. When calling for a room reservation, always ask what the city’s occupancy tax or bed tax will be for that room. It won’t make paying your bill any easier, but at least you’ll know what your real costs will be before you get hit with them.