Making Sense of New York City Hotel Rates

March 22, 2019


Photo courtesy of the New Yorker hotel 

Making Sense of New York City Hotel Rates

When booking your New York City hotel, be aware that in addition to the room rate that the hotel will quote you, multiple taxes will still be charged addition to the room rate. Make sure to clarify that whatever rate the hotel will give you should include all the taxes already. To help you understand how it's computed, see the sample below:

The taxes and charges per room per night as of 2019 is $3.50 + 14.75% of the room rate per night broken down as follows:

  • NYC Hotel Unit Fee (now called Javits Center fee) : $1.50 per day
  • NYC Occupancy Tax: $2.00 per room per day (note: if you booked a suite with 2 rooms, the charge will be $4.00 per day) 
  • New York State Sales Tax: 8.875%
  • New York City Sales Tax: 5.875%


In addition to the above fees, they are now charging a facility or resort fee, for the facilities of the hotel you can use during your stay, like the wifi, the gym, the business center  etc. The amount of facility or resort fee is at the discretion of the hotel and is not optional when booking the room. 

So if your room rate per night is $300, your tax is $47.75 ($3.50 + $44.25, which is 14.75% of $300). Initial room cost will be $347.75 per night with tax plus whatever resort fee or facility fee per night that the hotel charges, which can range from $30-35. So the original publish room rate of $300 per night can reach $380-390 per night depending on the hotel resort fee. 

So beware when you see published hotel rates in New York. It usually does not include all the taxes and fees I mentioned above. So make sure to ask.