Rates All Relative

I read with some interest the article regarding the average room rate of $201.54 in New York hotels (News, Tips & Bargains, Sept. 13), and I would like to contribute some historical background.

In December 1940 my boss sent his employees, I being one of them when I was 16 years old, to the Hotel New Yorker. At that time it was pretty new and possibly one of the better ones in the city. Hamburgers were 10 cents, Coke 5 cents, breakfast about $1 and a decent dinner $2.50. By the way, I made a calculation, and taking the room rate of $3.50 and improving it with annual compound interest at 7.25%, you have, after 58 years, $202.82.

ARNOLD H. ZWEIG

Studio City