Of Hotels and Hostels

I read with disbelief the letter from David Tulanian (“Help From Hostel,” Feb. 8) in which he said he “read with disbelief” Christopher Reynolds’ comment that San Francisco’s low-season room rates are an average of $132.50. Tulanian apparently was even more in disbelief following a conference he attended at the Hotel Nikko, when he was offered a post-conference room rate of $150.

What rate could he possibly have expected at one of the city’s premier hotels? Is Tulanian so untraveled that he expected the luxury of the Nikko at the rate of $17 per night, on which he finally settled at a hostel, for a small room that he shared with one person?

PAUL S. McCAIG

Dana Point