Hotel Directory of the Radio Trade
October 1930 Radio-Craft

October 1930 Radio-Craft [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio-Craft, published 1929 - 1953. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

If you think paying $80-$100 per night for a relatively low end chain hotel/motel is outrageous, then this advertisement in a 1930 issue of Radio-Craft magazine will help justify your indignation. While in California for the IMS 2016 show, a convention-goer likely paid $200 or more per night for a room within walking distance of the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco. Compare that rate to, say, the Eastgate Hotel or St. Clair Hotel in Chicago in 1930. Room prices started at $2.50 - including free garage parking. The Madison Hotel in Atlantic City had rooms starting at $4 per night that even included "Showers and Baths Throughout." According to the CPI Inflation Calculator* published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, $2.50 in 1930 is the equivalent of $45.58 in 2023 currency, and $4.00 equals $72.93. Those were prices for downtown medium grade hotels in downtown areas of major cities. Yeah, you're being shaken down, alright.

* CPI = Consumer Price Index

Hotel Directory of the Radio Trade

The hotels on this and the following pages are patronized by the Radio Trade. Make them your headquarters.

Posted April 6, 2023
(updated from original post on 6/6/2016)