Problem Solving

A certain state levies a 4 percent tax on the nightly rates of hotel rooms. A certain hotel in this state also charges a $2.00 nightly fee per room, which is not subject to tax. If the total charge for a room for one night was $74.80, what was the nightly rate of the room?

68
69
70
71
72

Please include the 5 answer choices when posting questions.

TOTAL cost = (nightly rate) + (4% of nightly rate) + $2
Let r = nightly rate

We get: 74.80 = r + 0.04r + 2
Simplify: 74.80 = 1.04r + 2
Subtract 2 from both sides: 72.80 = 1.04r
r = 72.80/1.04
r = 70

Answer: C

Cheers,
Brent

A certain state levies a 4 percent tax on the nightly rates of hotel rooms. A certain hotel in this state also charges a $2.00 nightly fee per room, which is not subject to tax. If the total charge for a room for one night was $74.80, what was the nightly rate of the room?

68
69
70
71
72

Another option is to PLUG IN the answer choices until we get a match.

Cheers,
Brent

Hi candygal79,

As Brent pointed out in his second post, you can also TEST THE ANSWERS. Certain GMAT Quant questions are written in such a way that you can just plug the answers in to the information in the prompt until you find the one that matches. This method can be remarkably fast when done correctly.

With these 5 answers choices, you could technically start with any of them. In most cases, you should opt to test one of the "middle" answers first (usually starting with B or D is the best choice, but here answer C is a nice round number, so it would be easy to test).

If the nightly rate was $70, then the tax would be 4% of 70......04(70) = 2.80 and then you'd add the $2 room fee....

70 + 2.80 + 2 = 74.80 which is an exact match for what's listed in the prompt.

Thus, the final answer is C

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich