With airfare sales all the rage, the highest cost of traveling these days may be your lodging costs. But business travel and tourism are off sharply in many American cities, and our Savvy Traveler, Rudy Maxa, tells us that's led to an unprecedented sale at the country's urban hotels..

You have to know where to look. First, choose your destination and check out the local convention and visitors bureau Web site -- almost every medium-sized and major city has one. Right now, many of those sites provide links to local hotel deals. And never before have there been so many discounted options.

You've probably heard that three of the country's top tourist destinations are hurting. Hotels in Orlando, Las Vegas and New York have slashed prices. You can stay at Orlando Days Inn for $30 a night, for example. In Vegas, check into The Orleans or Stratosphere for $49 a night, or live it up on the Strip at the posh Caesar's Palace for $89 a night for most of December. New York City's site trumpets the city's "Paint the Town Red, White and Blue" promotion. There are hotels priced $125 or less a night. Or pick up a Marriott Courtyard room off Times Square for $159 on a weekend night.

There are similar, eye-popping deals in cities such as Philadelphia, New Orleans, Seattle, Chicago and Portland, Oregon. In Philadelphia, for example, you'll find hotels offering two nights for the price of one through the end of March. There are even half-off deals for single-night stays -- particularly useful for business travelers. In New Orleans, many hotels offer three nights for the price of two until the end of the year through the Big Easy's Web site. By the way, I'll provide links to all of these sites if you click on Marketplace.org.

Now, how good are these deals, really? Well, I did some comparison shopping by calling hotels I like directly, negotiating my best price, and then comparing that with the price offered at a convention and visitors bureau Web site. I picked a date at random -- March 6, 2002 -- and called the Hotel Monaco in Seattle. The best price I could get for a double room was $295. But at the city's Web site, a double was priced at $155. That's a whopping $140-a-night savings!

Cheered by that success, I tried the same with Portland, Oregon. I called the Portland Hilton and asked the same questions. The best rate I could get from the Hilton was $139 a night. At the homepage for the city's tourist office, I snared a rate of $109. That's almost a 30 percent savings, plus you get free parking and breakfast.

Even luxury hotels are offering deals. The new Four Seasons in San Francisco has double rooms for $349 a night. That may sound like a lot, but the hotel is also throwing in free parking and breakfast in bed -- which means, you're paying nearly $200 for a room that normally goes for twice that.

And it's not just big-city hotels that are on sale. Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Wingate Inn, Amerihost Inn and Villager -- they're all owned by the same company -- offer "Get Going Rates" that start at $30 a night through the end of March.

The news is, yes, there is room at the inn this season. At seriously discounted rates, if you do some surfing. From the Savvy Traveler, I'm Rudy Maxa for Marketplace.

Web site info:

For a list of convention and visitors bureaus throughout the world, click on www.towd.com That's the Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory that allows you to search by city and state for links. Here are links mentioned in Rudy Maxa's commentary:

Las Vegas: www.lasvegas.com is a Web site that provides links to hotels and other Vegas sites. Explore the "Hot Deals" section of its homepage to see prices by dates at some hotels. The convention and visitors authority's Web site is www.lasvegasfreedom.com. Click on the "Great Deals" icon on the left-hand side of the page to find hotel deals such as $119 a night for Bellagio on the Strip. Also on the site: two-for-one show tickets, dining discounts and certificates good for discounts at local attractions.

Orlando: www.orlandoinfo.com/index.cfm is the homepage for the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau. Scroll down the page and click on "Hot Rates" for hotel price quotes by date.

Seattle: www.seeseattle.org is where you'll find hotel "Super Savers" that offer rates cut by as much as 50 percent through mid-April. Click on the icon on the lower, right-hand corner of the homepage of the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Portland: Travelportland.com promises hotel savings of up to 40 percent if you click on the link "Big Deal." The site is also sponsored by the city's convention and visitors bureau.

New Orleans: www.neworleanscvb.com is the convention and visitors bureau site -- you'll find the hotel promotion section on the homepage. Keep in mind, the offer of "three nights for the price of two" ends the last day of this year.

Chicago: Check out www.877chicago.com and www.cityofchicago.org/Tourism/Chicaglo/Hotelglo.html.