for a non-American answer: in countries with VAT, tourists are not required to pay VAT, although domestic citizens are. The hotel will often service both foreigners and domestic citizens, so it charges a rate without VAT to tourists and a rate with VAT to domestic citizens. Unlike most businesses where most of their clientele are domestic citizens, hotels are special in that most of their clientele are foreigners, thus hotels are permitted to advertise a rate without VAT.