Hotel Ratings

The average Hawaiian hotel room cost $131.32 last year--up from $129.66 in 1998. But prices varied by island. Average room rates: Oahu 1995....$100.65 1998....$111.18 1999....$108.29 Maui 1995....$131.20 1998....$154.17 1999....$160.11 Hawaii 1995....$107.10 1998....$149.34 1999....$158.56 Kauai 1995....$122.68 1998....$142.55 1999....$145.11 Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers

If you've checked into a hotel in the last few months, you have probably noticed that rates have leaped upward. And they probably won't drop any time soon. During June, July and August, the average hotel rate at major U.S. destinations jumped 17%, compared with the same period in 2011, according to a study by the hotel pricing website HotelsCombined. Some of the steepest rate increases this summer were at hotels in California. Anaheim - home of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park - recorded the highest price increases, a jump of 43% to an average daily rate of $155.25 in 2012 from $109 in 2011, according to the website.

London has never been a travel destination for the budget-minded. During the Summer Olympics, visiting the English capital will be even more expensive. The rates for hotel rooms during the summer games have increased an average of 69%, to about $292 per night, compared with the same time last year, according to a study by TravelClick, a New York company that provides e-commerce products and services to the hotel industry. The occupancy rate across the city for the entire Olympics (July 27 to Aug. 12)

Hotel rates in North America jumped more than 7% for both business and leisure travelers in February, marking the biggest year-over-year increase on record, according to data released Monday. Hotel rates for business travelers jumped 7.1% in February, compared with the same month in 2011, and increased 7.3% for leisure travelers for the same period, according to data reported by Pegasus Solutions, a Dallas-based technology company for the hotel industry. The previous record jump in hotel rates was a rise of 7% for business travelers, set in June 2011 and January 2012, and an increase of 6.4% for leisure travelers in June 2011, according to Pegasus.

The Democratic Party, whose four-day national convention brought more than 30,000 delegates, politicians and journalists to Los Angeles in mid-August, seemingly turned economic theory upside down. Rates of hotel rooms in Los Angeles zoomed to unprecedented levels during the Democratic National Convention, perhaps providing Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush with new ammunition to paint Democrats as a party of big spenders.

Orange County hotel rates, which trail other major markets, gained ground in January, but occupancy levels dropped more than 5%, according to a new survey. While a surge of visitors attended this year's Rose Bowl, and commercial travel remains healthy, those gains were not strong enough to offset Mother Nature. The average daily room rate climbed to $101.62 from $94.15 a year ago, an 8% increase. Hotels in South Orange County posted the biggest increase, as room rates rose 20% to $108 from $90.

Hotel rates across Mexico are likely to jump by as much as 40% before the start of the fall-winter season, a hotel executive said Wednesday. Roberto Zapata, president of the Mexico City Hotel Assn., said the increase will help hotel owners "cope with rising costs and stay in operation."

Two major U.S. hotel chains are following the lead of airlines and offering discounts on rooms paid for at least two weeks in advance. Marriott Hotels has 14- and 21-day non-refundable, advance- purchase discounts at more than 185 outlets through Sept. 7. Travelers can pay for a room two or three weeks ahead, with the 21-day advance. Discounts, which vary from hotel to hotel, range from 30% to 65%.

Get ready for hotel rates to rise above pre-recession prices. In the first week of September, the average room rate in the U.S. rose to $107, just short of the high mark of $110 set in March 2008, according to the latest statistics from Smith Travel Research Global in Tennessee. In Los Angeles, room rates climbed to an average of $127, short of the $133 peak set in summer 2008, according to Smith Travel Research. Over the last three years, hotel rates have been a moving target.

The cost of air travel has rebounded to pre-recession levels, and now it looks like the prices of hotel rooms for business travelers are on their way to those heights. Hotel rates for business travelers in North America surged 9.3% in April, coming within 3 percentage points of the peak pre-recession rates in fall 2008, according to Pegasus Solutions, a technology company for the hotel industry. "Rates in many markets are either continuing to grow at near-record paces or setting new year-over-year growth records," the Dallas company's report said.