Shortage of rooms is sending hotel rates through the roof

Another option - at least for leisure travelers - is to choose destinations where prices have remained low or at least offer more for their money, suggested Ken Fish, owner of the luxury service Absolute Travel. "Although costs have risen, Thailand is still a good value, both in Bangkok and in beach resorts," he said. Alternatively, trading lodge vacations in New Zealand and Australia for safaris in southern Africa is another way to better extend travel budgets.

For those who must travel to the priciest destinations such as New York or New Delhi, rest assured that relief is on the way, though not in the immediate future. India is in the midst of an ambitious plan to add some 75,000 hotel rooms before the end of the decade - nearly half in the luxury sector. And both London and New York should welcome new capacity in the coming years - the former in anticipation of the 2012 Olympic Games, the latter mostly in Brooklyn, where nearly 2,000 hotel rooms are to be built in its developing downtown in the next half decade.

"These places are prepping for additional supply," Campbell said. "So we can plan for some eventual easing for prices."