Prices everywhere have gone up... Vail, LAX, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, London, etc. (BTW I live in Fairfax VA)

It is the nature of an economic recovery, occupancy is up and so are prices. Prices will only get higher in the next couple years IMO. One reason I have been paying for my stays the last couple of years, and booking stays 50 weeks out is that prices are only getting higher. The past few years I regularly found lower rates as I got closer to my travel dates and changed my reservations accordingly, but that is a much rarer occurrence these days. Glad I booked way in advance as I can always cancel.

Here in the near future it will be time to use points for stays again, once the return on points is 1.5¢ or higher. You folks who earn points from business stays are lucky in that you don't have to be so picky and analytical about what you pay and/or use points for; I am a bit jealous.