California and NYC especially free pretty insane.
And, yeah, Napa... I do not get it. I grew up in Southern California but had extended family in the North Bay / Napa. There's no way my parents would be paying those prices today. Mind you, we weren't even staying at 'resorts', except 1 or 2 special occasions, but I can't fathom paying $500 night for an Embassy Suites!
I am sure there are many factors...it's probably profit motives, some folks over spending, and to certain segment high prices are synonymous with 'luxury' and 'status', regardless of the actual place. In some markets, it seems like the 'dual income no kids' group definitely plays a role. I am kind of there... I'm not spending $1K/night (hell no! that's what points are for.
) but there's certainly travel that I can take while I don't have kids.
Much of my travel is personal, but there is a slight bit of concern to these trends for business travel, which for me is not glamorous as it's University funded. I'm headed to Toronto in a couple of months and it's hard to find reasonable rooms just due to events...to an extent that's always been the case, but prices do feel higher. Guess there's just lots of pent up demand everywhere, still!
Funny, I frequently find myself booking fully flexible rooms just in case when something might come up and cancelling them. I wouldn't do this if I didn't have access to corp codes which definitely make the practice feel reasonable. All the said, if you do have a corporate code, it feels like booking day of probably isn't so bad. I've had my successes there, too!