For those you who may have missed it, Summer officially started last week, and that means vacations for most people. Vacations, which used to be regarded as a luxury, have become a necessity in today’s world. Nearly 95% of folks we polled in our Customer Loyalty Engagement Index indicated they had no intentions of cutting back on their vacations.

This year, the top-5 U.S. destinations turned out to be the usual suspects:

1. Las Vegas
2. Orlando
3. Hawaii
4. New York City
5. Washington, DC/ Los Angeles

For those hankering for foreign climes, the top-5 cities ranked like this:

1. London
2. Rome
3. Paris
4. Barcelona
5. Dublin/Prague

That consumers are not giving up travel does not mean that they’ve stopped looking for good deals. So when it came to “value” here’s the top-5 rankings of the four categories of hotels we track:

Luxury

1. Inter-Continental
2. Ritz Carlton
3. Four Seasons
4. Fairmont/ W Hotels

Upscale ...