For flights, I know that it can be a little different (those were also going up over the time I was booking) because those you can't just cancel and get your money back.
If you book through the hotel or through a reputable site with a normal cancellation policy, you can cancel a hotel right up until 24-48 hours before you check in for a full refund or without penalty.
My group also went ahead and got flights and paid the extra to be able to change our dates, so if we don't end up going we can just book a different trip with those same tickets. If this is an option for you, you should also consider doing this.
(these also went up about $40 just in the time we were figuring out dates/times, but again, pre-booking flights without knowing if you're going to use them is more tricky)