Need a hotel room in India? Better book early and bring big bucks.

As the nation’s economy booms, foreigners and newly affluent Indians are flocking to the country’s big cities in unprecedented numbers – but are finding a shortage of places to stay.

In particular, there’s a lack of mid-range hotels in places like Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi. Soaring urban land prices are making it expensive for hotel chains to expand -and when they do, they’re building pricier hotels.

Much of the growth is due to business travellers, but tourist numbers are also up. Sheraton, Hilton and Holiday Inn are already here, and Four Seasons, Accor and Pan Pacific say they are coming – but not fast enough, it seems.

India “immediately needs another 100,000 rooms” – more than double the current amount – said Lalit Suri, the chairman and managing director of India’s Bharat Hotels.

What India is going to get will fall short of that. A total of 300 hotel projects have been approved by the government and are in varying stages of development, said Amitabh Kant, a Tourism Ministry official. Most are likely to be completed in the next three years and should increase capacity by about 75,000 rooms, he said.