Visitors to hotels in Britain will pay an average å£55 a night for a double room, will find a four poster bed in 14% of the establishments, tea & coffee making facilities in nearly 65% but only 40.5% will have a telephone in their room, according to the findings of a major research study published today.

In the most comprehensive research into room pricing, services and facilities offered by nearly 9,000 hotels in Great Britain and Ireland, The ABC Connection

Hotel Report 2003 (Price £850.00) discloses that:

? 76.6% of the bedrooms had television;

? Only 4% of hotels in Scotland had facilities for lone women travellers, in England 6% offered these facilities while The Republic of Ireland scored 11%;

? 41% had conference & meetings facilities, 8% offered indoor swimming pools, 9% had gymnasiums, steam rooms or saunas.

? Facilities for disabled travellers were offered by 22% of the hotels, while an average 44% welcomed guide dogs and maybe other pets.

? Computer modem facilities were available in 8% of the bedrooms while just over 10% had specially allocated rooms for non-smokers;

? 2% had an on site golf course, 5% their own tennis courts, 4% on-site fishing and 8% a snooker table.

Martin Coleman, Publisher, ABC Connection Ltd, said that the study that took two years from start to finish, reveals for the first time some fascinating insights into the structure of the accommodation market in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, some surprising differences in the levels of service offered and important new business areas.

He added: “It paints a picture of a hotel market that offers very good value for money but there is a recognition that there still remains room for continuous improvement in services and facilities”.

The study compiles and analyses data on a country by country basis but also spotlights nine cities & towns - London, Edinburgh, Torquay, Bournemouth, York, Bath, Windermere, Great Yarmouth and Birmingham and discovers, for example that:

? London was the most expensive city with an average room of £110 while Torquay was the lowest with £39, followed by Great Yarmouth £40, Edinburgh £49 and Birmingham £52.

? 41% of all establishments had conference or meetings facilities with Birmingham with 60%, followed by London (52%) and Bournemouth (51%).  Great Yarmouth was bottom with 8%;

? Hotels in Wales had the highest percentage of rooms with tea & coffee making facilities (81%) compared to Republic of Ireland (47%) and Scotland (43%);

? Special facilities for children were offered by 58% of the sample, ranging from a high of 81% in Wales to a low of 46% in Scotland.  The top three locations were London 77%, Birmingham, 70% and Great Yarmouth 69%.

? The most number of four poster beds were in Windermere;

? Although weddings can be legally held in all hotels in Scotland, only 8% claimed to hold a wedding licence;

? 17% of London hotel rooms had computer modem facilities, in Birmingham and Bath the figure was 10% and for Edinburgh it was 5%;

? Only 8% of hotels in Great Yarmouth and 13% in Edinburgh offered room service compared with 38% for Bournemouth and 33% for London.
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