A recent analysis of overnight prices in three-star hotels in the UK undertaken by booking service hotel.info has shown, surprisingly, that Birmingham is the most expensive city in the UK in which to book a room, costing an average of £80 a night.

In comparison, Glasgow, at just £61 a night, offers relatively good value, and is also on average £15 a night cheaper than its Scottish neighbour Edinburgh.

The survey monitored UK cities with more than 220,000 inhabitants, and although Birmingham comes out the most expensive, it is still £45 cheaper than Moscow, the world’s most expensive city in which to book hotel accommodation.

From the point of view of attractive prices, England’s second largest city shows a poor comparison with Edinburgh (£76), Leicester (£75), Liverpool (£73), Kingston upon Hull and Leeds (£70 each).

London, which many would have expected to be the most expensive in the UK by far, actually comes second to Birmingham, with an average three-star room rate of £79.

The hotel.info Price Index has been compiled from all bookings made in the first quarter of 2008 by customers of hotel.de and TravelRes in the three-star category. The statistical basis used is the price for one overnight stay in a single room without breakfast. In order to remove currency fluctuation, prices relate to the average exchange rate in the first quarter of 2008 (£1 = €1.3).

hotel.info Top 15 most expensive cities to stay in Great Britain, with average price for a one-night stay:
1. Birmingham: £80
2. London: £79
3. Edinburgh: £76
4. Leicester: £74
5. Liverpool: £73
6. Kingston upon Hull: £70
7. Leeds: £70
8. Southhampton: £70
9. Sheffield: £68
10. Manchester: £67
11. Bristol: £63
12. Glasgow: £61
13. Coventry: £61
14. Wolverhampton: £60
15. Plymouth: £60