The hotels.com survey also reported that the average price of staying in a five-star hotel in Dublin last year was €152 – making the capital one of the 15 best value cities for top-end accommodation.

A separate study by the same website last month found that Ireland had the cheapest hotels in western Europe and the average price of a room across all categories catered for by the site was €73, a drop of 6 per cent on 2009.

The hotel price index, compiled from bookings made through hotels.com at 130,000 hotels around the world, found Ireland had the sixth cheapest hotels out of 44 countries surveyed with an average room rate of €79 – which is down some 4 per cent on 2009.

According to the latest survey, high-end accommodation in popular destinations, such as Orlando, has been hit hard by the ongoing downturn. The average cost of a five-star hotel in the Florida city was €172 last year, down 17 per cent on 2009. Jerusalem has struggled even more and the average cost of a four-star room there was €137 in 2010 compared with €196 in 2009, a decline of over 30 per cent.

The website has also compared its top 15 destinations around the globe to find which offer the best value five-star hotels: among the best value locations are Warsaw, where the average price of a five-star room is €82. In Marrakech the cost of a similar room is €105 while in Lisbon it is €113, €1 cheaper than Budapest. Tallinn rounds out the top five best value list of five-star hotels and the average cost there is €125.

Dublin is 11th on the best value list with the average cost of a five-star hotel in the city standing at €152 last year.