In its inaugural Hotel Affordability Index (HAI), hotel investment services group, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels (JLLH), reveals that for domestic visitors, an hotel room in London is more than twice as expensive as a room in Sydney, Toronto or San Francisco.

Using the Economist magazine’s theory of "burgernomics", which uses a McDonald’s Big Mac as the standard for international comparison, JLLH’s index compares the average daily rate of a city’s hotel market with the cost of a Big Mac in that city in the local currency.

Nick Marsh, CEO Europe for JLLH, said: "In the light of the outbreak of SARS, war in Iraq and the ongoing threat of terrorism, it is likely that hotels will be increasingly reliant upon domestic demand. The global HAI provides a key measure as to the affordability of accommodation for local guests in the cities reviewed."

Of the top ten cities in the table, London comes in at Number 1, with the cost of a hotel room equating to that of 110.4 burgers. After London come Paris, 84; Milan, 83.2; Rome, 76.6; Prague, 73.5; Barcelona, 67.5; New York, 65; Hong Kong, 63.4; Amsterdam, 59.9 and Madrid, 58.4.

Elsewhere in the list, Birmingham came 27th on 40.33 and Mexico City came bottom with 4.

The survey says that – in general – the more "international" a city, the more likely it is to achieve a high room rate. Hotels in the Asia Pacific region and the US provide exceptions, with most rooms costing between 30 and 40 times the cost of a Big Mac. Details: www.joneslanglasalle.co.uk