ROOM rates at some hotels have tripled since last year as they look to cash in on Royal Ascot.

New figures show that where last year room prices averaged at £47, now they have shot up to between £120 and £150.

Up to 120 people are waiting in an official queue for York accommodation prices to drop in Ascot Week next June.

Either they cannot afford the prices being charged by hotels for the race week, or do not want to stay the full four nights which many hoteliers decree should be a minimum. The queue was revealed today by Della Rhodes of the Tourist Information Centres (TICs) at York station and in the DeGrey Rooms. The organisation takes 17,000 bookings for York each year.

The remarkable figures came as new statistics showed that in some cases hotels have tripled their room rates for Ascot.

Results for 2004 from the HotelBenchmark Survey by professional services firm, Deloitte & Touche show that revenue per available room in York rose 6.1 per cent to £47.

At that time, it was more than any other city in Yorkshire, including Sheffield and Leeds.

Occupancy rates for York's hotels were also the highest at 75 per cent.

Ms Rhodes said that while prices for York guest house rooms during Ascot week varied hugely between £60 and £100 per person per night, most owners were reluctant to take bookings of fewer than three nights.

The result of the "robust pricing" in York was that up to 30 bookings were deflected to Harrogate TICs with whom York had an arrangement for Ascot Week.

There some small hoteliers were offering two or three night deals.

She said: "We have about 120 people on our books waiting for accommodation providers to slightly lower their prices, but there have been a significant number of people who have decided against long stay and opted for a day trip instead. But there are now signs of flexibility. Some hoteliers who insisted on block bookings for five days are now accepting four or three days. Hopefully, market forces of supply and demand will ultimately come into play in the next few weeks and prices will lower."

The HotelBenchmark Survey shows that York's revenue per available room last year at £47 was way above the average for most regions at £44. It was also ahead of Leeds (£45) and Sheffield (£40).

Updated: 10:30 Thursday, March 31, 2005