Corporates are planning their trips earlier according to the new BTI hotel survey.
It found that about 25% were now made two weeks prior to arrival and that only 8% of bookings were made on the day of arrival. This is a "marginal decrease" on the 2004 figures.
But 30% of bookings are still made between four and seven days prior to arrival.
The survey said the bulk of the day of arrival bookings were made in the UK domestic market but there was also a "relatively high" number made by British travellers going to America, the Middle East and Western Asia.
Overall the survey found that the world hotel industry was faring well. Margaret Bowler, general manager of hotel relations at BTI UK, said: "The results of the BTI UK survey show clear signs of growth and recovery in all world markets, especially in the Asia region and this trend is set to continue over the next 12 months."
Ms Bowler said that the "strong performance" had been lead by Eastern Europe, in particular Moscow and the Asia Pacific region.
“As a result of the generally buoyant hotel market worldwide, ‘demand based' or flexible pricing has now become industry standard.
"Although this is good news for hoteliers, as using this pricing strategy generally enables them to achieve higher average room rates, we can also use this pricing technique to our clients' advantage by securing lower room rates for those booking further in advance," she said.
In the survey, Moscow, New York and Bangalore emerged as the world's most expensive cities for hotels.
Moscow's average room rate rose by 35% to £174.81, New York's by 14% to £161.03 and Bangalore's by 44% to £155.40.
Paris, previously the most expensive city, stayed the same at £146.82 while London''s rose 4% to £137.24.
European hotels' revPAR up 4.5% - Deloitte
European hotels enjoyed an average 4.5% rise in revenue per available room (revPAR) in 2005 according the HotelBenchmark Survey by Deloitte.
It was the lowest revPAR growth compared to other world regions.
The European revPAR growth differed wildly across the continent with the Eastern Mediterranean countries enjoyed a rise of 29.4% while those in Eastern and Central Europe saw a 12.5% increase.
In Northern Europe the growth was just 3.8% and in Western Europe 3.9%.
The weakest area was Southern Europe where there was no growth.
The Northern European figures included a 20.4% rise in revPAR in Copenhagen while London which was temporarily affected by July terrorism saw only "sluggish" economy in France and Germany was one of the factors holding back hotel performance in the region.
"Berlin was one of the four European markets which reported a revPAR decline in 2005, as the city continued to suffer from oversupply."
While revPAR grew in Warsaw by 15%, it fell by 19.4 and 19.8% respectively in Athens and Lisbon.