Hotels group Millennium & Copthorne said businesses were booking its London sites again after the July bomb attacks hurt demand over the summer.

M&C, which owns two four-star hotels near Gatwick, revealed that corporate sales at its five London hotels had picked up since the end of September.

The shoots of recovery were visible after M&C admitted that the pace of recovery in demand for rooms was slower than it expected following the fatal blasts on the underground and a London bus on July 7 and failed bomb attacks two weeks later.

Occupancy levels at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair, Copthorne Tower in Kensington and other sites in the capital dropped 5.4 per cent during the three months to September 30 as guests decided it was too risky to visit.

There was also a decline of 4.8 per cent in revenues per available room (revpar) in London in the third quarter after M&C slashed rates to stimulate bookings.

But a strong performance in New York and continued growth in Asia helped pre-tax profits to rise by 27 per cent to £16.7 million on the back of an eight per cent increase in revenues at £146.6 million.

M&C said revpar across all its 91 hotels around the world was up 4.6 per cent between July and September but growth would have been 6.6 per cent if London had been excluded from the figures.

Chairman Kwek Leng Beng said: "Looking forward, we continue to be encouraged by the ongoing performance of our New York and Asian properties, and London has seen a good pick up in corporate sales since the end of September."

*Friday November 4 2005