Turnover increased by 9.1% to €135m (£92m), while pre-tax profits, excluding profits on hotel disposals, rose to just under €22m (£15m). During the period the company sold the four-star Jurys Limerick Hotel, which realised a profit of €193,000 (£131,500) over book value.

Jurys said: 'The satisfactory outcome for the six months ended 30 June was achieved against the background of continued business recovery in the London and Washington hotel markets, where we operate a total of nine properties, together with a very strong performance from our Jurys Inns Division as a whole - especially from our recently opened new Jurys Inns in the UK.'

It added that the performance would have been even better but for the business environment in its Irish four-star hotel operations, which had remained "subdued" during the period.

Although occupancy levels were largely unchanged compared with 2003, conference and incentive travel had remained weak, resulting in a decline of 3% in revenue per available room (revpar).

Combined with a 3% increase in operating costs, this led to a 24% fall in trading profits at the Irish four-star hotels.By contrast, the group's UK hotels group reported a 13% rise in trading profits, led by its three four-star hotels in London, where occupancy increased by 18%. Trading profit here increased by 28%.

Jurys's three hotels in Washington DC saw trading profits rise by 30%, with occupancies up from 85% to 87% and revpar advancing by 18%.The Jurys Inns Division in Ireland and the UK reported trading profits up by 29%.

Trading profits at the five Jurys Inns In Ireland were static, but at the 10 Jurys Inns in the UK they grew by 41%, led by revpar growth of more than 8%.A 248-bedroom Jurys Inn in Leeds opened on 27 February and a 172-bedroom property in Chelsea, west London, opened on 8 April.A new four-star, 225-bedroom Jurys Hotel opened in Boston, USA, on 2 July 2004.