The county Mayo town of Westport has the honor of being the most expensive place to spend the night in  the whole of Ireland, according to a new survey of hotel costs.

According to a report in the Journal.ie the price of a room for the night in the Mayo town increased in 2011, a fact that was reversed in almost every other part of the country.

Staying in a Westport hotel for a night cost an average of $145.00 last year, which is up from $136.00 in 2010.

Kilkenny won second place in most expensive stakes coming in at $140.00, with Wexford in third place at $135.00. Prices in both counties have dropped considerably since 2010.

Limerick currently offers the most affordable accommodation of all the 11 towns and cities surveyed with the average room costing just $83.00.

The survey found that the largest price increase was in Waterford, where room costs shot up by 24 per cent from $73.00 to $90.00.

Bargain hunters can still take heart because Ireland is among the cheapest of 18 European countries studied within the price index. Overall the average price of a room here was $106.00. By contrast in the most expensive country, Switzerland, the average room cost $151.00.

Hotels.com spokesperson Seamus MacCormaic told the Journal: 'We are coming from three successive years of steep decline so there is still a long way to go before prices fully recover.'