Rooms rented by the hour are a sign of the times

&quotOver the past year we've seen an increase of about 30% in the number of investment bank bookings using our meeting rooms,&quot said Regus spokesman Colin Peck. &quotEveryone's looking at cutting costs and they use us because we're cheap.&quot

The trend is confirmed by Hotel Brokers, a company that books offsite venues for several investment banks. &quotA four or five star hotel will charge a daily rate of between 55 and 75 per delegate,&quot says manager Robert Bottomley.

&quotAt Regus you pay around 8 pounds an hour for as many hours as you like. Flexible meeting rooms are becoming much more popular with investment banks for that reason.&quot

Peck says that Merrill Lynch, HSBC Investment Bank and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein are among the banks using hourly meeting rooms for everything from graduate training and interviews to investment seminars.

Nor are the meeting rooms always an alternative to hotels they can also free up space in the bank's own offices. Lynn Stevens, a graduate recruiter at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, says the bank uses Regus because it would not be cost effective to have its own dedicated facilities.

Nevertheless, banks have not yet gone so far as some companies, including Compaq. The computer supplier conducts its board meetings in Regus rooms.