Research by real estate adviser Savills revealed that Edinburgh experienced the highest level of hotel investment of all the Scottish cities in 2017, accounting for 64% (more than £117m) of all Scottish transactions, an increase of 58% on 2016.

These figures put Edinburgh above both Birmingham and Liverpool to become the second largest city outside of London (behind Manchester) in terms of hotel investment volumes in 2017.

The volume of investment into Glasgow more than doubled in 2017, rising from £16.8m in 2016 to £35.79m.

Savills also found that overseas investors dominated 2017 transaction volumes in terms of buyer type, totalling £57.4m, more than seven times the amount invested by international buyers in 2016 (£7.8m).

US investors were the most dominant, followed by investors from Singapore, India and Hong Kong.

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•   Turnover of UK's top 500 hotel companies hits £13bn

“2017 marked a year whereby the operational and investor sentiment of hotels were both at strong points in the cycle,” said Steven Fyfe, associate in the hotels team at Savills Scotland.

“The momentum has continued and Q1 2018 looks set to deliver in excess of £110m in transactions in a period that is usually notoriously quiet.

“The improved performance is expected to offset the 9% increase in supply anticipated throughout 2018.”

Investment into UK hotels reached £5.4bn across 219 deals in 2017, an increase of 32% on 2016 (£4.1bn).

Martin Rogers, head of UK hotel transactions at Savills, added: “The popularity of the UK has been boosted in 2017 by the rise of the staycation and the stability following the EU referendum in 2016.

“We expect this popularity to continue as hotels move further into the mainstream.”