THE hotels market is in a very interesting phase, according to specialist licensed trade agents Robert Barry & Co. ''There is a good two-way trade between buyers and sellers,'' says a company spokesman.

''The majority of our clients have reported much improved trade in the last 12 months, and those wishing to sell know that this will help them to achieve a higher price than would have been possible at any time since the recession.''

After a post-Election lull, the market got back into its stride as buyers became more confident about the Labour Government's economic policies. This confidence continued to grow in the early months of this year.

After a major buying spree in the early 1990s when prices were cheap, the major hotel groups have become less acquisitive now that prices are higher. Instead, they are concentrating on rationalising their portfolios by selling less compatible units and, in some cases, developing new sites.

Meanwhile Far Eastern investors have cut back their activities in the UK hotel sector, following their own financial crises.

The new pub groups are continuing their rapid expansion via mergers, group acquisitions, and single purchases. ''Individual units are usually worth more within a group than outside it, and the profit lies in the parcelling,'' says the Robert Barry spokesman.

The independent market has recovered more slowly than the corporate, hindered in part by caution among their bankers who still have vivid memories of the late 1980s boom - followed by a crash in property values.

Robert Barry & Co predicts that UK interest rates will gradually move toward the lower levels prevailing in the rest of Europe over the next two or three years.

''We expect a good active market for the rest of 1998, with values consolidating after two years of significant recovery,'' says the spokesman.