A NEW website highlighting stylish hotels in Brighton hopes to bring an end to lengthy trawls through official tourist board lists of old-fashioned B&Bs and tired hotel chains.

Boutiquebrighton.co.uk, launched this week, aims to bring together some of the seaside city’s funkiest small, contemporary hotels, many of which have opened in the past five years as the town’s reputation for having some of the country’s most interesting modern rooms has grown in leaps and bounds.

The website has begun with four hotels — Alvia Hotel, Brightonwave, the White House and Drakes — but aims to bring the number up to ten “choice picks”, with a possibility of expanding listings further depending on interest.

“I got the idea for the site after finding it hard to get the kind of contemporary hotel I was looking for when I was planning a weekend break,” says Rachele Grieve, founder of Boutiquebrighton.co.uk, which is offering half price on rooms on third nights for people who book three nights.

“There are so many places with clean, fresh looks — modern designs, really nice places. But it has been a question of how do you find them?” she says.

VisitBrighton, the local tourist board, welcomed the site, saying that its website (www.visitbrighton.com) offers all available accommodation, including traditional B&Bs, when people run searches. “Unfortunately, you can’t search by hotel type. If you put a date in, our site shows all available options.”

Trendy hotels in Brighton include Square Hotel, Nineteen, Pelirocco, Sea Spray, Five Hotel, Paskins Townhouse, Alias Hotel Seattle, Hotel du Vin and Blanch House — where Gwyneth Paltrow and Noel and Liam Gallagher have stayed.

Shaun Trumble, co-owner of Brightonwave, which has doubles starting at £85, said: “There are quite a few modern boutique hotels in Brighton now. People are moving away from traditional B&Bs. Offering a cooked English breakfast and hoping that’s going to keep people happy is not enough any more.”

Brighton attracted a record eight million tourists last year, many visiting during the Brighton Festival, which this year runs from May 8-28.

Details: Square Hotel (01273 691777, www.squarebrighton.com), Nineteen (01273 675529, www.hotelnineteen.co.uk), Pelirocco (01273 327055, www.hotelpelirocco.co.uk), Sea Spray (01273 680332, www.seaspraybrighton.co.uk), Five Hotel (01273 686547, www.fivehotel.com), Paskins Townhouse (01273 601203, www.paskins.co.uk), Alias Hotel Seattle (01273 679799, www.aliashotels.com), Hotel du Vin (01273 718588, www.hotelduvin.co.uk), Blanch House (01273 603504, www.blanchhouse.co.uk).