Boutique-hotel operator Morgans Hotel Group Co.’s, which recently opened the Ames Hotel in Boston, said room rates are on the rise as appetite for corporate travel returns.

The company, which posted a first-quarter loss on charges, saw an 11.6 percent rise in revenue per available room (revPAR) even as average daily rates declined marginally.

However, rates have started to go up since the first quarter ended March 31, company President Marc Gordon said.

A year ago, as businesses trimmed their travel budgets to cut costs and avoid the appearance of lavish spending, top-tier hotels were hammered and had to slash rates to sell rooms.

"During the downturn corporate travel was one of the segments of our business that had deteriorated the most. Corporate travel had seen a very large decrease in terms of number of room nights, number of trips, but that is definitely reversing," Gordon said.

RevPAR – a lodging industry metric that measures performance based on occupancy and room rate – in April was up 8 percent across its portfolio, while it rose 16 percent in its core New York market, he added.

For the first quarter, the New-York based company posted a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $18 million, or 60 cents a share, compared with a loss of $10.6 million, or 36 cents, last year.

The latest first-quarter loss includes a non-cash charge amounting to $14.3 million and income from discontinued operations of $17.4 million.

Revenue rose 4.2 percent to $53.4 million.

Shares of the company closed at $8 Wednesday on Nasdaq.