Council's attitude angers Bournemouth hoteliers

Bournemouth hoteliers are calling on councillors to sit down with them this autumn and discuss the future shape and direction of the resort's tourist trade.

The Bournemouth Area Hospitality Association, which represents more than 200 hoteliers in the area, is concerned the council does not understand the problems facing hoteliers.

Debbie Utteridge, chairman of the association and proprietor of the nine-bedroom Rosscourt Hotel, said there were too many hotel beds in the town, yet the council insisted there was under-capacity because Bournemouth was always full during the party conference season.

"At the moment, being August and with the hot weather, we are full to bursting at weekends, but during the week there are still spaces. We just cannot survive on the six weeks of the year when we can expect to be full," she said.

This was despite a fall in the number of beds in Bournemouth to 20,000 from 30,000 over the past 20 years.

Much of the town's hotel stock was old and needed renovation and over-capacity meant many hoteliers were being forced to take in DSS tenants and asylum seekers to make ends meet.

Yet "draconian" council-backed planning controls were making it hard for hoteliers to switch hotel stock over to a different use, for example by converting them into residential flats.

"Anyone wanting to apply for a change of use in their accommodation has to have been on the open market for 18 months," said Utteridge. "If someone is serious about getting out of the industry, for those 18 months they are unlikely to do anything to the property and customers may not get the service they expect.

"The alternative is they close the doors and squatters come in," she said.

The council also needed to take a close look at its key tourist zones and how they could be better developed and promoted, she argued.

Despite the fine weather, trade during August had been "fine but not brilliant" except for weekends, with many visitors leaving bookings to the very last minute or saving money by just coming as day trippers. "This morning [Thursday] for instance, we had 10 calls asking for bookings for Friday or Saturday," Utteridge said.

by Nic Paton