HOTELS have to be prepared for the end of the building boom. St George’s Hotel manager Davina Wallace believes that accommodation centres are already feeling the pinch as the number of tradesmen staying in the island declines.

She has started rebranding the hotel to try to attract more visitors.

But Building Trades Employers’ Association president Andy Hall believes a large number of tradesmen will still be staying in hotels for at least two more years.

Abbey Court Hotel manager Samantha White said that hotels had to adapt or face going out of business because of the future decline in visiting workers.

‘I think by mid-October the number of workers in the island will start to slip away,’ said Ms Wallace.

The St George’s Hotel has a mix of both workers and visitors who pay the same rates.

‘Workers are already saying to us that they may not be back. There have not been as many staying this year as the year before and I think the boom is beginning to tail off,’ she added.

The Guernsey visitor and leisure industry survey by accountant Chandlers showed that 7% of people staying in hotels were tradesmen and 17% white-collar workers.

BTEA president Andy Hall believes that the arrangement has benefited both industries and thinks it will continue for at least two more years.

‘There are significant numbers of builders living in local guest houses and hotels but there is a significant number of visiting workers generally in that accommodation, including professionals,’ said Mr Hall.

‘I think we have to accept that workers individually find the best accommodation possible. It is good to have hotels and guest houses; otherwise the island would have struggled to have supported the building programme.

‘Temporary accommodation blocks are not ideal. I don’t know if the accommodation at the airport was that successful and if that sort of premises is very nice.

‘The private sector seems to have sorted out the balance between those hotels that have adapted to take on workers and those which remain for tourists; we have reached an equilibrium.

‘I can see that continuing for the next two or three years and then I think it will slow down a bit.’

Steve Durey, the owner of the St George’s and the Manor Hotels, said the industry had to prepare to take on tourists again.

He said the St George’s was refocusing to attract more visitors.

The website design had been improved, advertising increased and it had gone into partnership with a tour operator.

Ms Wallace is organising new promotional strategies better to target the visitor market.

‘We fax VisitGuernsey every morning with our vacancies and they are happy to recommend us to prospective guests,’ she said.

‘We are also trying to offer incentives to our visitors.’

Mr Durey, though, is not turning away workers and is unsure what he will do with the Manor Hotel.

‘It’s a case of filling the beds with whoever wants them,’ he said.

The Chandlers report also showed that 30% of hotels were now ‘increasingly dependent’ on the revenue from workers.

Mrs White said that some hotels and guest houses would struggle to survive when the building boom ended because of the over-reliance on tradesmen.

‘We are not reliant on workers and take them in only when they are passed on to us from VisitGuernsey. We mainly have visitors, but I know some hotels that rely on workers.

‘They are dependent on them and I think some will struggle when the number of workers decreases.’