Elbow Beach Hotel is seeking a bigger share of the business visitor market, pumping $28 million into the top vacation resort over the last year, and seeking to establish Bermuda's first large five star hotel.

General manager Bill Shoaf said the Rafael management looked to their other worldwide hotel properties to determine what was missing at Elbow Beach.

He said, "His Royal Highness has told us that he wants Elbow Beach Hotel to establish itself as one of the finest hotels in the world. So we need to show that Bermuda is more than capable of being a pre-eminent resort destination and that we can have a five star product on the Island.'' As part of a premium marketplace, Bermuda properties will be increasingly called on to deliver higher levels of service, especially to be rated competitively among their global peers.

Bermuda's industry infrastructure is geared not for volume, but for up market clientele that pay top dollar for the best service.

One of many key developments may be the concierge desk, designed to cater particularly to the needs of business travellers.

Mr. Shoaf said, "This is a true businessman's concierge desk, staffed by the first person in Bermuda's history and just the second in the Caribbean to achieve the French designation of Clef D'Or.

"There are only 300 people in the world so certified, as being the most proficient at the art of being a concierge.

"Bushara Bushara is the first in the Island to get that designation. We're very proud of that. He and his concierge staff have now tested the first interactive, computer concierge service in the country, which we were the beta test for, and which is now being introduced in other places.'' But the hotel has also now re-wired the entire telephone system to fibre-optics and gone into partnership with Bermuda Computer Services to provide an Internet link through the hotel's new switch.

Mr. Shoaf said, "Our guest rooms now have two telephone lines and a data port, through which guests can be connected via fibre optics all the way to the IBM global network on the mainland.

"We are having Internet service this year at 128k and going next year to 256k -- a very clean, very reliable and extremely fast and efficient Internet connection.'' Business travellers can get overnight laundry, one hour pressing, complimentary shoe shines overnight, morning newspapers, together with coffee and juice for early morning movers.

"We're trying to provide a whole series -- we will continually add new ones -- of services that will make Elbow Beach more user friendly for the corporate traveller.

"We want to bring a total hotel product to the Island that not only addresses the international business traveller who also wants to recreate, but also addresses those leisure travellers who can't just disappear for two weeks, without being in touch with their office. And they can do business from here, should they have that need.'' "This hotel has in the past concentrated on being in the leisure or group business,'' he said. "In the last year and a half, we have made an effort to improve our relationships with the corporate clients in Bermuda. As a result, we have now been able to grow our corporate business where it is now ten percent of our overall business. We intend to grow it further.'' Just minutes from Hamilton, the South Shore property is geographically suited to offer corporate clients the best of both worlds: close proximity to the main business centre, yet all of the facilities of a top beach front resort.

Mr. Shoaf said, "We tried to determine how we could become more user friendly for the international business visitor. We started providing a complimentary shuttle service to downtown. This year, we've added a full service Xerox business centre that is staffed and fully equipped with copiers. It has a personal computer that is Internet-ready and online. There are a full line of software packages.

"We have spent more than $100 million on the total project since the purchase of the hotel by His Royal Highness seven years ago. In this last phase we have invested $28 million over the winter and the summer, since November 1997.

"In the main building, every room was touched. The main guest rooms were completely gutted. We installed new wiring, new air conditioning, upgraded the plumbing and changed the interior decor.'' BUSINESS BUC