obsolete, a hotel owner said yesterday.

Mr. Brian Alkon of Mermaid Beach Club also said a Dispute Board's recognition of Grotto Bay's "divorce'' from the Bermuda Industrial Union should be "a guiding light for a lot of other hoteliers''.

Mr. Alkon, whose property withdrew from the Hotel Employers of Bermuda (HEB) three years ago, claimed the Grotto Bay decision showed that properties can successfully break from the HEB to create better labour-management relationships.

And he said the HEB -- the negotiating arm of the hotel industry -- is too costly for the agreements it negotiates.

Mermaid Beach, the Palm Reef Hotel, Pink Beach Club, and Grotto Bay Beach Hotel have all split with the HEB in recent years. Cambridge Beaches and Cottages left years earlier.

"I can't imagine why the other hoteliers, the smaller ones, would continue on in a collective when it costs them so much money,'' Mr. Alkon said. "They've gone nowhere in 20 years -- the HEB.'' With the possible exception of Bermuda's five largest hotels, "I really think that it's not a viable operation.'' In the award released on Monday, the Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board found that Grotto Bay could not be guilty of unfair labour practices because no collective bargaining agreement existed between it and the BIU.

The board also said no agreement existed between the HEB and the BIU after the 1988 agreement expired on February 24, 1991.

Mr. John Harvey, chief executive officer of the HEB, yesterday said he had not yet read the Grotto Bay award and could not comment on it.

As for Mr. Alkon's comments: "Mermaid Beach is entitled to its opinion. I don't want to pick a fight over the response.'' Mr. Alkon said that for 20 years the HEB has tried to bargain collectively, either "unsuccessfully,'' or "always at a large price''.

He estimated it cost HEB members $25,000 to $30,000 apiece to arrive at the latest contract with the BIU.

Last week, The Royal Gazette reported the negotiations for a new contract cost the HEB an estimated $330,000. The 1988-1991 round cost nearly $500,000.

But another hotelier who split with the HEB said he did not expect a flight of membership from the association.

Mr. W.A. (Toppy) Cowen, general manager of Pink Beach Club, said: "I think that some people, for whatever reasons, feel that they have to have organisations, and in this case the HEB, to speak for them.

"They probably don't want to go out on their own to make those decisions.'' Pink Beach Club was expelled from the HEB in February of 1990 after the hotel refused to pay for an overseas lawyer the HEB hired for negotiations.

Mr. Cowen said Grotto Bay was in a similar situation to Pink Beach, which recently severed its ties with the BIU. He took comfort from the fact the Disputes Board agreed no collective agreement with Grotto Bay existed, he said.

"If the union feels Pink Beach was indeed breaking the law then we would certainly feel that the decision by the board... has more or less given us the green light,'' he said. "We feel we are stronger than ever before.'' Pink Beach will never again have a contract with the BIU, he said.