The automated phone system at the Wyndham Resort in Southampton may have you believe the once sparkling hotel is still hosting guests.

But the truth is: the place is gutted.

And that process continued yesterday as hundreds of people moved through the 252-room edifice staking claim to furniture ? whole rooms at a time.

Wyndham, in the throws of liquidation, would only agree to part with their furniture if the buyer was willing to take it all ? bed, armoire, night stand, easy chair, carpet, lamps and drapes.

The bathroom fixtures had to go, too ? and there's more to be sold tomorrow.

"I bought six rooms," said Willard Lightbourne from Smith's.

He owns a group of apartments and plans to fill them with the hotel furniture ? it's simple, he says, and cheap.

"Oh yes, especially with some of the newer sets in the complex. It cost you $6,000 to $8,000 for a bedroom set and everything to go with it. This is a bargain, I think."

His final total was somewhere in the neighbourhood of $5,000.

Standard rooms in the Carlton Wing of the Wyndham went for $750 ? it didn't matter if they were double or single rooms.

The Bay Wing, on the other side of the hotel, boasted rooms for $1,250 and suites for $1,925.

Most of the furniture was fairly new and in good condition, but Margo Simons was sceptical.

"I'm doubtful," she said while sitting on one of the queen beds.

Mrs. Simons was here in the wake of Hurricane Fabian when the former Sonesta property had a fire sale and sold whole rooms for $350.

She bought three of those and can't figure out why the cost now is so much more.

"Nothing's changed. This stuff is still the same," she said.

Few people were as reluctant as her.

When they opened the front door at around 1 p.m. there were about 100 people waiting.

By the end of the first hour, according to one of the women manning what used to be the front desk, nearly 300 had been through.

It didn't take long before just about every single room in the hotel had the word "SOLD" written on masking tape and stuck to the door right below the room number.

Celia Dawkins snatched up rooms 433, 439 and 445.

She's taking those three rooms in the Carlton Wing and moving them to her small hotel in Paget, Dawkins Manor.

"I always do this when the larger hotels are closing. They're refurbishing the smaller properties. I always capitalise on these items."

Ms Dawkins was capitalising right after Fabian, too. This time she spent a little more ? $750 per room instead of $350.

Hurricane Fabian pummelled the Island in September 2003 and took a particularly tough toll on the Sonesta Resort's fragile position on the water's edge.

She lost more than 80 rooms and never returned to her glory of high occupancy, not even when the Wyndham company took over the following year.

Now Windwalker Bermuda LLC is expected to step into the 33-acre footprint and turn it into a luxury resort again with a renovated Bay Wing, a rebuilt Carlton Wing and a new condo-hotel.

Before that happens, however, everything must go.

That's why the bargain hunters tore through the place yesterday and are coming back tomorrow.

Tomorrow's event will be more formal and an auctioneer will usher shoppers through a collection of outdoor furniture, televisions, computers, artwork, office furniture, and tools.

Bidders must put down a refundable $200 cash deposit to get a paddle.

The preview begins at 10 a.m. and the auction bidding begins at 3 p.m.