bookings for the coming months, according to its new general manager Mr.

Timothy Russell.

The hotel re-opened last Wednesday with just 16 guests. By Friday there were 175 guests filling 85 rooms, and bookings were coming in fast and furious, Mr.

Russell said.

Last week's opening began the first season for the 300-room hotel's new managers, the Dallas-based hotel group Wyndham Luxury Hotels and Resorts. The hotel is just completing $25 million in renovations which have kept it closed since the end of October.

Mr. Russell said the improvements will go a long way to fulfilling his aim of making the Elbow Beach the best and most luxurious hotel on the Island.

He said he believes the hotel has "the best potential'' of any on the Island, and is in "great physical condition, especially after the renovations.

"It's absolutely fantastic, It's a 90-year-old hotel. We retain the culture and the tradition that's been Elbow Beach for 90 years. And now it has elegant guests rooms.'' The age and "tradition'' gives Elbow Beach and advantage that only the Hamilton Princess can hope to match, he said.

The renovations have proved difficult for the hotel, and the completion date was put off three times following bad weather, an overtime ban by construction workers, and the deportation of its wallpaper expert.

Noisy work was still going on at the main entrance Friday afternoon, and renovations of the hotel's outlying cottages will not be finished until the end of the month.

But Mr. Russell said the hotel was ready for its first guests, and anxious to get its 340 employees back on the job after a long winter break.

Mr. Russell said the biggest difference between Wyndham and other luxury hotel groups is the way it treats its employees.

"We care about our people,'' he said. "We like to feel our employees are listened to.'' The "Wyndham Way'' includes a open-office policy for managers, respect for the knowledge and abilities of employees and the "empowerment'' of workers by allowing them to make decisions.

For example, Mr. Russell said, a front desk clerk at a Wyndham hotel can make decisions that, in other hotels, would have to go through about six layers of bureaucracy.

Another example is that, among the first renovations this winter was almost $50,000 spent to fix up the staff cafeteria and almost $80,000 to renovate staff dormitories -- money spent directly by Wyndham that was not part of the overall hotel renovation budget.

Right now the hotel's workers are learning the new hotel groups ways with the help of a 16 person "Success Team'' that includes top people from other Wyndham hotels and Wyndham president Mr. Eric Danziger.

"They didn't come down to give orders,'' Mr. Russell said. "They came down to assist.'' Mr. Danziger recruited Mr. Russell to Wyndham three months ago -- specifically to run the Elbow Beach -- from the Canadian Pacific/Doubletree hotel group where Mr. Danziger once served as vice president.

Mr. Russell was the group's Atlanta-based regional manager, in charge of hotels in Atlanta, Kansas City, St. Louis, Nashville, Tampa, Miami and Louisville.

He has also worked in luxury hotels in Hawaii, St. Thomas, St. Louis and Los Angeles.

He said he jumped at the offer to head the Elbow Beach, and had visited the Island several times while working a decade ago as the regional food and beverage manager for Princess Hotels in the Bahamas.

NEW ELBOW BEACH HEAD -- General manager Mr. Timothy Russell.