Hotels may be closing to patch up after being battered by Fabian, but it is nowhere near as bad as when Hurricane Emily struck in 1987, Bermuda Hotel Association chief executive john Harvey said last night.

He said with Emily, some hotels had no power for two weeks, whereas all the major properties - the two Fairmont hotels, The Reefs, Elbow Beach, Cambridge Beaches and Stonington - all kept power this time and smaller hotels were being reconnected quickly.

And Mr. Harvey predicts the hotels will bounce back in even stronger shape after they are repaired.

"I don't want to minimise the damage, because it has been substantial, but they will come through this stronger," he told The Royal Gazette last night.

"It has been a great testament to witness the spirit of the staff and guests working together. The guests seem to be relaxed about those pools.

"If you had seen the pools 48 hours ago they looked like swamps, now they are pristine, crystal blue. It's great work. These places are almost back to normality.

"Emily was a real challenge with some of these hotels out of power for two weeks. There was a difficulty getting to these properties because of the trees down, now they've been moved so quickly.

"Someone has obviously remembered that and promised never to let it happen again. And BELCO has done some great work. In terms of the amount of time past and the work done, it has been fantastic."

He refused to be drawn on how much of a bloc Fabian and the hotel closures have done to this year's tourism season in Bermuda.

"After Labour Day, Bermuda goes quiet and that combined with the threat of Fabian meant it went even quieter," said Mr. Harvey.

"Guests left prematurely and those scheduled to come have contacted the hotels and are waiting for the signal to reschedule their vacation."

The Fairmont Southampton will be out for two weeks due to damage to the roof and fifth floor, Sonesta will be closed probably for a lengthy period of time after suffering extensive roof and room damage, and Ariel Sands, which lost the roofs of an estimated 30 cottages, is closing for a week.

Premier Alex Scott said last night: "It will be a blow. It was an act of God. I visited the Southampton Princess and their marketing icon, the spa, is just devastated.

"The top floor, it looks like a bomb went off in some of the rooms. The infrastructure of the tourism product has been challenged, but I don't count Bermuda out.

"Tourism is strategizing for a marketing effort to tell our customers that we will be back in business in a matter of days as opposed to weeks.

"Some hotels will be out for a period of time. Sonesta was hard hit and both the Princess properties will close and other properties will also have their challenges.

"What they do to our tourism stats, it's wait and see. Our customers are keen to arrive in Bermuda, that's why we are trying to get open for business as soon as possible."John O'Brien, general manager of the Ariel Sands Hotel, said the final 25 guests in the hotel were checking out today and they would then shut for a week.

Roofs were ripped off at least 30 buildings at the property, partly owned by film star Michael Douglas, while the pool was left resembling a swamp while the patio was destroyed and the outside bar wrecked.

Contractors were expected to arrive today to further examine the damage and begin the long business of clearing up.

"We were about 75 per cent full for the coming week," said Mr. O'Brien.

"We are still assessing the damage but we would expect to be closed for about a week. There is still a lot of work to do here."

The Sonesta Beach Hotel, which received some of the worst damage in this weekend's storms, will be closed until the end of the month.

The roof was lifted off by the winds and many hotel rooms were destroyed. The Longtail Cafe was washed out and with windows shattered and doors torn off their hinges. Around 200 guests were evacuated on Friday.