Hotels across the Island are doing a roaring trade heading into this weekend.

Harmony Club general manager William (Billy) Griffiths reported that his facility was very busy this month.

He noted that the past three months had been very good ones for the Paget property as well.

"April, May and June have definitely been stronger than in previous years.

This second quarter is the strongest we have seen in at least the last five or six years.'' Rosedon general manager Muriel Richardson said her Pembroke charge had also been very busy over the month with a slight increase in European and US guests despite there being no breaks in airfare to the Island.

"We have been very busy. June has been excellent.'' And Belmont Hotel general manager Gordon Slatford commented: "We are fully booked up at the moment. We have had to turn people away.'' At The Reefs on South Shore, general manager Neal Stephens said: "We are projecting 97 percent occupancy for the whole of June. Basically this weekend we have 98.5 percent occupancy which means that we have one room open for two nights.'' Looking back, Mr. Stephens said May and April had been good for the Southampton cottage colony.

And looking ahead, he said figures for July and August were on line with those reached at this time in 1997.

Mr. Griffiths said: "The third quarter does not appear to be as strong as the second quarter. This is traditionally so for July, August and September.'' "July is looking good, '' added Ms Richardson, who noted it was too early to talk about August.

Mr. Slatford noted occupancies at the Warwick resort dropped down to about 70 percent occupancy during the first part of next week before jumping back up to 100 percent at the weekend.

They stayed that way until June 28, he said.

He added: "It is certainly very unusual to be full mid-week.'' Pompano Beach general manager Larry Lamb pointed out that improvements on recent years were relative.

He said May and June had been "pretty good'' at Pompano. July and August were also looking good as well but were nothing like in years past, he said.

"While July is up on last year, it's all relative. Last year was not particularly good at all.'' When called upon for a reason behind the boom, hoteliers were hesitant to name any one factor.

Mr. Griffiths said: "I think it is a combination of a whole lot of things; the advertising, the increased marketing, heightened selling from the sales force -- I think a lot of hotels have done their own initiatives also.

"I think it is a combination of everything.'' Ms Richardson said: "Personally, I am not able to put my hand on any particular thing. I would like to think it is the marketing effort but I don't have hard and fast proof of that.'' Mr. Stephens agreed: "I honestly don't know. Maybe there is a bit more awareness thanks to the marketing effort.'' But Mr. Lamb pointed to another reason.

Sonesta Beach Hotel are overbooked going into this weekend and are trying to reaccommodate their guests in other Island properties' rooms.

And Mr. Lamb noted that any hotels with space going into this weekend have probably been filled with Sonesta overflow.

"I think that if they were not full two weeks ago, Sonesta has made them full. If they had space Sonesta have filled it,'' he said.