Coco Reef Bermuda general manager Perry Robinson resigned from his post on Thursday, can reveal.

It is also understood that despite the hotel closing for the off-season on Friday, outstanding issues between staff and owners on insurance and redundancy still have not been resolved in writing.

And hotel owner John Jefferis continued to blame Government insurance company Centurion Insurance Services for the early closure of the hotel.

Mr. Robinson did not wish to say much about his resignation, stating only that it was time to move on and seek other ventures.

?I wish them well,? he said.

Staff were not surprised by his abrupt resignation, however, with sources telling they thought it was due to recent tensions between Mr. Robinson and Mr. Jefferis.

Evidence that all was not well between managers and owners was revealed when a scathing memo was recently leaked to from hotel director Andrea Jennings to Mr. Robinson and other departmental managers.

In the memo she blasted every department and told Mr. Robinson: ?Should you and your team of ?managers? decide to continue fumbling around in this style of service, then you all need to seriously reconsider your present roles.?

Staff on Friday also thought it was ?totally unfair? that Mr. Robinson, a Bermudian, resigned, while Trinidadian-born Ms Jennings remained as hotel director.

However Mr. Jefferis said Ms Jennings? position remained as hotel director, and added since the hotel was to be closed for six months for refurbishment, he felt they could ?get by? without a general manager.

?We?re very upset that he?s leaving,? he said. ?He told me he has some other options he wants to pursue at this time. We wish him all the best in his new endeavours.?

Coco Reef Bermuda, formerly Stonington Beach Hotel, has gone through a rocky period since Mr. Jefferis was granted a 50-year lease to run the hotel by Government in May.

After Hurricane Fabian hit the sea-wall and path down to the beach was destroyed. Coco Reef employees attempted to cut a new path ? only to succeed in chopping down some trees in the neighbouring Woodland Reserve owned by EB Properties. EB Properties has taken out a suit against the hotel for damages.

With no access to the beach and silence from the insurance company on when the hotel could begin emergency repairs to the sea-wall Mr. Jefferis made the sudden decision to close the hotel on October 31 instead of November 11 for a six-month refurbishment.

?It?s in the hands of the insurance company,? he told on Friday.

?We?ve heard nothing good. It?s very unfortunate, especially in our position.

?We would have been able to stay open much longer, particularly in regard to the fact that there was a shortage of hotel rooms on the Island with the Fairmont Southampton and Sonesta closed,? he said. ?But we can?t proceed without the beach works.?

However staff were angry about the decision and staged a sit-down, claiming not only that it was abrupt, but that there were outstanding issues such as vacation pay, redundancy and insurance which they had yet to sort out with Mr. Jefferis, who they said was impossible to pin down. ?We won?t believe anything until we see it in writing,? one employee said. understands that two weeks after the sit-down staff have yet to receive written confirmation on those issues from Mr. Jefferis. However the owner himself said while he did not feel all the issues had been resolved, progress was being made. He did not want to specify on the type of progress.

?The problem is that it?s not good spending millions of dollars on making the hotel beautiful... because the equal part of the product is the staff,? he said.

?We need to see a significant improvement in service and attitude if we are going to see a good product.?