ith hotels across the Island feeling the pressure from ever-diminishing occupancy rates, Elbow Beach along Bermuda's South Shore has done surprisingly well this year.

Elbow Beach is one of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group's award-winning hotels and resorts.

Hotel general manager Frank Stocek believes the hotel's success can be attributed to some important decisions taken four years ago.

One of these is focusing his marketing and sales effort on the segment of the market which ensures the most gains.

"Fishing where the fish are... so to speak," he said in a candid interview.

In fact he so strongly believes in this approach that the hotel spends $3 million a year on marketing ? and as he admits "that's a lot for a 250 room hotel".

But he is quick to add that there is a lot going on at Elbow Beach as the hotel keeps its finger on the pulse of what's happening on the market.

"We chase every piece of business and it has paid off," he said.

There are 17 members on the Elbow Beach marketing, sales and reservation team and four of them are based in New York ? the hotel's key market.

But they also have the resources of Mandarin Oriental's regional sales offices of which there are 22 across the globe.

Mr. Stocek said what works for the hotel is its four cornerstones which include their new products ? luxurious premier rooms, the new spa, beach front facilities which were rebuilt after Hurricane Fabian in 2003 and the Lido complex with Mickey's, Lidos and The Deep, which opens this autumn.

The second cornerstone is Mandarine Oriental's reputation in North America.

"It's considered a very hot group at the moment and was voted the best hotel group in the USA, which is a milestone for us as a hotel group," he said.

Mr. Stocek said when potential guests in the US hear the "buzz" about the Mandarine group and go online, they find Bermuda is only 90 minutes away, so they end up getting a lot of regular Mandarine guests coming to the Island, obviously a bonus.

But this can be a double-edged sword as many of these guests expect the same kind of hotel they have in New York, Hong Kong and London ? $250 billion high-tech hotels which are some of the finest ? but Mr. Stocek says they're working very hard to get there.

"There is only a certain type of guest who can afford to come to Bermuda and with the high cost structure we can only go after certain ones so we focus all of our marketing at that segment," he added.

However, the Mandarine reputation and a very focused sales and marketing team is what he considers the secret to the hotel's success since the first cottage was built in 1908.

Using the old clich? of "fishing where the fish are" Mr Stocek said this was just a fact of life.

"We focus on our main distribution market and we don't go for promotions in every other city that has no direct flights to Bermuda," he said.

third of the hotel's time is spent on the international companies on the Island which also supports Elbow Beach. While the bulk might stay in Hamilton, a chunk of the hotel's business comes from these companies, something Mr. Stocek is very appreciative of and goes the extra mile to keep these guests happy.

"We avoid quick fixes," he said, believing that spending all your energy and time focused on ideas which might attract a few new guests took your attention off the market which guaranteed gains.

However, just like most of the hotels in Bermuda, it has not been an easy year and Mr. Stocek is quick to admit that realistically they have done better.

"But it's difficult to compare this year to last year because for the first eight months of 2004, we were running a 160-room hotel because the place was under construction," he said.

Last year Olympic Incentive also took up the whole hotel for the second half of August, which was followed by a quiet period.

He said the hotel had an average of 56 percent occupancy rate for this year and what they budgeted for is what they are coming in at.

"We had based our budget on a ten percent growth and we're making our budget and even though this ten percent growth did not happen, we still made our budget and that's good," he said.

-commerce is "huge" for Elbow Beach and in the last three years they've seen 150 percent growth in their website bookings.

"We have a dedicated e-commerce and website manager and we won the Mandarin Oriental best e-commerce award for the best e-commerce performance in any of its hotels," he said.

In fact within the next few weeks the hotel will have the first 3D concierge which will interact with potential guests who go online to find out more about Elbow Beach.

"The future is online and people just love to click and get their bookings," he said, adding that in less than ten clicks of a mouse any visitor to Bermuda can not only get their hotel bookings, but also their airfare.

Just like many other hoteliers in Bermuda, Mr. Stocek is counting on the fact that tourism in Bermuda will boom once again in the future.

Elbow Beach is fortunate enough to have a very supportive owner who has an emotional attachment to the property.

"He looks at it as a long term investment and he has the financial resources to continue to invest and upgrade the property. His goal, and our goal, is to eventually get to a comfortable situation for this hotel," he said, adding that unfortunately not all hotels on the Island have this kind of support behind them.

Then there's the support of returning guests.

He said it was not unusual to find a couple returning to Bermuda with their children and grandchildren 50 years after they spent their honeymoon at the hotel.

"It's so much easier to keep a guest than to find a new one."