Coco Reef boss Andrea Jennings has hit back at allegations she is forcing out long-serving staff to make way for cheap foreign labour.

She said 20 of the 60-odd staff had left since Coco Reef took over the former Stonington Beach hotel but she said this was because of the winter shut down.

She said the hotel could not afford to stay open with so little business in the off season, unlike when Government subsidised it when it was a training hotel linked to the college.

However none of the workers who had left Coco Reef cited that as the reason they left.

On Thursday night eight former staff members visited The Royal Gazette offices complaining they were sacked over spurious charges or forced out by being offered inferior job and pay.

They complained about Ms Jennings management style and said 37 of them had left since the take-over.

At first Ms Jennings said there were two people in dispute with the hotel, she then claimed those two had spurred on the others.

She said she had never met most of the people who had left and that there had not been a mass walkout but merely that people had found new jobs in the winter shut down.

"I came in September we closed in October. We paid their health insurance for six months."

Ms Jennings denied claims that only 16 rooms were open and said the hotel was 70 percent full but the west wing was closed because of staffing shortages.

Local staff had been annoyed about having to do a test covering knowledge about Bermuda but Ms Jennings said they needed to be knowledgeable to answer questions from guests.

She said she had taken over bookings because customers had been getting $150-200 a night deals in the summer when they should be paying $400 to $500 a night.