Soon to be axed workers at the doomed Marriott Castle Harbour Hotel say they anticipated the hotel's closure months ago.

And, although they are pessimistic about their chances of finding alternative employment before the resort closes in November, staff believe that, in the long run, the hotel will prosper.

Hotel bosses announced the closure on Wednesday afternoon, saying that the resort was losing too much money. They are now negotiating with potential investors in a bid to get the hotel revamped and up and running again in about two years.

And in a fresh development the hotel's Human Resources director confirmed that plans were in the pipeline to find employment for the 300 staff facing unemployment by the end of the year.

"We all knew it was coming -- it's no surprise,''one staff member, who did not wish to be named, told The Royal Gazette .

"As soon as Host Marriott pulled out things started going down hill as far as investing money into the place and the building.

"They have had problems with this building for the last 13 years -- we've had plumbing problems with leaky pipes.

"But it's one of the best sites on the Island and I'm sure it will be a success when it does finally reopen. Things are pretty positive at the moment.

We're having 100 people in tomorrow -- we're having to turn people away.

"Getting work is going to be a struggle. You've already got the Palmetto and the Belmont and with our staff as well it's going to be hard, especially in November. But there's nothing we can do about it.'' Another hotel worker said: "I've been here for 40 years and the place definitely needs something new. One of the main problems is the National Trust -- they just don't seem to understand that this hotel has to move forward.

It's time to change this hotel around.

"The long term staff are fine about it. We have a lot of staff who have been here a long time -14 years or more.

"But there are people who have only been here for three months or something like that and if you haven't been here at least a year you're not going to get any redundancy. It's those people, who have just started on the job, who are going to have to start all over again.

"The meeting that we had sounded great, really good. But it remains to be seen what will happen because, when the time comes, something else might come up. We're supposed to be having companies from the city coming down to interview us but that remains to be seen.'' When asked about plans to re-deploy staff with other companies, Human Resources director Lorrita Tucker-Simmons said: "It's something that we're prepared to do but that's in the very early stages and we haven't had a chance to brainstorm on that at the moment.

"It's not a question of re-employing staff but to help them focus on getting other jobs at the end of the year.

"But we're very confident that staff will be able to find work, whether it's in the hospitality industry or through retraining.''