Union met with Island hoteliers in the latest round of collective bargaining discussions yesterday.

"It is my view that each party came to an understanding of the other's position,'' BIU president Mr. Ottiwell Simmons said. "Although there was no agreement on those positions, at least there was understanding. That's good.'' The BIU has been trying to hammer out a collective bargaining agreement with the Hotel Employers of Bermuda for the past four years.

Although the Island's large hotels have expressed a willingness to sign a contract that was based on a 1993 decision by the Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board, most small hotels have balked.

No representative from any of the Island's small properties were in attendance yesterday, Mr. Simmons said, adding: "I hope that after this meeting there will be a change of heart.'' But Bermuda Hotels Association chief Mr. John Harvey told The Royal Gazette last night that Bermuda's small hotels would continue to boycott discussions until certain clauses in the 1991 Labour Relations Amendment Act are modified.

Those clauses would bind HEB hotels to any new collective bargaining agreement indefinitely.

"The union has been informed by me on many occasions that the historic concerns the small hotels have are not with the BIU but with the current legislation,'' Mr. Harvey said. "Until that is addressed, they have decided to adhere to legal advice and avoid signing a contract.'' Mr. Harvey listed the hotels that did send representatives to the meeting yesterday as the Belmont Hotel, the Sonesta Beach Hotel, Marriott's Castle Harbour Resort, the Harmony Club and the Princess hotels in Hamilton and Southampton.

The meeting continues at the Harmony Club in Paget today.

In other hotel news, the Statistics Department reported that current price estimates of total hotel gross receipts for the first six months of 1994 amounted to $123.9 million -- a marginal increase of 2.5 percent over the $120.9 million that was earned during the same period of 1993.

Receipts generated by resort hotels totaled $82.4 million, up one percent in comparison to 1993, while small hotels received some $18.3 million, up only 0.8 percent over the previous year.

Cottage colonies saw revenues of $13.2 million, an increase of 8.8 percent over 1993.

All other property types registered $10 million in receipts during the first two quarters, up 10.8 percent over the previous year.

Earlier this month, the HEB announced that the Island's eight major hotels earned an overall profit for the first time since 1987.

The group, which includes the six hotels attending the contract talks plus the Elbow Beach Hotel and the Grotto Bay Beach Hotel, earned $5.8 million after losing almost $7 million in the previous six years. In 1987, the hotels made $7.4 million.