HOTELIERS have been left to pick up the bill after a hit and run driver ploughed through their front wall in an early hours crash.

Peter and Sandra Frith were woken by a loud bang at 5am on Saturday and discovered the wall of their Croydon Hotel in St Michael’s Road, Bournemouth had been destroyed.

The couple were asleep in their bedroom in the basement and said they are lucky rubble didn’t smash through the window.

Now police are hunting the driver of the vehicle involved, believed to be a yellow Peugeot 306 convertible.

“The car was abandoned further down St Michael’s Road but was moved again at about 10am,” said Mr Frith.

“We were in a state of dismay when we saw what had happened – it woke most of the guests in the rooms at the front of the hotel.

“I am just glad no one was outside on the pavement. Sometimes people are coming back from nightclubs at that time or perhaps outside for a cigarette.”

The couple, who have run the hotel for eight years, are in the process of getting estimates to discover the cost of repairing the wall and railings.

A spokesman for Dorset Police confirmed officers were called to the scene just before 5am and appealed for witnesses to contact them on 101.