A BOURNEMOUTH hotel has closed for the second time in as many weeks after nine more people caught a sickness bug.

Guests were yesterday being turned away from The Heath-lands Hotel, in Grove Road, which has shut again after six more guests and three staff fell ill.

Environmental health officers from Bournemouth Borough Council are monitoring the situation and the hotel is expected to re-open tomorrow.

Hotel staff and not a professional company – as reported at the time – had cleaned the hotel when it closed voluntarily last week, a council spokesman said.

One man drove from Birmingham to pick up his 72-year-old mother on Sunday.

She was one of a group of guests who had arrived at Heathlands on an Isle of Wight coach for a three-night stay for a WWAF reunion.

The man, who asked not to be named, said: “I was talking to some of the staff and they said they had done all the cleaning themselves after an outbreak.

“My mum arrived on Friday and on Sunday I went to pick her up because she was so ill from Saturday morning onwards.”

She is now seeking treatment from her own GP for the vomiting and diarrhoea symptoms.

“Mum said quite a lot of her party went down with it,” he said.

“I knew something was not right with her at all when I spoke to her on the phone and wanted to make sure she was okay.

“Up to a dozen elderly were ill. It needs something to be done and for people to be aware of it.”

One new guest and his partner were told the hotel had closed when they arrived yesterday.

They were put up at Round-house Hotel, at Lansdowne.

The guest, who did not wish to be named, said: “I booked two weeks ago.

“They did not call me at all before we arrived.

“Receptionists told me it was a stomach bug and there are a few people still staying there but they can’t take any more people in.”

Chain Britannia Hotels, which owns Heathlands and also The Britannia, were unavailable for comment.