The Coastline Hotel in Salina will be turned into a student village this summer hosting students from two of Malta's largest language schools.
The decision to use the hotel was taken solely to upgrade the quality of the product on offer, according to spokesmen for the schools.
Winston Zahra Jnr, operations manager of Island Hotels Group which owns the hotel, said the Coastline would be used to accommodate students in July and August.
Both the hotelier and the schools insisted that the decision was not taken because of some impending tourism or host family crisis.
The hotel has been in operation for over 15 years. Last year, the management was approached by a UK tour operator for the over-50s, Saga Holidays, which was looking for a four-star property to use exclusively in Malta.
The hotel was contracted for a three-year period, with potential extensions. Since last September, the Coastline was used exclusively by Saga guests between September and June.
Mr Zahra said the first few months of operation were extremely successful, with the hotel being featured as one of the prime Saga properties and, to date, won two guest satisfaction awards.
"The customer service scores being achieved are a credit to the staff of the hotel and the results are already yielding very healthy advance bookings for the winter season.
This is especially significant in the very tough international tourism market today and we, therefore, consider ourselves to be in a very good position," he said. Mr Zahra said that the contract with Saga left the hotel with July and August to sell.
"Knowing that there was a gap to fill in the student market for quality student-only accommodation, we discussed a possible option with two leading language schools on the island. Together, we have designed a peak season product for students only that is excellent for the hotel, the student market and the island as a whole," the hotelier said.
Mr Zahra said the average room size and spacious public areas in the hotel allowed the management to cater for three students per room very comfortably.
"This solution makes it viable for all parties and guarantees English language schools a level of quality that would otherwise be difficult to achieve," he said.
The back-to-back solution with Saga guests occupying the hotel exclusively from September to June and students being offered a premium product solution during July and August meant that the Coastline would have a record year during one of the toughest periods being experienced in the international tourism industry, he said.
The latest official figures show a three per cent drop in tourism arrivals when compared with the same period last year.