PART of a Bournemouth hotel will be converted into holiday flats if new plans are approved.

Developer Trouville Hotel LLP hopes to convert Trouville Lodge, adjacent to the eponymous hotel in Priory Road, into 13 self-contained, serviced holiday flats.

The lodge at 9 Priory Road currently shares the hotel's rooms and facilities.

The developer currently has an extant application to build a six storey block of 35 residential flats and 10 holiday flats on the other side of the hotel at 5-7 Priory Road, on its current car park.

A planning statement for the lodge plan says: “The hotel currently provides ‘bed and breakfast’ accommodation with 19 bedrooms.

“Despite investment, occupancy rates have declined year-on-year and room rates have subsequently been reduced to assist booking numbers.

“As such maintenance costs for the upkeep of the building have increased and without continued uptake or financial reinvestment, the condition of the building will degrade to the detriment of the area.”

The developer says the holiday flats will have their own kitchens and be “spacious, stylishly furnished and finished with contemporary bathrooms”.

It says the financial success of the scheme will allow more money to be used to maintain the building, improving the appearance of the area.

The current plan is for 24 studio flats, 17 one-bedroom flats and four two-bed flats, with 54 spaces of replacement basement parking.

Council planners have yet to decide on the application for the car park, which was registered in October last year.

The hotel says previous planning consent for the site has established that the principle of development of the car park is acceptable.

In 2011, permission was granted on appeal for an 88 bedroom extension to the hotel. The council had rejected the scheme.

Then, in 2014, permission was granted for a six storey block of 10 holiday flats and 35 residential flats with underground and surface parking, similar to the current proposal.