The world's only sand hotel welcomed its first guests at £10 a night yesterday (July 23). It was built by sand sculptor Mark Anderson and looks like a giant sand castle.

But it will only stay up until the tide washes it away on Weymouth beach in Dorset.

Mr Anderson said: “It's Britain's largest sand castle, 15 metres square, four metres high and weighs about 1,000 tonnes.

“We had a team of six people and a digger working 12 to 14 hours a day for eight days.

“It was really intense but we had a great time.”

It is made from Weymouth beach sand, the finest in the world for making sand castles, according to Mr Anderson.

“I have been on about 200 beaches and have only found one in Tasmania with sand as fine for making sculptures as Weymouth,” he added.

The open air family room, consisting of a double and single bed also made from sand, costs £10 a night but was fully booked yesterday.

The sand hotel was commissioned by a website after its research found 57 per cent of holidaymakers were shunning foreign destinations in favour of a British resort.

Rising living costs and the credit crunch influenced 51 per cent to holiday in the UK this summer.

And 75 per cent of people said they were planning to visit UK beaches they went to as children because they were feeling nostalgic.

More than half of holidaymakers said they decided to stay in the UK because of the strong euro, while 32 per cent said they were shunning carbon-heavy flights in favour of closer destinations.

LateRooms.com surveyed 1,823 visitors to its website on July 14, 2008, and also asked about the beaches they most wanted to visit.

The top ten up-and-coming beach hotspots for 2008 were:

Resort %

1 Torquay 53

2 St Ives 45

3 Bournemouth 30

4 Weymouth 24

5 Norfolk 23

6 Scarborough 20

7 Weston-Super-Mare 11

8 Eastbourne 10

9 Southend-on-Sea 7

10 Skegness 6

Kathy Gwinnett of LateRooms.com said: “British beach holidays are enjoying a renaissance and that some of the less obvious resorts, such as Weymouth and Torquay, are getting rediscovered.”