At the June 2 meeting of the council, David McFarland from newly formed Quality Hotel Group introduced the idea of having a hotel complex on the hill near the basketball stadium.

Mr McFarland said the hotel was "a world first in hotel concepts" and would "put Shellharbour on the map as a tourism destination" as well as benefit the Croom community and provide employment.

The details of the hotel concepts weren't fully disclosed due to confidentiality, however Mr McFarland - who has also long been involved with the Wollongong Roller Hawks - said the idea of the hotel would be to support and complement the Croom sporting groups.

"What we would like to do with the hotel is potentially have part of the funding go back to the sporting clubs to help raise their profile," he said.

"And potentially organise state and national competitions and promote them, and then in turn people would stay at the hotel and then in turn it would sponsor the event.

"It is really early stages, this proposal was more just about (the fact that) Shellharbour desperately lacks accommodation and we're trying to offer a quality product that is affordable."

Councillor John Murray said that while the hotel proposal wasn't yet part of the Croom master plan he encouraged council staff to "explore the idea for the hotel for the best interests of the city".

Cr Kellie Marsh pushed to have the hotel proposal details looked at promptly.

"The money just keeps escaping us," she said, "that money for accommodation keeps going to Kiama or to Wollongong, we just keep losing it and losing it.

"I've seen how motels can really be the livelihood of a town."