Sailors take jewels, say, for hoteliers (9)

I believe the answer is:

taverners

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'for hoteliers' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.

'sailors take jewels' is the wordplay.
'sailors' becomes 'tars' (tar is a kind of sailor).
'take' is an insertion indicator.
'jewels' becomes 'verne' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'tars' going around 'verne' is 'TAVERNERS'.

'say' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.