(Not a teacher)
Other words like this in English are 'restaurant' and 'café'. Some people pronounce 'restaurant' with no word-final 't' and a similar 'n' to the French language, others pronounce it with the word-final 't'. Some people pronounce 'café' with the stress on the second syllable, as French people would, and others stress the first syllable.
I think the people who say 'hotel' without the 'h' would probably be doing so consciously using the reason 'every other 'h' initial word with French origin is pronounced with a silent 'h', so 'hotel' should be no different.' I would say the majority of native English speakers who have no knowledge of etymology would pronounce the initial 'h'. These same people with no knowledge are also unlikely to pronounce 'restaurant' without the word final 't', and may also pronounce other French words incorrectly - 'beige' with a 'dg' sound like in 'badge' rather than the correct 'g' sound like in 'measure'.