alanslegal

Bump.

In my case, looks like Bora Bora is on my travel radar instead of my regular haunt of Hawaii, so as its a non-special occasion for us, rather just a week of tanning and recharging our batteries, we're going to book the el-cheapest room and pray for an upgrade. So what is the general upgrade room (if avail) as Platinum gets?

DCF

Upgrades in Bora Bora are extremely rare, as you are already booked into a suite by definition.

Last year, the hotel's own reservations department was massively discounting the best rooms for direct sale, with Overwater Bungalows at CFP40,000 (US$440) and Premium Overwaters at CFP46,000 (US$500).

There is also currently the SPG355N promotion, in which every fifth night is free and there is 35% off the rack rate, and until July there is also an SPG50 promotion on French Polynesian and Hawaiian resorts, which never normally offer more than 35% off rack.

My strong advice is that if you want a Premium Overwater, book it.

My other advice is to seriously consider the St Regis: it's 40% more expensive, but the rooms are far larger and more luxurious than Le Meridien. Currently SPG355N offers an overwater bungalow for 97,000CFP per night, with every fifth night free, which means the rate is effectively US$883 per night for stays in five night blocks, which is good value for the best Starwood rooms on earth.

You would pay higher prices at the Westin Maui than at Le Meridien Bora Bora for the best rooms. And the St Regis is more comparable to the Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons on Maui, and again comes out cheaper.

One word of caution. Food and drink is massively overpriced at both Bora Bora hotels, and portion sizes are shrinking rapidly. Use your Platinum breakfast amenity and eat out on the main island. Also, take the shuttle over to the mainland and shop for food for lunch rather than paying hotel prices for it.

Magicbus

Does anyone have any experience with staying in a "Pool beach villa:2 Kings + Double Sofa Bed". I've made a paid reservation for this for 3 nights for 28,000 XPF per night under the "love your family" promo, it also incudes a $50 USD resort credit per day. Seems to be good to be true. Admittedly my plan was to book the cheapest possible room and hope for an upgrade although I see from previous posts that an UG is a longshot at best.

alanslegal

Thanks for the detailed post DCF.

I was looking at rates at POWB seems very good value ~XPF60K mark for my dates. Again, in my case not essential of having a POWB but its not too bad on the hip pocket.

bouncingbug

Also try:

http://www.starwoodhotelshawaii.com/...or-half-price/

You may be able to get cheaper rates depending on your dates. I was playing around with dates and noticed one or two of the larger suites were running at the same price as the POWB.

I'd recommend you check out the St Regis too. With the SPG50PRO code the prices are quite close to Le Meridien.

bouncingbug

What dates are you traveling for this? This sounds way too good to be true! The villa sounds like a 2BR suite with a private pool.

I'd double-check your rate and confirm with the hotel, but if you really got that rate then congrats and hope you and family have a great time!

UASPG

Being a Platinum, helped by an Ambassador (BTW, all Starwood employees, that I talked to, call Platinum members with 100 nights "Ambassador", although it was not intended to be that way - but it was expected as no name was given for that category) try to choose Starwood hotels whenever I can, but at Bora Bora, we go to the IC Thalasso.

For this stay, we had to stay an additional night on the island, before the period booked at the Thalasso, and this last one was fully booked for that additional night, so we stayed at the neighboring hotel, LM Bora Bora, which we had seen so many times, being so close to our favorite hotel.

We were very well welcomed (as a Platinum or because our Ambassador had done a good job, announcing us?) and did not have to wait long to be set in our OWB. We had booked the lowest rate and got an end of the jetty bungalow.

The inside was much better than we had expected and was very set for this smaller villa than the ones at the next door hotel. The floor has a large glass that allows you to see the fishes under your villa, while the window is only set on a coffee table at the Thalasso.

Several gifts were waiting for us inside our bungalow (better gifts than at the more expensive Thalasso).

We had chosen the breakfast instead of the 500 points (I am used to get both at the various Starwood properties that I often stay at in S.E. Asia) and it was a fairly good buffet. Of course, no complimentary breakfast at the IC.

The other buffet, that we went to, was for the dinner: "Buffet du pecheur avec show polynesien" (Seafood with Polynesian show).
The quality of the dishes was overall clearly lower than at the Thalasso, but still acceptable.

The hotel is much less expensive than the one next door, but the Thalasso with its large villas and bleached wood has a more magic and relaxing feeling to it.

If you have a reduced budget, Le Meridien is a great choice and if you are Platinum, the deal is even better with the breakfast and free internet in the rooms.

Spac3d

Great commentary on Le Meridien Bora Bora - thanks to everyone who has previously input their opinions and reviews.

I'm going to be here on my honeymoon in late February 2013 and I'm trying to get an idea of how many points it may cost me to pay for food/drinks with SPG points. Does anyone have a rule of thumb for the hotel or actually know?

Trying to start saving my points now - thanks in advance!

gregorygrady

Not sure if this hotel offers that as an option, but if they do it's normally a terrible redemption value, like 1 cent per point or something like that. I'd suggest saving your pts and paying for your meals. This place is a terrible place to redeem your pts for room too, hopefully you aren't wasting what is it, about 60-120k SPG pts per night for a room here!!!

margarita girl

Was there 4 yrs ago. Food was terribly expensive and I don't recall the option of paying with points. Think it was $25 for a miso soup, $30 for a burger and fries. We had breakfast included so ate to our heart's content for brekkie, had rum and coke for lunch (with rum bought at duty free) and then a light dinner. Bring lots of sunscreen or be prepared to pay $40/bottle. That being said, it was a great vacation and our OTWB was fantastic!

We even paddled over to the IC and helped gregorygrady and his wife to empty out their mini-bar one day!

Magicbus

We completed a 3 night stay here a week or so ago.

This was the final stop for us in FP, we started with 2 nights at LM Tahiti, 2 nights at Hilton Moorea.

We found Bora Bora to be an exceptional destination and really enjoyed the hotel. We stayed in a beachfront lagoon villa. This was a pairs stay at 28000 xpf per night. We really enjoyed this room and in particular it's private pool. We inquired about moving to a OWB and in the end preferred not to move. We used the hotel transfer which is an impressive start to the stay. Check in was excellent although several promises were made but not fulfilled, we overheard over guests lamenting this later in the trip as well. We used our platinum Benefit and ate continental breakfast which is good. We tried all of the restaurants and found them to be good food but not cheap.

We asked for and received a late checkout which was great. Checkout itself and getting a correct bill was a train wreck.

We really enjoyed the turtle and fish viewings.

We can't compare to the other BB properties, but this was a slice of heaven for us.

UASPG

We just spent a week at the Thalasso and 4 days at the Hilton, but have a planned stay at Le Meridien, next year. Is it a hotel so unpopular with FT folks, not to have a single post for over 10 months?
Our experience at this hotel is very limited, as we only stayed there for one night, before a longer stay at the Thalasso IC.
Being of the earlier generation, the OW bungalows are quite smaller than at the Hilton or the Thalasso.
The breakfast was also of a lesser quality that it is at the 2 other properties (as least when we were there, a year ago).

With the Hilton that now has free breakfast and free internet for the Gold and Diamond crowd, and the Thalasso that has free internet for elite members, the difference in benefits is shrinking.

Reports on more recent stays requested .

silentbob1974

This is unfortunately not recent (summer 2012) but I'll post anyway just to add a data point. We had a great time. Bora Bora is obviously expensive, and we accepted that going in. That said, we were able to get the SPG50 rate which made things more reasonable. Having the full buffet as the platinum breakfast amenity helped too. What made our stay so enjoyable was the staff. Especially Alain the concierge (?) and folks running the Turtle Center. Is it as luxurious as the St. Regis, which we tried for one night before heading to the LM? Of course not. The LM food was adequate, hardly great. The bungalows, not as spacious. But for what we wanted (i.e., great views, OWBs, swimming with sea turtles), the LM fit the bill and was not nearly as obscenely priced as a Bora Bora trip could've been.

We'll definitely go back again in the next 5-10 years, especially if an SPG50 rate or 35% off point redemption is available.

kmcbrid2

Has anyone been able to book cash and points here?

DCF

You wouldn't want to.

It's all-suites, so 30,000 Starpoints per night plus $625. But they sell their best rooms directly for around $600 if you ask nicely.

So C+P would just be a way of pouring your poinrts down the toilet when you could get the same price without burning the points. And you'd earn Starpoints!