I stayed at the Le Merridien in Oct of 07. True, it's not as luxurious as the St. Regis but my wife and I loved it. The service was quite honestly the best I've ever had at any hotel in the world. The food was ok but didn't compare to the service.

We had dinner twice at the St Regis and took some time to look at the property. It's very nice but it didn't seem to have a Polynesian feel to it. I felt disappointed and was happy we made the choice we did.

For comparison purposes, my wife does special events for a well known luxury brand. She is responsible for corporate events and trips about 6 times a year for between 200 and 600 rooms. When her company "slumed" it due to the economy this past fall they stayed at the Grand Hyatt in Kuai'i. Typical trips are to FS and above. She's used to over the top pampering as she's a huge source of revenue and she even agreed how excellent the service was at the LM.

The FS was not yet open at the time but looked nice. Although, again, it seemed to miss the point of being in Bora Bora.