InterContinental Bora Bora - Thalasso
What is your Priority Club status?
Spire Royal Ambassador
Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
I cannot express in words the amount of satisfaction we have received from this hotel/stay.
Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked Emerald room for 4 nights on points exclusively. Upgraded to Diamond Otemanu bungalow (!!!) - one of the three or so that face Mt. Otemanu directly, and that I consider the best on the property (*not* the end of pontoon ones!!)
How are the rooms?
Spectacular. Amazing. Words fail me. Not only are the rooms beautiful, modern and huge, but obviously this view every morning defies any description:
How is the exec. lounge?
No lounge here.
What was your welcome gift?
Two half-bottles of champagne. Candy for toddler first day. Huge home-baked cookie for toddler second day. Chocolate cake for toddler third day. Pancakes with chocolate sauce for toddler fourth day. Shirt / scarf for adults, cap / toys for toddler. Pair set of branded towels on checkout. Some bracelets for him and her. A lot of this was branded merchandise, but it was still awesome - the shirt is such a splendid colour that I intend to actually wear it, maybe covering the logo up a bit.
Did you receive fruit in the room?
Yes.
What was good and what was bad?
Good
- The lagoon... the lagoon.
- Overwater bungalow!
- The entire hotel is simply beyond any expectation. Service is phenomenal. The grounds are incredibly immaculate. Staff is attentive. (walk to breakfast? they notice and clean the room while you're gone, so it's clean by the time you get back).
- The ray feeding at 2pm daily is really cool. I had no idea sting rays were like cats.
Bad
- Strike what I said about Moorea. That's not expensive. *THIS* is expensive. Easily $50+ pp dinners (w/o drinks), $40pp breakfast (take the 50% off prepaid option. You will NOT regret it!), $100pp return boat transfer (mandatory, unless you want to schlep it over the island for several hours in taxis and so on), $20pp boat transfer to the mainland if you want the convenient times (the boat schedule is better than airline revenue management - it's precisely timed to be extremely inconvenient unless you pay), etc. But ... that's Bora Bora for you, so this isn't a slam against the hotel - the entire island is like it (St-Regis wanted $300 for a boat transfer to go for dinner there... seriously, come on)
- No lounge
- Minibar is only 'decent' for such a stellar property (best thing was a Roederer half-bottle - the other stuff was completely run of the mill)
Value for $ or Priority Club Points?
This is the crown gem of the IHG redemption system, so I should say the value is spectacular. Not to mention that I was upgraded from what normally would've been a $1K night to bordering on $2K for the Diamond suite...
Would you return?
Absolutely, most definitely.
Other Notes
I literally do not think I have ever been treated better at any IHG property. Ever. I am completely floored at how amazing this stay was. *This* is how loyalty is generated.