romadaro

Used points for a 3 night stay in Tahiti and was told at checkin that my Spire Ambassador benefits don't apply when you use points, so you get virtually nothing-not even an upgraded room. As a result, because I challenged the agent and advised that I had never heard that before she put me and my wife in what was probably one of the worst rooms in the hotel, although I didn't know it until we awoke the next morning and opened the draperies and saw that our "view" was the wall of the building next door. Fed up, I called the front desk to ask who the GM was and was given the name of the Rooms Manager and I went down and spoke with him. When I told him that I was an Ambassador and gave him my room number he was even surprised and said that I should have been given a better room than that and told me he would take care of it. We were on the way out for the day and he told me that he would have my belongings moved and to stop by the desk to pick up my new key on return. Surprisingly, he moved us to an overwater bungalow as I had called the Ambassador desk prior to booking the stay to find out if I could use points and pay to upgrade to a bungalow and was told there was no need for that as I should be automatically upgraded to a bungalow, if available, since I was a Spire Ambassador and they would note the reservation and contact the hotel to make sure the hotel tried to accommodate the upgrade since my wife and I were celebrating our 35th Anniversary. Apparently they didn't call but they did note the reservation with a SPECIAL UPGRADE which I guess is what saved me.

However, when we got to the bungalow there was a letter on the desk from the GM congratulating us on our Anniversary and saying that the IC Tahiti does not upgrade reservations using points, regardless of status, but "they had accommodated me solely based on the misinformation that had been provided by the Ambassador Customer Service line." The other thing that I learned is that I should have received a coupon for 20% off the price of breakfast each morning of my stay, instead of the 50% off coupon for ONE day, which is what I was given. Since this is a transient hotel and a lot of people stay only one night while transiting to Moorea or Bora Bora they give them the 50% off coupon. But if you are staying more than one night as a Spire Ambassador you should get a 20% off coupon for breakfast each morning. With the price of breakfast being $40USD per person, obviously the 20% off is a lot better if you're there 2 or more days. Unfortunately, I didn't find out about this until we had checked out and ran into a couple on Moorea that we met in Tahiti.

So, I guess it depends on who you get at check-in at this property as far as what you get-or don't get. But, they certainly don't subscribe to the Tahitian spirit that you find at other places on the island.