Stayed six nights on points over NYE 2024. Weather was great 5/6 days, so we lucked out there.

Both of us are diamonds, and we received a one category upgrade to a tropical beach view villa 504. These are set back against the hill to the side of the building which houses the gym and entry-level rooms. It was nice to not have to share walls with other guests, but views from the spacious deck were mostly obstructed by the palm trees growing in front. A nice atmosphere, but not a dazzling view to be sure. At check-in, I asked our butler/personal concierge about the possibility of a further diamond upgrade, and was told that the hotel was full, but many guests were checking out Jan. 1 so that could be looked into at that point. Well Jan. 1 came and I asked, and was referred to the front desk to inquire, and was told that there would be no possibility of a complimentary diamond upgrade and was quoted about $1k/nt if I wanted an OWB. We've stayed in owb's before and didn't want it that bad. This did, however, portend a pattern of behavior from out butler wherein he would routinely redirect us to other personnel around the resort versus taking care of requests himself and simplifying our stay.

The NYE dinner: Two options: Buffet at $350pp, or sit-down at $500pp. Buffet was at Iriatai, the breakfast place, while sit-down was at the sandy floor restaurant beside the pool. Sit down was sold hard as the "premium option" with a live band, but in reality there was live music at the buffet too. The buffet is what we chose and it was amazing, with super high-quality fresh sushi, sashimi, nigiri, beef wellington, duck, etc. Food offerings were diverse and top notch. We were disappointed about getting charged extra for water, and in an underhanded way, in our estimation. At each table, they had already set a bottle of still water. No price was noted on it, and unlike at breakfast, the buffet offered no other drinks. So in context, we (and we know of a few others) presumed that this water was included in the $350 pp for the buffet. Wrong! Found out after getting the tab that it was an extra ten bucks if you wanted to drink water with your meal! Just came off as a cheap cash-grab.

Is NYE dinner/gala required? It appears not. It's strongly pushed by ALL butlers if they become aware that you are not already signed up for one of the options, but rather than telling you straight out that it's required, they say that everything else is closed on NYE evening and it's the only available option. In line while checking out, we overheard a lady contest the bill for the NYE buffet, stating she hadn't attended, and the charge was removed. Also, at booking, there was no language stating that attendance or at least paying for the dinner/gala was mandatory. May have been an omission, but either way, it wasn't there. At least for this past new year's it strongly appeared that one could "get out" of having to go to or pay for the NYE meal/festivities. As impressive as the buffet was, I'd say this is probably a good night to dine in on food that you brought to the resort with you

NYE fireworks: At midnight, a barge some distance off of the pier let off an impressive display of fireworks, considering the remoteness of the location. The display went on for several minutes and even had a pretty good grand finale. This was definitely arranged by Conrad, as there's nothing and no one else out there to see it. Still, it was a fairly small gathering of folks at Upa Upa/ the pier to watch it, where there was a DJ and even a couple of people dancing from time to time. Some may have watched from their bungalows, but it seemed more like most people just crashed out before the clock struck midnight (I may have wished to have been among them).

Service: Very hit or miss to put it mildly. Our butler/personal concierge was not interested in doing much for us, preferring to direct us to talk to various departments around the resort. Remote communication with your butler is achieved via WhatsApp. It appears to be a "party line" where other personnel can also see and respond to messages, but the understanding seems to be if your assigned butler is on duty, they are to be the one to help you. One day we asked for our butler to reserve us a spot on the boat going into town. This time, he replied he'd look into availability and would get back with us. We were kind of surprised that he appeared to accept the request without redirecting us elsewhere, but we also weren't fully convinced if he'd come through for us. An hour passed, and we'd heard nothing. We happened to be at the pool at the time, so I decided to take the short walk to the concierge desk dockside to make the reservation myself, which was quickly and favorably handled within seconds. Another hour passes, and it's now thirty minutes prior to the boat's departure time, and our butler pipes up via WhatsApp and states, quite matter-of-factly, that the boat is fully reserved and therefore my wife can't go on this one (which happened to be the last free one of the day). I didn't respond and just had to laugh at the laziness/incompetence. Good thing we'd already picked up on the vibe that he couldn't be trusted to achieve anything that mattered. Though our butler probably had no business working in such capacity, it appeared that others may have been quite good. It wasn't uncommon for us to cross paths with other butlers (who weren't ours) around the resort, and they'd often ask us all on their own if there was anything they could do to help us. Maybe they assign the bad ones to those staying on points. Who knows. The ladies working the pool bar didn't have the rosiest of personalities, either. That seems like a position where you'd want friendly and outgoing folks, but what do I know. Service at the breakfast buffet was always top notch, and the folks working the front desk were consummate professionals and quite friendly.

Oddities associated with layout of the resort itself: Conrad BB has an amazing beach. It is long, fairly wide, consists of soft, powdery white sand, and even has areas where the entry has a sandy bottom so you don't have to wear swimming shoes to avoid broken reef bits. It is difficult to overstate how rare it is to find these qualities in a beach in the society islands. It is truly unique and special. Yet, I noticed that there was seldom a soul on any of the hotel's beaches, which seemed curious to me given that the hotel was at capacity. No doubt many folks with OWB's choose to lounge on their back porch and with good reason. But the hotel also has many land-based rooms, and for them the beach is their access to the legendary waters of Bora Bora. So what gives? Here's my theory: Poor layout of the OWB's. About 90% of the aforementioned wonderful beach feels "closed in" by the owb's and their walkways. They are laid out such that, in most areas, owb's are aligned parallel to and close to the shoreline, so your immediate view is of concrete pylons, walkways and railings, and bungalows. There are "gaps" on either side of the dock, and in front of the two beach bugalows, but that's really about it, and the gaps aren't as big as you'd like them to be. Most other resorts on BB have their OWB's laid out such that they do not extensively obstruct views from their recreational shorelines. In short, the chosen layout for OWB's negates the otherwise amazing and unique beach.

Diamond benefits: Aforementioned 1 category upgrade, late checkout (to 4pm when we were leaving the resort, very nice), complimentary breakfast (no one bothered us with the hot/cold distinction), welcome amenity of chocolate and a separate bottle of wine, access to the diamond/honors beach. Overall, very good benefits and recognition.

Strange charge after checkout: Having fully settled the bill at checkout, I noticed a couple days later a strange charge of several hundred bucks to my credit card from the hotel which I was unable to reconcile with my copy of the bill. Come to find out that room service charged us for a couple bottles of booze after we'd checked out. Because, ya know, everyone loves to buy booze at 10x the retail price immediately before leaving the resort for places where the same stuff is dirt cheap by comparison. The kicker was whoever did the charge also tipped themselves to the tune of 100% of the bill. That took this out of the ambit of a possible mistake to pretty obvious and intentional fraud. The hotel was quick to reverse the charge and provided some honors points for the trouble, but this obviously left a foul taste in my mouth.

Overall vibe/decor: This has been stated elsewhere, but the room decor doesn't throw a strongly polynesian vibe. If you close the curtains, the room starts to feel closer to any other high end hotel in the west. This can be a positive or negative depending on who you are. For me, if I'm down in french polynesia, I like seeing a thatched roof from the inside, and lots of decor/furnishings which convey the south pacific vibe.

Overall, even with the shortcomings we experienced, it's a great value redemption of hilton points. That said, I don't see myself rushing back to this resort. I enjoyed my stay at IHG Le Moana and Thalasso more in prior years. I would, however, like to try the Hilton Moorea, but they seem even harder to score on points than Conrad BB!