osutraveler

My wife and I were some of the last lucky ones to use an AXON award at the Hilton before the massive devaluation... that being said, the hotel was a steal at the original rate and our only better redemption is when we used a 6 night AXON at the Hilton Seychelles.

When we booked the room, they put us in a King Garden View Room. We debated quite a bit if we should upgrade to an OWB or if we should stay in the original room. Their original email offer was 22.5k XPF per night, then I emailed them and they offered me an 8k XPF night rate, but we didn't do it and on check in they told me 28k XPF per night. We're completing a round the world trip, so our budget was really too constrained to justify the upgrade.

After we checked and and were upgraded to a King Hillside Villa with my gold status, we were quite satisfied we didn't spend the extra money for the OWB villa. We were on the "4" level which was quite high, but really enjoyed the view and the isolation from other guests. My wife wrote a quite extensive review on her site if you'd like to read about our full experience.

yoyo

Anyone notice there is no award rooms available for Bora Bora Hilton regardless how many points you want to pay? I even looked at July 2014 and there has been none at all.

presario1626

I have the same response from them regarding upgrade cost and the standard OWB not available for upgrade in advance. I got standard OWB upgrade at VERY reasonable price couple years ago, very dissapointed they took this option away. Guess the standard villas are popular with paying customers, so they only offer more expensive options for upgrade to get more money out of customers paying with points.

Regarding negotiation, I think you got the right price, as I did get a much higher quote from another agent, so I digged out the upgrade email from couple years ago with the front office manager, she came back with the current offer.

synk

Were you logged in? Try logging out and then searching.

yoyo

Yeah that did the trick. I guess I didn't have enough points so the website just blanked me out when I logged in and searched for award stays. Thank you.

mascarak

This may be a stupid question, but since you have to pay upfront for the upgrades when booking with points, does that also mean that spend credits to your HH account immediately for the sake of elite qualification? Just wondering...

lewende

No. You will only have that until check out from the hotel.

MisterSelfish

Citi's system doesn't recognize the Hilton Bora Bora as a Hilton property. Currently their system automatically tags it as a Caesar's. So if you're not getting 10x points on your purchases that's why.

I ended up having to call into their customer service 3 times to get this straightened out. Any adjustments won't post until the next cycle.

UASPG

There is the same issue with the Chase Priority Club Visa and the IC properties in French Polynesia. It has been going on for years and they do not put a system in place to resolve the issue. I just have to call every time and go through the annoying conversation with the credit card representatives that are often uneducated about the bonus or the properties.

synk

Anyone one know if paid upgrades for award stays count as base points towards HHonors status?

JDiver

Just like the ones at the Hilton Moorea, they don't seem to, and they are nonrefundable as well. But if one uses the Surpass or other HHonors card, then it would.

I wonder if anyone has tried negotiating and asking the property to assign points?

MyTravels

The hotel provided us a folio prior to checkin with the upgrade payment and HHonors combined it along with our ancillary on-site spend (as that didn't auto-post either), so as long as you have a folio showing the payments I would expect it to count like all other Hilton direct billed on-site ancillary spend (obviously if non-Hilton tours, etc are billed to the room they may not earn HHonors)

lewende

My folio includes these upgrade charges and I was able to accrue base points on these charges as well.

MisterSelfish

Completed a 5 night stay back in mid-June. Paid for the stay using an AXON award + one night. Upgraded to room 105, a deluxe OWB with views of the volcano for roughly 22,000 XPF a night.

PROS:
+ Amazing views and crystal clear water - seriously the most gorgeous beach destination in the world. Powdery white sands, aquamarine water, and perfect temperatures in the summer.
+ Friendly pool boy staff - a plus for Mrs. Wanderlustre
+ Free "classes" = free drinks + food
+ Snorkling on property & kayaking = awesome
+ Some of the best diving in the world - visibility was easily 100m out - much better than SE Asia in my experience. We saw lemon sharks and a school of blue spotted eagle rays.

CONS:
- Stingy owner - no water provided on a daily basis (which is strange for a luxury property in a country with questionable water), breakfast doesn't include many standard hot items like scrambled eggs or pancakes, limited amenities (no bathsalts, no shaving cream, etc.). Was surprised that the property wasn't a Conrad until we noticed all of the small flaws.
- Rooms are a little dated - TV in the living room is from the 90's, no cable to connect computers to TV, bathroom in need of repair. Weak wifi in our room.
- Food on property ranges from ok to horrible - definitely take the water shuttle to Viatape and try the Roulottes.
- Bad Service - food servers were unprofessional and more than a little on island time.
- Shuttle service to and from Viatape is expensive


That being said the Mrs. and I had an amazing trip - this is truly a wonderful hotel, despite all the flaws.

One Tip: The French staffs' English is very limited, I'd stick to dealing with the Japanese staff or Polynesian crew if possible.

Full review here: http://theselfishyears.com/2013/07/1...ton-bora-bora/

Activities: http://theselfishyears.com/2013/07/1...ton-bora-bora/

Food: http://theselfishyears.com/2013/07/1...-of-bora-bora/

UASPG

Can you please give more details?

Also, I am surprised that they do not offer complimentary bottles of water to HH Gold guests. It is a standard at Le Meridien BB (at least for Plat. members) and the Thalasso IC (for Ambassadors - not sure about others).