windnsea26

Has anyone gone this week and received any upgrades? I was thinking of asking to pay for upgrade upon arrival but looks like they are completely sold out. At least we got to stay in an OWV when we went last year.

windnsea26

WOW! Just checked my hilton app and we were upgraded to a Horizon Pool Villa!!! This just made my morning.

freppa87

Congratulations! What was your original room type? Checking in this week as well but have not received any upgrade yet. Booked in a deluxe owv.

windnsea26

I just booked a regular garden view room on pts when I saw availability back in Feb.

windnsea26

Just happen to login today and looks like we're getting a King sunset pool villa. I believe this is the same one we had last year. I'll confirm in two days when we check in.

windnsea26

Last day here. Nice as always. Recap. I booked 4 nights. 2 using FNC and 2 using pts. We were upgraded first two nights to a Sunset Pool Villa OWB and then the last two nights we stayed in a Horizon Pool Villa. Normally I would prefer the other order but it rained quite a bit the last two days so we were able to enjoy the OWB. Glad I did not pay to upgrade. I know it's not guaranteed to get the diamond upgrade but it worked out well for us.

silverm0623

Any recent stays willing to chime in on their experience? Heading there in two weeks

mlqsko

Have fun, don’t bring an umbrella, they have plenty

fredwooch

Been here for past 5 days. Resort is gorgeous. We used points and paid to upgrade to OWB with pool and it is very nice. Can snorkel right off the deck and see amazing variety of fish. Free use of paddle boards, kayaks, and nice beach area. All sorts of excursions are available, too. We found the restaurants to be fine, although a bit expensive for what you get. Service has glitches here and there, but we’ve found everyone to be friendly and helpful. We certainly haven’t had a bad experience like some of previous posters (who had us worried but tempered our expectations a bit).

Expect rain, but it usually won’t last the whole day and you can fit most of your activities in around the weather. We aren’t big on just lying out in the sun anyway, so it’s been okay with us that it’s been cloudy or rainy for long stretches. Just know that the rainy season has apparently started a bit early this year.

Glad to answer any specific questions you might have. This forum was helpful to us as we prepared for our trip.

silverm0623

Thanks! How busy/full would you guess the resort to be? Also doing points and we did the WA Maldives a year ago so we're kinda done with the whole OVW villa thing but are thinking of upgrading the last couple nights to an OVW bungalow facing Mt Otemanu since the pictures look phenomenal, do you just ask your personal concierge how much it would cost? May I ask how much your upgrade upcharge was?

In terms of rain, is it for long periods of times or random sprinkles here and there? If you used the spa, how good were the treatments vice the price? Thank you!

Charlie9

I will say, myself and others have experienced being told upgrade available for whole stay only, but YMMV and there may be examples to the contrary.

silverm0623

I'm thinking of asking halfway through my stay, if they say No because of that rule, their loss of revenue and I guess it reflects on their customer service...if it's a true luxury hotel, the default answer shouldn't be "no"

mlqsko

They are in a very unique position to make their own hospitality rules, so be prepared for out of the ordinary experiences.

fredwooch

The resort was quite full when we were there (which surprised us since we went the week before Thanksgiving week in what is supposed to be "shoulder season"). It did not feel crowded or full, however (although you should make your restaurant reservations in advance to be assured of seating). In fact, in looking at the website, the resort was literally "sold out" for two of our five nights, even for paid stays. I think you should probably be able to get a sense of how crowded it will be when you visit by checking the paid room availability on your dates.

We had booked with points about 10-11 months out, and that only got us the base level Lagoon Suites, which aren't separate villas and are located over the kids' club and fitness room. About two months out, after reading about the unlikelihood of securing any Diamond free upgrades to OWBs and seeing that even the Horizon Villas (to which we had hoped we could get upgraded for free) were not showing as available for paid stays, I wrote to them and inquired about the availability of paid upgrades. We were offered an upgrade to a King Pool Overwater Villa for about $1,000 per night (118,000 XPF), and we bit the bullet and did that since we wanted this to be a special occasion. About a week out, we received an email offering us a further paid upgrade to either a Sunset or Otemanu view OWB, conditioned upon availability, but when we arrived there was no availability for either of those rooms categories for our entire stay, and we did not want the hassle of moving rooms during our stay, so we stuck with the King Pool Overwater Villa. (If we had wanted to, I'm pretty sure the resort would have been glad to let us upgrade for only a few of our nights.)

We were very happy with our villa choice. It was centrally located with great snorkeling right off our deck, looked out onto the open ocean waters and changing sea colors, and even had a partial sunset view. For us, I don't think it would have been worth paying even more for the Otemanu view: For one thing, the mountain was shrouded in clouds for most of the time we were there, and when it wasn't, you could see it from other places in the resort; we felt we had enough opportunities to see that classic view without having the view from our villa. Second, the location of those villas (to us), isn't ideal; they are further out and don't have as much of a full ocean view, which is what we preferred.

As for the rain, it really varied from day to day. Our first two days in Bora Bora (which we spent at the St. Regis) were almost completely rainy, with some pretty substantial downpours at times, leading us to spend much of our time in our bungalow and on its deck, which was actually okay with us for our initial couple of days. In between the rainy spells, we could paddleboard, kayak, or engage in other water activities, but I wouldn't have wanted to do any excursions during some of the heavier rainy periods. The weather at the Conrad was much improved: Two to three days of no or almost no rain at all, and on the other days there were intermittent showers, but it was relatively easy to manage your schedule around those rainy periods. It was never completely (and on some days, even primarily) sunny, which also was okay with us because (1) it gets quite hot in the sun and (2) we try to avoid the sun at our age anyway.

We did not use the spa, but we did visit it and the facilities look very nice; it's located up on a hill with great views of the resort and the main island. I suspect it's pretty expensive, however, like anything else at the resort (and in Bora Bora generally).

crazyfryer192

I am trying to book 2 nights using points for next year 3rd week of december at Conrad Bora bora. I would like to know if there is any pattern on what time and day of the week they start opening schedule. Right now it is open till 16th Dec and all standard award availaility for dec 2023 till 16th Dec is gone. So, if i know the pattern, it would help me to grab as soon as it is released.

I beleive pattern should be generic for hilton as whole but couldn't find it with online search