EuropeanPete

JBauer

Best news is we got 2 rooms at 240k each for 5 nights in an OVB -- before all the crazy charges etc...

We visited in April with two families – total of 5 kids (villas 303 and 304). This was our second time, as we’d previously been 3 years ago. The biggest change worth noting is the Superior OVW bungalows now had a max occupancy of 3 people – despite being huge – so families with more than 1 child are out of luck or have to pay nearly double for a 2 bedroom OVW. This is disappointing, but seems to be the natural progression towards squeezing more money out of you – though I’m fine paying for $50 burgers given the locale. Nevertheless, this was waved for us as a one-time gesture thanks to my ambassador, so I truly appreciate that.

As for the resort, it’s still one of the most beautiful in the Marriott portfolio. The water and sights are stunning. The water is especially great for children, as it’s calm and clear and warm. We paddle-boarded over sting rays off the beach. Photos don’t do it justice.

However, 5-star resort is pushing it when you take into account the rooms and service. The rooms, while big, are in dire need of updating. Our faucet fell off the bathtub. Missing tiles, crumpled wood etc. Still a great place, but I’m sure work will be done shortly on the rooms.

As for the service, the friendliest most helpful people are by the pool and beach. They were amazing and played catch with our son and were always anticipating our needs. The restaurants are on island time, which is fine, but not 5 star.

The Butler. Oh the much talked about butler service. It was same as our experience last time, they are nowhere to be seen unless you search them out. Our first butler was out sick one day and no one notified us. Honestly, they were useless. The pool crew was much more helpful. But we’ve been to other St Regis hotels where the butlers have been amazing. We had 2, and both butlers were dreadful and almost made our stay more work. No proactive reservations. No help with the kids. At some St Regis hotels we’ve tipped our butler $100. This time $0.

The food is pretty good. Breakfast is fantastic and it was very, very generous for the hotel to offer it to both of our families with one Platinum guest. A lovely spread. The other meals were good, including Indian night, but what’s frustrating is kids 4 and under are supposed to eat free – but sometimes they would remove the charge when asked and other times the restaurant would refuse and say that is done at checkout. Regardless, a nice initiative but poorly executed.

We booked a boat excursion and it was amazing. Snorkeling with sharks and sting rays. The kids loved it. They even went tubing. Highly recommend this.

The kids club is a bust. You need to schedule 24 hours in advance, difficult with kids, and they basically sat the kids down in front of movies – despite great weather. We bailed on it after two afternoons.

MissVacation

Finally finished editing the photos and writing the trip reports! This was our 2nd Bora Bora visit (stayed at the Intercontinental Bora Bora Thalasso on our first) and luckily managed to book two nights at the Le Meridien and two nights at the St. Regis Bora Bora with points. The boat transfer from Le Meridien to the St. Regis was free and the hotels arranged accordingly so everything went smooth. I booked the beachside villa with 60,000 points per night and upgraded to the superior overwater villa for 27,000 xpf per night plus tax. Due to my Platinum status, we got a free category upgrade to the deluxe overwater 1 bedroom villa. Our room was 203 which is located on the row of the pontoon that facing the famous Mt. Otemanu, however, our room only has a small obstructed partial view of the mountain from our deck. Our overwater bungalow is huge, the largest in Bora Bora and in good shape, unlike Lucky's (from One Mile At a Time) review. See the pictures, no need for me to explain! The resort is huge so providing free bikes make sense and it was actually fun. What made the St. Regis stand out is its superb service. Our friend asked about the saber the champagne after he saw a video of it on the St. Regis Bora Bora's Instagram page and the butler showed up to demonstrate that on our deck, it was amazing! We also celebrated our anniversary and our butler organized a beautiful and yummy cake along with a gift of St. Regis Bora Bora's wines!

Let the photos do it justice:
Transfer day from Le Meridien to St. Regis: Le Meridien to St. Regis Bora Bora ? Miss Vacation
Day 2 our anniversary celebration: Celebrating Our Anniversary at the St. Regis Bora Bora ? Miss Vacation
Departing day: St. Regis Bora Bora Last Day ? Goodbye French Polynesia ? Miss Vacation

On our departing day, our flight was at 7:25 PM to Tahiti since our flight home was at 10:40 PM, we want to stay as long as we could. I was hoping for a day room like at the Intercontinental Bora Bora Thalasso where we could hang out at the resort and then take a shower before our departure. I was quite surprised that the St. Regis Bora Bora arranged another “villa” for us where we could stay till our departure! I thought it was so kind of them to offer that and I was thinking the “villa” to be one of the beach villas. Instead, it turned out to be an overwater bungalow which the size and layout exactly like the ones we stayed the past two nights! It was like having a full day for free! The difference was the view, we were given room 317 over the other pontoon of overwater bungalows with the view facing the beach.

Some quick tips to share:
1. They provide free sunscreen (SPF 30 and 50) and aloe gel at the beach hut right to where the bikes are parked. I love the smell of their sunscreen and very smooth on the skin without the greasy feeling. The sun is very strong at that side of the world so remember to keep re-applying the sunscreen every 2 hours or so! I have those carry-on size bottle where I refill with the hotel's sunscreen so I don't need to keep going back to the beach hut every few hours.
2. The only place open for lunch is Aparima Bar, unless you plan to go to town to have lunch, I recommend ordering from the room service menu. It's the exact same menu. I think it's worth the delivery fee to dine on your deck, a much better view than at Aparima Bar! I ordered the curry chicken and it tasted so much better than that Thai stir-fried!
3. We dined at Bamboo and The Lagoon Restaurant. We much preferred Bamboo, their Asian dishes were good and in reasonable quantity unless you are into fine dining so you'll know what to expect - expensive and not filling.
4. Don't waste your money on drinks from the bar, go to a supermarket in town to stock up with drinks. My husband ordered a mango smoothie, $16, and it turned out to be mango juice plus chopped ice. Urg...it cost less than $4 for the same mango juice at the supermarket (Rotui, the local brand which is my favorite) and $12 to press a button on the blender, what a rip off!
5. If you plan to request the saber the champagne demonstration, save the free welcome gift champagne. Otherwise, you'll be charged for a new chilled bottle of champagne to do the demonstration.

Lastly, the summary of the three resorts:
Le Meridien - the best iconic Bora Bora - Mt. Otemanu views! You will see it at almost every single corner at the Le Meridien. Having breakfast and lunch looking at the view made up for its okay food quality. Modern overwater bungalows but small if you compared to the other two. Not sure if it's the same at other overwater bungalows, ours was shaky which almost made me sick due to I am prone to motion sickness. It wasn't like that at the Intercontinental or the St. Regis. Hotel grounds were kept nicely but you can explore and get all the postcard-perfect photos within a day or two as the resort is not that big compared to the St. Regis. Food selection was the worst, very limited, only two restaurants open for dinner. They don't even offer boat shuttle at night to go to the main island for dinner.

St. Regis - very limited views of the iconic Mt. Otemanu, only certain higher class premium overwater bungalows and at the Lagoon Restaurant. The other restaurants have no view. Breakfast/lunch only available at the Aparima Bar with the beach view. On the other hand, dinner has plenty of choices; our favorite was Bam Boo. There is a boat shuttle free during the day and a charge at night to go to the main island for dinner. We stayed only 2 nights so we had dinners at Bam Boo and Lagoon Restaurant; we didn't feel the need to go out. Plus, with 4 of us, the amount we'll be paying for the boat shuttle doesn't make sense; we could use that extra money to order more food. The food at both Bam Boo and Lagoon Restaurant are top quality so at least we don't feel like we got ripped off with the $$$$ price. Superb service overall, the Butler team was professional and they went beyond to fulfill whatever we asked for. Our deluxe overwater bungalow was huge and comfortable, my least favorite is the bathroom which looked a little bit wasting space and not luxurious. Hotel grounds were kept in great shape considering the size of the resort; that is why bikes are provided for free, you'll need that.

Intercontinental Bora Bora Thalasso - 2nd to the best Mt. Otemanu views. The overwater bungalows are just a little bit smaller than the St. Regis but I like their bathroom better. Hotel grounds were beautiful, many different photo ops throughout the resort with the beautiful Mt. Otemanu views. Food quality was just okay so I rather pay the extra boat shuttle fee to go out to the main island for dinner. The arranged pickups at their sister property Le Moana went smoothly so no worry about not making the last boat back to the resort. Service was excellent from check-in to checkout, especially loved their goodbye ceremony.

To balance luxury and the view, I would pick Intercontinental Bora Bora Thalasso, good luck with getting a room with points though! I was glad I visited back on 2015 where I easily got 4 nights on points just a few months prior to the trip. Note: all the properties don't feel crowded at all, we rarely came across other guests except for breakfast/lunch/dinner. We were quite surprised and always wondered where were all other guests since the occupancy rate while we were there were at around 80%+!

EuropeanPete

Thanks for the review, I enjoyed reading it. I'll be at the St Regis in a little under 2 weeks provided I survive my trip to Pitcairn first!

MissVacation

Thanks, enjoy your trip, is this your first time to Bora Bora?

escape4

Thanks for the review!

Are you sure it was the beachside villa that you booked with points rather than the reefside villa? The entry level room is reef not beach and I thought 60k pts per night was for reef.

Also do I understand correctly that your booking at LM was also with points, or only StR was points? Could you not get availability for all 4 nights at StR or is it because you wanted specifically to see many properties during your stay so you preferred to split your time between LM and StR?

beagleflyer1977

Are you going to Pitcairn on the Aranui 5 cruise?

EuropeanPete

MissVacation

Oops, you are correct, it was the reefside villa. We want to visit both properties to have different experiences and the views for photos. Yes both with points.

MissVacation

Weather forecast in the Pacific is not accurate especially for islands so wish you the best!

EuropeanPete

7summits

I will be cancelling a Reefside Villa today for a June 25th to July 1st stay. Not sure if it will go back into inventory as a standard award, but just a heads up in case it does.

EuropeanPete

I recently stayed two nights at the St Regis Bora Bora followed by three nights at the Conrad Bora Bora Nui. I've written reviews in the appropriate forums, but thought that I would try to compare the two directly in this post. Hopefully it will help people identify what is important to them and inform any choices.
I clearly had a much better stay at the Conrad Bora Bora, but I will try not to let that sway my comparison. There are advantages to each Resort, but if I had to generalise I would say the St Regis might suit older couples looking for privacy, whereas the Conrad might be better for younger people who don't demand as much space (no easy answer for young Honeymooners, I'm afraid).
Some thoughts on the different elements of the resorts:

• Rooms: The base St Regis rooms are significantly better than the base level Conrad rooms. At the St Regis you get a large villa with a private pool on the beach, enclosed from your neighbours with walls. At the Conrad you just get a suite in an apartment block. In general, the St Regis rooms are larger and more private. In general, the Conrad rooms are (to my taste) more elegantly designed and more modern (also less risk of being run-down which is a problem with some rooms at the St Regis). Like for like the St Regis is generally about 20-30% more expensive, but even so I don't think there is a clear winner here. I had two particularly bad rooms at the St Regis vs. one lovely one at the Conrad
• Clientele: I'm always wary of making generalisations on customers based on one visit only, but when I was there the St Regis was a mix (exclusively) of Americans and Chinese. The average age was older than usual in Bora Bora and there were some families with teenage kids. The Conrad was much more diverse, with many Europeans, Americans, Canadians Brazilians, Chinese and Japanese that I spotted. The average age was quite a bit younger (20+yrs)
• Location: The St Regis is in the top bit of Bora Bora with the best view of Mount Otemanu and the signature Bora Bora water shade. The Conrad is also beautiful and in some ways I think is more attractive (particularly given the elevated area on the island), but the St Regis will win out here for the prestige/ Instagram factor. In real life, I would call this a tie
• Service: The St Regis Butlers are excellent, and provided they don't disappear on you, they will provide a level of personal service that the Conrad cannot offer. The Conrad has some youthful high energy Butler-like people who are fantastic, but also some slightly grumpy staff. The St Regis should win out here, but as I was pretty much ignored for a couple of days the Conrad won on my stay
• Food: The Conrad has a fresher, healthier and more luxurious menu overall, particularly for those who don't like American diets of hamburgers, pizza, etc. The St Regis has Lagoon which is an excellent American fine-dining restaurant as well as the more extensive breakfast buffet. They also have the best pastry chef. Conrad cocktails were poor, most St Regis venues not much better, but at Lagoon they were very well put together. Overall I would call this another score draw, though for me personally as I'd only eat in Lagoon once per stay but often in the casual venues & room service, the Conrad was a better fit
• Environmental awareness and enjoyment: Even for French Polynesia (the French are not particularly careful masters of their territory), I thought the St Regis was a bit careless. They advertised shark feeding which I think was both for captive sharks as well as with an external partner. The lobby TV advertised an underwater personal sub/ mask type thing which showed people treading all over reef as well as guides breaking off coral and even putting sponges on people's heads. There are almost no fish around the St Regis, unsurprisingly. The Conrad meanwhile is a real leader in marine biology and is highly environmentally sensitive including a high profile Biorock product which has resulted in cute fish all around the little reefs around the Bungalows (quite beautiful)
• Status recognition: Rather unexpectedly I got almost no benefit from my Marriott Ambassador status, but a giant upgrade at the Hilton based on my Diamond status. I do not think this is necessarily typical, but I would nonetheless put the St Regis Bora Bora in the category of hotel where you're better off using a travel agent to liaise with the hotel than to rely on your Ambassador

escape4

Thanks @EuropeanPete for the great comparison. My own comparison of the two properties was not as neat and tidy as yours – my comments were scattered inside my reviews of both properties. Generally speaking I agree with your assessment, although for reasons stated below I am probably more positive on St.Regis than you, but yet for personal preferences I still lean Conrad a bit, and will subsequently vote with my feet when we return next year. We might split our stay between the two resorts once again, but more nights at Conrad than StR.

Regarding rooms, this category is so broad and there are too many dimensions that Conrad and StR are at opposite ends of the scale that I have to break it up in pieces. It depends greatly what a traveler values most: the view, the hardware, will you pay with points or cash, do you want to be overwater or on land, do you want a private pool or not, etc.

Hardware

If comparing overwater villa vs overwater villa, the room is newer and fresher at Conrad, no doubt about it. The Conrad overwater villas are built such that you have a huge patio door and ocean views from the entire room, whereas StR has more compartments so not the same airy feeling. At Conrad you get far better technology for example the sound system to play music with windows wide open. The price premium of the OWV at Conrad compared to the entry level room is modest, not always so at StR. Personally if I go to BB I want to be overwater – I can have beach villas in other destinations. For OWV the Conrad is great value for the money compared to StR.

That said, someone going to BB with points for the entry level room takes a gamble at Conrad. The Conrad suite is good for families with young children who do not want to be close to water, and it is suitable for people who want connected rooms. But for a couple, the Reef villa or Beach villa at StR is far superior: your own pool and access to water. At Conrad if you want the beach villa with pool for the best comparison to the beach villa at StR, strangely enough they only have two BVs at Conrad and it’s a very high level category of rooms in fact #6 (1 suite, 2 garden, 3 horizon, 4 OWV, 5 deluxe OWV, and then 6 beach villa). So the BV at Conrad is not price competitive vs StR, the complete opposite as the OWV. For the entry level room, the price premium of StR over Conrad is well deserved and then some. If I knew 100% I won’t get an upgrade at either properties, I would pick StR reef villa over Conrad suite without a doubt and pay the extra at StR without second thoughts.

Views

Regarding views, similar to being overwater or not, personally if I want wide open ocean views I can get that in many other destinations of the world. The draw of BB is Mt Otemanu and this is at StRegis that you will get it. This alone will make Conrad a no-go for some guests. However at Conrad if you want great views with more than just water, the Horizon View Villas will be wonderful as they overlook the entire resort. This kind of view can be had in other destinations than BB however so it’s not my choice, but nonetheless at StR you cannot have this kind of high-above view on the resort.

Our upgrade at StR was for the same room type as @EuropeanPete (= Mt Otemanu OWV) but our villa was better located on the resort, straight in front of the mountain so views were awesome. This contributes to me being more positive about St.Regis than if I had received a lesser upgrade.

Privacy

Regarding privacy (OWV vs OWV), I would not be as positive about StR as EuropeanPete. When sitting on the deck of the OWV the traffic on the bridge behind you (in front of the villa) can see you. At Conrad you can have better privacy for this reason. Also if you have a Horizon View Villa at Conrad the privacy is even better. At StR the best room type for privacy might actually be the entry level rooms (Reef) - nobody swimming in front of your villa, and hardly anybody walking there, except for us, snooping around

Snorkeling

There was a lot of marine life right outside the OWV at Conrad, and nothing at all around our villa at StR. From the BV at Conrad you walk straight in the water and lots of fish there too.

Service

For service as well it’s completely different. Our butler was more present than EuropeanPete which helps, also when he was expecting to be away for a couple of days he told us ahead of time, and in the morning during breakfast another butler came to introduce herself proactively so we could not have asked for better. Lots of staff at StR are trained internationally and service is more polished, which some guests demand. We are fairly low maintenance and at StR you pay a premium for the butler which at Conrad you only get for the Royal Villas and the Presidential Villa, so in the end this is not a service that we need all that much at StR and our opinion is affected by that. But I recognize that some people want the best service – I think you will get it at StR not Conrad. At Conrad lots of staff are locals and they have a laid back attitude and can forget things. If I am in St.Regis Hong Kong, I expect when I make a request during breakfast that it will be taken care of efficiently. In BB, it’s a low stress environment – if an old lady at Conrad BB forgets my coffee, I am not going to get high strung about it like I might be in Hong Kong. It is not possible to get upset with the friendly old ladies at Conrad BB if they miss something. The service style of Conrad is a lot more down to earth rather than the elite and top notch service at StR. I did not see anybody grumpy at Conrad. We were there 6 nights at Conrad followed by 5 nights at StR and then back for another 10 nights at Conrad so they saw us during a 3-week time span in total. All Conrad staff were very welcoming especially after they got accustomed to us.

Breakfast

I would echo EuropeanPete’s comments: StR is not on par with other StR breakfasts elsewhere in the world. Choice was a bit limited. I preferred Conrad and the layout of the restaurant was better too.

Miscellaneous

A couple of other points not covered by EuropeanPete:

If going to the Maldives I know I will stay on the resort during the entire stay and use the resort’s facilities because one island = one resort. However in Bora Bora we do not intend to stay on the resort all day every day – there is one big island to explore a short boat ride away. Conrad’s location is far more convenient with the frequent shuttle boat to Vaitape than St.Regis’s own limited boat schedule to the main island followed by the 30 minute bus service from Anau to Vaitape.

One of the major positives of StR is the lagoonarium. You can feed fish and swim with hundreds (thousands?) of fish at StR, there is nothing comparable at Conrad. Fortunately that is the case, considering the subpar snorkeling outside the OWV at StR.

Flying for Fun

It is unfortunate that you didn't get Status Recognition at the StR. I am Bonvoy Titanium and had excellent recognition. I booked the Reefside Villa for a 2 night stay the first weekend of March 2019, in May 2018, to coordinate with an 8-day French Polynesia Cruise. In December 2018 I was upgraded to an OWV with Island view. We had an unobstructed view of Mt. Otemanu.

After settling in to our room they delived a bottle of Billecart Salmon Brut, Evian & San Pelligrino water and a plate of French Macaroons on freshly grated coconut with a card thanking me for my loyalty.

Our Butler was off the next day too but there was no lapse in service. There was one service failure; I had ordered coffee service for the next morning which didn't arrive. We were going for breakfast so I messaged them to cancel. During breakfast our Butler came by to apologize. A short time later the Assistant Manager came by to offer her apology and take full responsibilty explaining that it was delivered to the wrong Villa. As a service recovery she picked up the USD $169 lunch. I also liked how she referred to the restaurant staff as her "colleagues." If was a fantastic experience in a stunningly beautiful location.




Loyalty Recognition