Sky Traveler

My fiance and I are headed to the LMBB in the last week of April for our honeymoon (Rebooked from our Fiji resorts after the cyclone decimated the country). I'll report back on how things go - it's low season so I've heard that they pare back the restaurant offerings. We're planning to follow the advice from others about using Platinum Breakfast and getting most of our food and beverages from the main island early in the stay. My ambassador says he's close to the Exec Director at the property so we'll see how that manifests itself.

I'm by no means a super traveler, mostly a regional weekly flyer so this will be a trip to remember on the other side of the world. Thanks for all the advice and experience from those that went before.

cbellero

As far as the premium overwater bungalows go at this property, you should be careful to note that not all of the premiums actually have an unobstructed view of Mount Otemanu as the text description on the web page suggests ("With Mount Otemanu vistas"). The first room I had actually was classified premium and had a very obstructed view of the mountain only from the edge of the balcony. Another bungalow was in the way. I think I could see about 10% of the mountain. After complaining I was moved the next day to a room meeting my expectations, as soon as such a room became available.

kokinos

Just booked 5 nights for 104000 SPG points for a Classic bungalow. Will be our first trip to the area so looking forward to it. Will also spend 3-4 nights in Moorea and have a couple more nights yet to be determined on hotel or location.

CanesLawMarty

Stayed at this property for 5 nights recently and got engaged(!). Booked a Premium Overwater Bungalow, which did indeed have a gorgeous unobstructed view of Mt. Otemanu. Food was OK, not too overpriced, but it got a bit repetitive after 5 nights. Main issue was the service from the concierge, which was appallingly bad given the hotel. Sent no less than 5 e-mails to the concierge at the hotel and got exactly 0 responses. As I was planning on getting engaged I wanted it to be special and wanted to inquire about special dinners, photographer, rose petals etc... Finally had SPG Plat Concierge connect me directly to the hotel via phone and despite being promised an e-mail response detailing what options they had, we got nothing. When we got back, I found out that multiple colleagues from my office tried to contact the hotel to send us flowers, champagne. Guess what? No response. Tried mentioning it to someone at the hotel when we arrived but they were utterly clueless so I dropped it. Property itself is nice, great room, full breakfast buffet as SPG Plat, but the service and lack of communication were inexcusable as far as I'm concerned for a hotel of this caliber that charges $600+ a night.

YULJetSet

Given that LM Bora Bora has "limited participation" in the the SPG program, do you earn points on room rate and incidentals? Anyone with personal experience?

Starwood Lurker

Their "limited participation" is defined as:

"All rooms at the Le Meridien Bora Bora are suites; therefore, Starpoint Award reservations must be booked at a higher Starpoint rate through your local customer contact center."

Otherwise, it is business as usual.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, LLC

[email protected]

YULJetSet

Thanks!

YULJetSet

One more question. At this property, are starpoints earned on the boat transfers and other activities charged to the room? Or is it just food and beverage? Thanks

Starwood Lurker

Starpoints will be earned on the following eligible charges only:

(a) Eligible Rates for Stays;
(b) food and beverage (excluding alcoholic beverage where prohibited by law) and excluding charges incurred at restaurants that are not located within or adjacent to SPG Participating Hotels;
(c) direct-dialed in-room telephone and direct-dialed in-room fax;
(d) laundry/valet; and
(e) in-room movies and video games;

I hope this helps.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, LLC

[email protected]

merice107107

I'd like to confirm that this property is 40k a night on points and still gets the 5th night free. So 160k points for a 5 night stay? Do they play games with award availability like the Conrad Bora Bora? Or if booking 12 months out are you pretty much good to go?

From my experience in the Maldives, I would book the award and then contact the hotel about paying to be in an overwater villa. Does that work the same here? It looks like from previous posts that others have had success negotiating many different rates. Did that happen by contacting the hotel itself?

FlyTheFriendlyMonkey

They don't seem to play games, but the standard rooms do seem to go fast. That said, you can get a beach bungalow for a a 20ish% points premium

FlyTheFriendlyMonkey

Does anybody know how far away from the hotel they let you take the kayaks? If it's not far, is there a place to rent a kayak on Bora Bora?

worldtraveller73

I recently did a three day stay at this property. For those that are interested, you can see my Flyertalk Trip Report here.

In brief summary, I was able to book the SPG50 code online and found that to be the best available rate. You can't apply SNA to this reservation to get a better upgrade. My Your 24 request for a 2pm to 2 PM check in/out was declined but we got the room at 1PM anyway and checked out at 3:30 PM. Rooms were pre-assigned and bags are marked with your room number at the Bora Bora Airport; which lessens the front desk negotiation upgrade opportunities. As a Plat 75, we didn't get upgraded category (ie: Motu view to Mtn view) but we did get a good view room over water bungalow assignment towards the end of the pontoon.

I found the service and food and beverage to be pretty mediocre for the price point. I was expecting a bit more of each for rooms that are $800 USD but frankly I've had better service at some Four Points properties. The service was also much better in SE Asia / Maldives / Mauritius. It's almost like Las Vegas style service where there are so many guests streaming through that the service tends to be a bit impersonal and requests are forgotten / not delivered. I spent a good 90 minutes over our trip chasing staff for working room keys, Green Choice coupons with each pointing the finger at the next (housekeeping to front desk to housekeeping managers that aren't available), which is not ideal on a short stay. Perhaps apples to oranges but service issues and choice of Bora Bora are a reasonable comparison to chose one area over another when both are 10+ hours flying time away.

Happy to have seen Bora Bora but probably not returning here in a hurry. . .

svo242

Thanks for the summary! Just curious, how do you book/see the SPG50 rate online?

worldtraveller73

I was able to get it to work at the time using the Hawaii / Asia Pacific portal via an Ipad (it comes up differently on a laptop). The portal was accessed via the annoying general advertising banner ads on general surfing websites advertising saving of 35% in the Asia Pacific.

It was similar to one of these although this one doesn't seem to have French Polynesia as an offering.

Otherwise, you pretty much have to call in is my understanding.