Nespresso original pods.

I'm here right now and they use lavazza espresso pods, not Nespresso and they are free.

Thank you for the information. I think that the St Regis is using the same (or was 2 years ago).

Lavazza is my least favorite Italian espresso coffee, but I'll survive. I'm more worried about the bad weather that will start in a few days.

Count your pennies and your dollars will mind themselves.....
Why does not wanting to be ripped on the small things amuse or offend you?

Review of February 8-13 stay
 

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DeirdreTours swimming under the first overwater king bungalow,
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Premium Otemanu view overwater king bungalow

We stayed for 5 nights on points from February 8-13. Booking was made in early December for a "Lagoon View Overwater King" at a rate of 312,000 points. At the time of booking, 4 choices were available for points (same 312,000 for all), this was the highest category available at that rate.
We were transported to the hotel via boat and then led by a singing, ukelele playing guide to the check in. Very "White Lotus".
We were upgraded to "Otemanu View Overwater King with Plunge Pool". On the last night of our stay we were further upgraded to the "Premium Otemanu View Overwater King with Plunge Pool " (picture above is from that room). We did not attempt to use our SNAs for this trip.
Full breakfast was given as Titanium benefit (very good buffet breakfast with a wide variety of choices and eggs/omelets made to order). As others have mentioned, breakfast service was hit or miss. There was a bottle of moderately good champagne in our room on arrival as well. The room was in perfect condition with a great view of Otemanu. The service throughout our stay was outstanding. We booked a full day snorkeling excursion through the hotel at the same price it was offered on other platforms and were picked up at the hotel dock. We ate at t beach side restaurant one night and one nights in the main restaurant- Each was as one would expect at a resort: reasonably good, a bit pricy. NOTE: cocktails are extremely pricy at $30-$40 per. We also attended the Thursday night buffet/Polynesian show which was moderately entertaining.
Overall the resort appeared to be about 75% full. We were there during the "rainy season" but the weather was spectacular 99% of the time. One or two 5 minute showers during our entire 28 days in French Polynesia, none during our stay in Bora Bora.
The views at this resort are spectacular. The rooms all seem to be perfect condition and the staff is extremely pleasant, totally focused on guests having their best experience, but never intrusive.
By far, this point redemption was the BEST value we have ever experienced.

There is no doubt that the Westin is a great value points redemption. I stayed there for 3 nights in 2024 and unlike yourself I got rained on the entire time which really spoiled it for me.

I just spent 530,000 points on the Maldives in November and although I absolutely prefer the Maldives to Bora Bora the fact is some people would spend 80k points on a Westin in a city centre when it can get you one night in Bora Bora. That’s a good value redemption.

We have 5 night reservation at the end of August. Both of us are Lifetime Titanium. I reserved the Lagoon beach unit as it was the only one for points without an extra cash price attached. Currently I only have 1 SNU in that account so can attach anything to this reservation. Is there a chance the resort will upgrade us to an overwater bungalow? If not, is there a room location for the beach units that would be preferable to request?

Guests Misbehaving with Bikes
 

I had a recent stay at Westin Bora Bora. It is a new property that is very nice. The OWBs are closer together than the PH Maldives I recently stayed. But this won't make much difference to most people. Can't find much negative about the stay.

The only negative thing is not about the property. But about the guests. Most will think folks who pay $1,000 to $1,5000 per night are very civil and educated people. But guests fight for the bikes or bicycles.

The resort rules for bikes are:. bikes at all public places are for public use, first comes and first serves. Guests can't hold onto the bikes. But if guests take bikes to villa and keep at villa, then they are for personal use back to resort center. I was at water activity center and outside the main pool. I saw two bikes parked outside main pool. When I tried to take one of the bikes, a woman (not a lady) in her late 50s or 60s from inside the main pool started to talk to me that the bike was "her" bike and she intended to use in 5 minutes. Of course that was a lie since it is not possible for half naked woman to come out of swimming pool to take the old bike to her villa in 5 minutes. So that was a shock or surprise to me.

So I took another bike from another place. I took it to my OWV unit 22x. I parked the bike deep and just outside my door. Intended to ride back to the OA bar to attend the wine tasting. When I came out, the bike was a goner. I had to walk all the way to the resort center.

I have stayed at $20 Airbnb and guests share food and drinks there. So I did not expect things like this at a $1,500/night resort. Those people behave really badly. Very disappointing.

It all depends on the travel plan and situation. Some of us have the 85k FNAs. Marriott does not have a "gifting" policy to use those FNAs for family and friends. That is one factor that impacts my travel.

The other is the flight costs. 85k won't get much in large cities like NYC, LAX, Madrid and others in Europe. But flight cost is much lower. City food is also cheaper than resort food. Food in Bora Bora is not cheaper than in Maldives.

Flights to Maldives are even higher for people from USA.

True.

In case I run out of my tea bags and the resort won't provide more tea bags, I still get some more tag bags I collected from other hotels just in case my Airbnb properties do not provide anything. And that is often the case.

But I think Westin should be happy to send guests some coffee pods and tea bags. Drinking more coffee is not good for health anyhow.

I would be annoyed if I rode my bike to the Spa and came out and it was gone. I would consider that to be rude and bad manners, no matter if it is allowed. If someone took my bike outside my villa the same.

I think this is a mistake, they should allocate bikes to each room. Or to people but I would say use common sense and be polite. Consider if you would like it if someone did that to you and if the answer is no, don’t do it.

I'm not sure that you can compare Bora Bora and Maldives all together. Bora Bora is just one island or island group. Maldives have many resorts and resort islands. All Maldives islands are different.

I had recent stays at Park Hyatt Maldives. It is an older resort at a small private island. It has very nice coral reef and I can snorkel down the ladder from my OWB. A lot of fish. Nice quiet.

Intercontinental Tahiti is a larger and still older property. It does not have the real OWBs since the sea is deeper.

Westin Bora Bora is the newest of all. The seabed is really shallow and we can see the yellow sand. Not much marine life since the island may have been expanded. It takes many years for the coral to grow back if that is all possible. Corals won't grow in deep water.

The lagoon of Westin Bora Bora is the calmest of all the 3. But the water activity center at Westin is the more conservative. On a rainy calm day, Westin could declare a code Red day and stop all water activities while at IC Tahiti, all water activities can be just normal.

You are just incorrect. Bikes parked at spa, pool, restaurants are all in public places and they are for anyone to take. You just can't spend 3 hours in the pool and 3 hours in a restaurant and won't allow others to use them. That is against the rule. And selfish too. And no one can mark the bike with his/her own name while they stay inside or in the pool.

Whereas if a bike is parked outside the door of unit 239, then it is apparent that that bike "belongs" to the guest at unit 239. Rule says it is for the use of the guest at unit 239.

In my case, if I could not have found another bike near the main pool, I would probably have taken that woman's bike anyway. That bike is not hers and her behavior was against the rule, selfish and bad manner. It was probably a good time to each her a lesson and send her a reminder. But I took an easy way and high way. Left that woman at the bottom of her swimming pool.

I saw someone else took her bike anyhow shortly after. It was rather amusing.

I am not incorrect - I am talking about manners, I know you can take them but shouldn’t. It is rude. Likewise someone shouldn’t take your bike outside the room.

This is why the hotel should allocate them because no one can agree on what is acceptable.