I would agree with worldtraveller73's posting. The food and service were pretty average, which ends up being disappointing given the price/distance/exotic nature of the destination. That being said, the location of LMBB is absolutely stunning, the resort is in good condition, and the OW bungalow was new and nice.
Overall, I would caution travellers from trying to go to Bora Bora on the cheap - you will inevitably end up spending more money than you intended; and this could interfere with your enjoyment if 25 euro cocktails is the type of thing that bothers you.
I'm glad that we did it for our honeymoon - but I doubt we'll return before our 50th anniversary ;)

That's good news that I'm not the only one that felt this way!! ;)

I'm looking to book an OWB using points and am wondering what other taxes, fees, costs I can expect. Do I pay all the taxes and fees that I see on Starwood's site if I were to make a cash booking (city tax, service charge, tourism tax, vat, boat transfer, turtle donation)?

As far as other costs go, I am seeing XPF 11,760 round trip for the boat transfer from the airport and XPF 2800 for boat shuttle to Vaitape. Anything else I'm missing other than food, drink, tips, excursions?

If I recall correctly, usually the taxes and fees are covered with a rewards booking. This should be on your summary when you make the reservation.

I doubt that the boat transfer is complimentary on a reward ticket. You can arrive at BOB airport and get a free transfer to the mainland since Air Tahiti pays for the boat shuttle from BOB - land and vice versa. I suppose one could get to the mainland, taxi to the boat shuttle, then take the shuttle from the mainland to the resort under the guise of transferring between resorts but I haven't tried it and don't have that kind of discretionary time in my holidays to want to game the system in order to save $100 or so.

Hi all, just booked an upcoming stay at the LMBB in the Premium End of Pontoon OW Bungalow in early July. Thanks [MENTION=309562]worldtraveller73[/MENTION] for the amazing trip report!

Couple quick questions-

1) Looking at flight options coming into BOB from MOZ, we can arrive at either 11:30am or 2:30pm. Being a SPG Plat, would it be reasonable to expect an early check-in at around noon? We are only staying two nights, so we want to enjoy as much time as possible on the property.

2) Our departing flight from PPT back to the US is at 11:59pm. Similar to the above question, would a 4pm check-out followed by lingering around the property be a possibility? We were planning on taking the last flight out of BOB to PPT at 7:15pm and just hanging out at PPT until our late night flight.

Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the support.

I think that the challenge is, every single guest that comes through here is attempting to arrive early, and depart late. As a result, the answer may depend wholly on occupancy at the time of your visit. My Your24 requests failed to clear, but we were able to get early access to the room and later access (3PM-ish) departing. I think this is more challenging for you as you have booked the higher room categories, versus a lower category where there are more rooms and people can be upgraded for various reasons (top tier loyalty, service compensation issues etc). You're not likely to be downgraded; as a result it seems to figure there would be less rooms available for occupancy.

Compared to some other resorts that I have visited, the grounds are not that nice. There is no awesome infinity pool or visionary architecture. The views of the mountain are spectacular and swimming under the villa in the fast current are the best parts. However, sitting at the pool or the artificial beach was not a personal highlight of our visit.

If I were arriving early to the property, and was unable to get access to the room, I would attempt to get in the tour at the turtle conversation area and get that "out of the way". MrsWT73 found it pretty interesting.

I was able to book a 5 night stay 240K points total. :)

Was this for a standard room or an OWB?

I booked a 5 night stay in Feb for 240k points. It was a standard room - Classic Bungalow. The OWB was a LOT more (I think 180k per night, or maybe even more, vs 60k if memory serves). Booked through the app, but it's buggy. Sometimes it showed availability, sometimes not, just kept trying.

Standard

Why it is so hard to find the availability for points? How many points room they have per day?