UPDATES
- 04/13/2020: Details on Le Meridien Classic Bungalow with resort view and photos.
- 09/23/2019: The cancellation policy now changes from 2 days before arrival to 30 days before arrival. Advance points booking cannot be finalized by deducting points until it’s closer to the reservation date because the property refuses to take the points too far out. Strange!
Le Meridien Bora Bora is one of the luxury resorts in the French Polynesia. The property is part of the Marriott Bonvoy’s program and thus you can redeem for an award stay using Marriott points. However, there are a few things that are worth mentioning when it comes to redeeming points at this property. We have put those things together here below for your reference.
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| Le Meridien Bora Bora |
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Standard Room Type 100% Points
The Le Meridien Bora Bora is a Category 7 Marriott Bonvoy property. The standard award room type is a Classic Guest room with Resort view only (see notes below). If you are a Marriott Platinum Elite or Marriott Titanium Elite member, the property may be able to upgrade you to a preferred room type based upon the availability at check-in.
Classic Guest room with resort view: The description of this room type with resort view is misleading. We asked the resort staff to take us for a viewing of these rooms after our 5-night stays at the resort. There are only two rooms and they are actually “overwater.” However, one room does not have stairs into the water, and the other room has stairs that’s built on the rock that leads into the water. These rooms do not have glass bottom floor. Both situate next to the true overwater rooms. Click here to read full details and photos of the Classic Guest room.
I thought this is worth mentioning in case you are fine with these room to save some money. Again, you also may get complimentary upgrade to the true overwater ones with elite status on arrival.
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Points + Cash Upgrade for Overwater Bungalow
Bora Bora is known for those stunning Overwater Bungalows. If a true overwater room with a glass bottom floor experience is what you are looking for, you will need to use 50,000-60,000-70,000 Marriott points (off-peak & peak) plus cash upgrade of 20,000 XPF (~$186 USD).
It’s worth mentioning also that the Le Meridien has additional Premium overwater bungalow that you can book with points, but it requires higher cash upgrade. If you are a Marriott Platinum Elite or Marriott Titanium Elite member, the property may be able to upgrade you to one of those premium bungalow based upon the availability at check-in.
We did the points + cash upgrade into one of the overwater bungalows. Upon check-in, the resort complimentary upgraded us to the Premium Overwater Bungalow because of my Platinum elite status with Marriott Bonvoy. The bungalow is stunning!
Good Award Availability
The award availability at the InterContinental resorts is almost non-existent. Conrad Bora Bora also has very slim award availability and a free night there now requires 89,000 Hilton points per night as opposed to 80,000 Hilton points per night before. Compared to its competitors, Le Meridien Bora Bora has much better award availability.
5th Night Free Benefit
Marriott Bonvoy rewards program offers the 5th Night Free benefit that is automatically applied when you redeem Marriott points for a minimum 5-night stays. You do not need to hold any Marriott Bonvoy Credit Cards or have any high elite status with Marriott Bonvoy. The 5th Night Free will only apply to the points portion, you still need to pay for 5 nights on the cash upgrade portion if you book into the overwater bungalow. So you will be using 200,000 Marriott points for the off-peak or standard 240,000 Marriott points + 100,000 XPF (~$934 USD) for a total of 5 nights.
Please note that If your five (5) nights include peak and off-peak award redemption rates, you will receive one off-peak award point night for free. Click here for Marriott Peak and Off-Peak Award Pricing Structure..
Insufficient Points
UPDATE 09/2019: If your experience is different, please let us know in the comment section below. It is very bizarre that advance points booking cannot be finalized by deducting points until it’s closer to the reservation date because the property refuses to take the points too far out. Neither you nor the Marriott agent can solve this problem, but you can still do advance points bookings. You may receive this error message when trying to deduct the points to finalize an advance points booking:
An unexpected error has occurred
This service is temporarily unavailable. But don’t worry, we’re on it. Please try again later.
Another generous policy on Marriott rewards program is that you can still make the points reservation even though you do not have sufficient points yet. Marriott lets you know that “If you do not have sufficient points to use for a Redemption intended to be paid with points 15 days prior to your reservation, Marriott Bonvoy reserves the right to cancel your reservation.” So you have up until 15 days before your check-in date to accrue enough Marriott points.
Cancellation Policy
UPDATE 09/2019: Unfortunately, Le Meridien Bora Bora now has 30 days before arrival cancellation policy just like other luxury properties in Bora Bora.
Conrad Bora Bora has 1 month or 30 days cancelation policy before desired check-in date. Whereas the InterContinental resorts have 1 week or 7 days cancellation policy before check-in date. Compared to those properties, the Le Meridien has better cancellation policy. You can cancel the reservation up to 2 days prior to the arrival date (UPDATE: 30 days prior to the arrival date now). This works out good for those that do not have a concrete travel plan and require more time to make decision. However, please do not just book speculatively because the property does charge a refundable deposit after the reservation is made.
Refundable Deposit
As mentioned above, the Le Meridien Bora Bora charges a refundable deposit after the reservation is made. This term is nowhere to be found during the booking process. In our instance, we were charged $215 USD by the property for the deposit of our overwater bungalow 5-nights stay’s reservation. The deposit varies based on the terms of your booking. So just keep that in mind in case you try to make multiple reservations to lock in bookings because the deposit is charged per reservation.
Please note that depending on the date that the refund takes place, you may receive more or less small refund back due to the conversion rate from XPF to your country’s currency. I had to kindly ask American Express to waive those small differences for me as I ended up owing American Express because the property refunded me less than what they took from me. The amount is really small though.
Complimentary Breakfast & Gift For Platinum and Titanium Members
Bora Bora is an expensive place to vacation. It helps if you hold elite status with Marriott Bonvoy such as the Marriott Platinum Elite or Marriott Titanium Elite, you are entitled to complimentary breakfast every morning for your entire stay and one of the gift options:
- 1 bottle of local white wine or,
- A bracelet with one Polynesian pearl.
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| Le Meridien Bora Bora Marriott Platinum Benefit |
Executive Club Lounge Access
Unfortunately, the Le Meridien Bora Bora property does not have any executive club/lounge.
Boat Ride To Get To The Resort
To get to Bora Bora, you will need to take another flight from the main airport on Tahiti island. It is your responsibility to arrange and purchase the flight. Upon arrival at the Bora Bora airport, you will need to take a boat from the airport to the resort. The boat ride can be arranged by the property and it costs 12,390 XPF (~$116 USD) round-trip per person. Prior to your departure, the resort will contact you in advance to get your flight’s arrival and departure information, then they will arrange the boat transfer for you. The transfer cost will be added to your room’s bill.
Contact
If you have any other questions, you can either leave a comment here or reach out to the property directly at [email protected]
