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Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa in French Polynesia is one of the luxury Overwater Bungalows resorts and the property remains one of the best uses of Hilton Honors points for award night’s redemption and Amex card’s Hilton Free Weekend Night Reward.
In this post, I want to discuss everything that you may want to know about Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa from using Hilton Honors points to book, overwater bungalow upgrades, Hilton Honors Diamond’s benefits at the property and more.
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Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa Standard Award Availability
Hilton Honors decided to get rid of the award chart and went with variable award pricing based on the nightly rate of the property. However, the standard award redemption for Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa is pretty consistent. You can use 80,000 Hilton Honors points to book into the standard room there, which is the “Garden Guestroom” room type that has a Polynesian style bungalow’s design and offers a garden view with wood laminate flooring and a private terrace. The bungalow also comes with convenient amenities such as a private bathroom, TV, Air conditioning, complimentary WiFi, and more.
The cash rate for the Garden Guestroom can be anywhere from $400-$500 per night plus taxes and resort fees. Therefore, if you can use Hilton Honors points to book into the room, that would yield better values. Hilton also does not impose any resort fees when you redeem points for an award stay.
Finding Standard Award Availability Tips
It can be really challenging and difficult to find standard award availability for the standard garden guestroom. Here are the reasons why:
- There are only two garden guestroom bungalows at the resort. So as long as those two units are booked, there won’t be any more standard room’s award availability left that require only 80,000 Hilton Honors points per night.
- People know to start searching and booking as soon as award availability is being released (typically one year prior).
- The property decides to block award availability, after all, they exist to make money.
While I do not have any tips on how to get around the third reason above, it is recommended that you constantly keep looking and searching by using Hilton’s flexible calendar date tool to search for the dates that have standard award availability. People are booking speculatively and decide later on whether to pursue the trip or not. This means that those standard awards can be released should there be any cancellations. The key here is to always be flexible and keep searching.
5th Night Free Benefit
Hilton Honors program offers the 5th Night Free benefit that is available for Hilton Honors elite members such as Hilton Honors Silver, Hilton Honors Gold, and Hilton Honors Diamond members.
The 5th night free benefit is automatically applied when you redeem Hilton points for a minimum 5-nights stay. If you do not have any status with Hilton, you can either see if there’s a status match promotion going on or the quickest way that I prefer is to apply for a credit card that offers automatic Hilton elite status.
If you book 5 nights into Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa‘s standard room, you will only need enough Hilton points to cover 4 nights which is 320,000 Hilton Honors points. This is a good benefit that makes your Hilton points rate per night go down from 80,000 points to only 64,000 points per night.
Do Standard Award Nights Get Released Back to the Inventory Immediately After Cancellation?
Yes – It happened to my reservation at the time. I redeemed Hilton points for only 2 nights stay in the standard garden view room. All standard award nights around those 2 nights were taken. I kept checking regularly to see if other standard award nights may open up and they did for 3 nights. I wanted to book for 5 nights together using points to take advantage of the 5th Night Free benefit. So I canceled my 2 award nights and those nights got released back to the award’s availability inventory immediately. That allowed me to use Hilton points to book the entire 5-nights stay with the 5th Night Free benefit successfully.
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Hilton Honors Diamond Benefits
Hilton Honors Diamond Elite members receive the following amenities:
- 2 bottles of water in-room upon arrival,
- 100% bonus on all base points
- 2nd guests stay free
- Upgrade to the next category if available at the time of check-in
- Complimentary Wi-Fi
- Complimentary late check-out upon availability
- 1,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points per stay
- Daily complimentary Continental breakfast for you and up to one additional guest registered to the same room)
How Much Does It Cost to Upgrade to Overwater Bungalow at Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa?
After you book, the resort typically sends you an email a few weeks later to inform you about your reservation and your Hilton’s elite benefits. The upgrade cost is also included in the email.
If you are a Hilton Honors Diamond elite member, the benefit only gives you a complimentary upgrade to the next category and subject to availability at the time of check-in. The next category room after the standard King Garden Guestroom is the Garden Pool Bungalow. This bungalow room comes with a private swimming pool and a patio.
If you would like to stay at those Overwater Bungalows, you have three options:
- Pay to upgrade before checking in by reaching out to the resort directly.
- Wait until you get to the resort and try your luck to see if the resort is willing to upgrade your room to the overwater bungalow room complimentary based on your Hilton Honors Diamond Elite status.
- Wait until you get to the resort and see if you’ll be offered the upgrade at a discounted price.
If you are interested in paying to upgrade in advance, below is an estimated cost to upgrade from the standard King Garden Guestroom to an Overwater Bungalow room. The price here may vary based on your arrival dates. This is just to give you an idea:
- Garden Pool Bungalow: Complimentary upon availability at time of check-in for Hilton Honors elite members.
- Deluxe Garden Pool Bungalow – 13,000 XPF (~$130) per night
- Lagoon Bungalow – 15,000 XPF (~$150) per night
- Garden Pool Suite – 31,000 XPF (~$310) per night
- Overwater Bungalow – 33,000 XPF (~$330) per night
- Panoramic Overwater Bungalow – 43,000 XPF (~$430) per night.
- Premium Panoramic Overwater Bungalow – 48,500 XPF (~$485) per night
Again, the above room cost to upgrade may vary based on your traveling dates. The cost can fluctuate based on seasons.
Lagoon Bungalows are also worth looking into because technically they are over the water and cost cheaper to upgrade. They are located on the beach at the water edge, so not completely over water but you could swim out from the deck of your bungalow.
If you have American Express Hilton Aspire Card, you can also use the $250 Hilton resort credit to cover some of the upgrade fees.
Complimentary Breakfast For Hilton Honors Gold and Diamond Members
French Polynesia is not a cheap destination by any means, especially when it comes to onsite dining, the cost can really add up significantly because resort food and drinks tend to be on the expensive side. It really helps if you have high elite status with the Hilton Honors program such as Hilton Honors Gold or Hilton Honors Diamond elite status. By having one of these elite statuses, you are entitled to a daily complimentary breakfast every morning for you and another guest staying in the same room for your entire stay. This elite benefit is huge. Therefore, if you are looking to stay at Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa, you should really consider getting the status first.
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Should You Eat at Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa?
Moorea is more affordable than Bora Bora and you also have easier access to surroundings on the Moorea island such as activities and restaurants. While some prefer eating at the resort for convenience, I personally prefer to wander out to try other restaurants. With that being said, if you do not want to just be stuck at eating resort food and drinks all the time, you can consider renting a car there or if you do not want to drive, there are local restaurants that offer complimentary shuttle rides to their restaurant.
Here’s the list of those restaurants obtained from the Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa. If you’d like the most up-to-date list, you may contact the resort directly to inquire. At the time of this writing, the restaurants that offer shuttles to and from Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa are:
- Rudy’s
- Moorea Beach Café
- Honu Iti
- Coco d’isle
- Holy Steak House
- Tiahura
Executive Club Lounge
Unfortunately, Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa does not have any executive club or lounge for Hilton Honors elites to access.
How to Get to the Resort
Moorea is not as difficult as Bora Bora to reach from mainland Tahiti. Moorea is just a short ferry away from Tahiti and two ferry companies operate this route daily. You can check out this article: The Best Way To Take A Ferry From Tahiti To Moorea & 2 Best Resorts in Moorea
Please keep in mind that ferries and flights do not operate after 5:30pm between Tahiti and Moorea. If you arrive in Tahiti after 5:30pm, you will need to overnight in Tahiti.
Once you arrive in Moorea, you still need transportation to reach the resort. The resort offers car transfers with the following schedule and costs:
- Transfers operate from 8:30am-5:00pm.
- A shared transfer for 2 costs XPF 3,200 one-way
- Private transfers cost XPF 5,000 one-way (for arrivals before or after shuttle operation times).
Contact
If you have any other questions, you can either leave a comment here or you can reach out to the Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa directly at [email protected]
