Starting from the location, the hotel is about 4 kms away from the airport, and you can hear the planes lifting off and landing. However, note that this hotel does not provide a shuttle service, meaning that you need to arrange for your own transportation - even if you arrive at 3 in the morning, and this means either taking a taxi or renting a car (but the second option won't work if you arrive outside of work hours). The taxi will cost about 20000 XPF, during day time and also if you have a large group of people. Not more. I got scammed by a taxi driver on the night I arrived. Lost about 4.5k XPF on that. Great start to the stay.
The city, Papeete is reachable by walking about 15 minutes along the coast road, which doesn't always have a great pedestrian walkway. This is also somewhat of an annoyance, where the hotel is of decent make, but the environment doesn't match with that.
Next, the hotel staff itself, and the service they provide. It is totally a mixed bag. It horrifies me to say that your experience will be dominated by whom is serving you. Some of the staff are horribly inflexible and utterly arrogant. Others are extremely helpful. And this also applies to the Hilton Moorea, where people won't even rent you a changing room and a towel, even when you have a booked tour with their event providers and the bloody tour starts from the hotel pier.
If the hotel wasn't clean, I would have been very disappointed. The beds are okay.
Tried some facilities, the swimming pool, three of four restaurants and the Spa, and I have to say that everything is exceedingly expensive, but as a redeeming point, the service at these facilities is also rewarding, though maybe not at the level you would expect at this price class.
Overall I consider this place not worthy of being called a five star hotel. Due to my experiences with the staff, I wouldn't even give them a fourth star. The Intercontinental is better altogether.
Very Good
104 Reviews