St. Regis Bora Bora Review: A Beautiful Hard Product

The St. Regis Bora Bora sits on a beautiful atoll off the main island with a gorgeous hard product. We’ll talk about the soft product in the next post.

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Booking the St. Regis Bora Bora

The St. Regis Bora Bora has been on our short list of hotels to try out. I’ve heard that the hotel is good with kids, which is a driving reason why we booked it. I booked the hotel roughly 10.5 months in advance of the five-night stay for 538,000 Marriott points plus 223,800 XPF (~$2,180 US) for the beachside villa with 1 king bed and 1 sofa bed. This was before Marriott decided to devalue its most aspirational properties. The cash price of the room was closer to 300,000 XPF per night (~$2,930 US). Yeah, better to use them points.

Given my valuation of Marriott points (0.9 cents each), it would mean I spent $4,842 of value in points and ~$2,180 as a cash supplement. That’s $7,022 for five nights. I can’t just ignore the price of the points when valuing this trip because remember: points aren’t free. But it’s also true that my acquisition costs for the points is less than $4,842. So, is it fair to say that I paid for $7,022 in travel but it didn’t cost me $7,022? Yes, and it’s probably worth further discussion at a later time.

The Marriott website only allowed one child to be included at the time of booking. Immediately after booking, I emailed the hotel at borabora.liaison@stregis.com to confirm it’s possible to add another child. The hotel confirmed that normal one-bedroom villas are unable to accommodate more than three guests but the one I booked (with a sofa bed) allows for two adults and two children.

That means if you’re looking to come here with two children, you will need to search for the room type that includes a sofa bed in the description.

Upgrade costs

The St. Regis Bora Bora also asked if I would like to upgrade my room for the following costs:

Overwater Deluxe Villa (Island view) — 34,470 XPF (~$330 US) per night
Overwater Deluxe Villa (Otemanu view) — 68,940 XPF (~$670 US) per night
Overwater Premier Villa (Otemanu view) — 149,370 XPF (~$1,450 US) per night
Overwater Royal Otemanu 1 Bedroom Villa with pool — 321,720 XPF (~$3,130 US) per night

All of the upgrade options presented to us are overwater villas. We’ve done overwater villas elsewhere and weren’t particularly compelled to buy up to one this time. That’s especially true at the rates quoted, which didn’t feel like much of a deal considering what I already dropped to come here. Thus we declined the offer.

At the very least, it seemed to confirm from the hotel the room types that would allow two adults and two children.

I did try to use five nightly upgrade awards to get into one of these rooms for free, but it didn’t work (no surprise there).

Required transfer costs

As if it’s not enough to pay for the stay at the St. Regis Bora Bora, you will need to pay for a roundtrip transfer between the resort and Bora Bora Airport. The stay cost us the following:

16,800 XPF (~$160 US) for each adult
8,400 XPF (~$80 US) for each child between 5 and 12 years old

There is no supplement for children under 5. While it’s a bummer to have to pay a charge on top of the room rate, we were glad that it’s less than what the Maldives charges.

Boat transfer fees to the main island

Additionally, if you want to visit the main island (for dinner or a tour), it will also cost you money to take that boat:

3,500 XPF (~$34 US) for each adult
1,750 XPF (~$17 US) for each child between 5 and 12 years old

This is the fee that I dislike more than the required transfer fee above. It’s essentially a tax the St. regis Bora Bora imposes if you choose to dine elsewhere. They run these shuttles constantly anyways (employees use them to get to the main island) as many employees are locals. So it’s not like they’re going out of their way to run a shuttle strictly for guests. For a resort charging so much per night, maybe I shouldn’t care so much about the $100 here and there that the hotel nickels and dimes me for, but that’s what it honestly feels like.

Earning Marriott Bonvoy points

If you’re looking to earn Marriott points quickly, you could look into picking up a Marriott credit card. Both Chase and American Express offer Marriott credit cards.

Full disclosure: in this section are refer-a-friend links where I may earn some points for referring. There is no requirement to use the below referral links to apply but note your offer may differ when going directly to the card issuer.

Chase offers the Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful credit card that gives a sign up bonus of 85,000 Marriott points for spending $4,000 in the first three months for a $250 annual fee.

Or you can turn your eyes to American Express:

The Marriott Bonvoy Bevy (not an affiliate link) offers 85,000 Marriott points for $5,000 spend in the first six months for a $250 annual fee.
The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant (not an affiliate link) offers 100,000 Marriott points for $6,000 spend in the first six months. It also comes with instant Platinum status but with a higher annual fee ($650).

Since Amex credit cards are generally one-in-a-lifetime, it might be worth waiting for a better deal to come by.

Finding St. Regis Bora Bora at BOB Airport

We arrived at Bora Bora Airport to find the line of host stands for each resort on the island. You can’t miss them (the only way out of the airport is to take a boat). If you’re not with one of the major resorts, you can just take the ferry to the main island.

We found the St. Regis pretty quickly and the host greeted us by name. He handed out some welcome necklaces and asked us to tag our bags. In the meantime, we were free to wander around the airport (ultimately just for five minutes).

The luggage is delivered just beyond all the host stands.

We got a nice view of the island from the airport and saw water of many different shades of blue.

Another person kindly offered to take a photo of us and you can start to see the impact of the wind on our hair (it gets far worse).

The transfer to the St. Regis Bora Bora

When it was time to go, we headed off to the small Neptoon IV to take us to the resort. If there are a lot of guests to pick up, they will use a bigger boat. But notice how there is nothing to break the wind on this boat? Well…

That turned into a rather hectic hair day for all of us. It especially impacted Char, who didn’t have her hair tied up. (Yes, she is facing me in this pic.) I swear she didn’t transform into Sadako from The Ring.

Yes, even my hair looked a bit wild. Alex looked like he saw a ghost. For some reason, the boat ride to the resort was the worst, but going to the airport from the hotel at the end of the stay was pretty calm.

Along the way, we got some nice views of the island.

And sure enough, we reached the St. Regis after 20 minutes.

First impressions of St. Regis Bora Bora

We arrived at the dock to find a pair of butlers to welcome us. We would end up with two butlers for most of our stay, but neither of these two would be ours. Instead, they were just going to take us up the steps to check in.

We just needed to head up the covered walkway to the front desk. However, since other guests were still in the process of chatting with the front desk, we had to wait about 10 minutes before it was our turn.

One of the butlers (again, not ours) handed us some mango juice as we waited.

And then we received the news (literally). It was a welcome packet that had a very prominent photo of us when we opened the packet. It felt… strange. I’m not sure how to put it. It’s like one of those out-of-body experiences where I wasn’t sure if it was real or not. A photo hasn’t done that to me before, but the hotel is putting it out there that they’ve done research on us. I didn’t provide them that photo and it wasn’t one I had on the blog. Instead, they must have lifted it from Jenn’s social media posts. I’ll talk about this in the next installment, as I have more to say.

Anyways, we finally got to meet our two butlers for this stay (Chloé and Marion). And then we set out onto a buggy (our luggage separately went to the room before we arrived).

Before dropping us off at our room, the two butlers gave us a tour of the island. It’s nice to get some fresh air, but it’s also hard to remember everything. Information overload!

Map of the property

I’ll go more into detail on the restaurants and activities available at the St. Regis Bora Bora in future posts. For now, I’ll leave you with a map of the resort, which might help with choosing what room you might prefer. If you want anything facing Otemanu, you’ll want any of the rooms facing the bottom of the page. That includes any of the overwater villas in the 100’s and the land villas in the 500’s.

The Room

We have Villa #404 for this stay, which faces out towards the ocean.

Bedroom #1

Let’s start off in the main bedroom, just to the left of the entrance. You’ll find a comfortable king bed in the center of the floor. It’s not too firm and not too soft, threading the needle on that balance.

Across from the bed is a TV. It felt small for the room only because the room is so large in comparison. We didn’t use it much, only if there was some downtime here and there.

In the other corner of the room is a comfortable chair and a small side table.

And next to the bed are two nightstands. There are some USB outlets but it would have been more user-friendly to have some electrical outlets instead. There was one on the other side of the bed and it’s a reason why I bring a small power strip along on our trips.

Bedroom #2

The second bedroom has the sofa bed, directly down the hall from the front entrance. By the time we arrived, staff had already turned the sofa into a bed. We never converted into a sofa. In fact, the room might feel a little empty if we did.

The bed was fine. It’s not the most comfortable pull-out but it had enough support to not cause issues.

In the corner of the room is a table for two, along with a welcome amenity (I’ll get to that later). It works well if you’re eating in your room and don’t want to be outside.

In the opposite corner is a TV. Though it’s the same size, it felt larger just because this room is smaller.

Under the TV is a coffee maker and a mini-fridge.

And next to the sofa bed is a table. It would be good for working if it had a chair. I imagine the chair was removed because they made the sofa into a bed.

Bathroom

Behind the main bedroom is the large bathroom. There are a total of three doors that lead to this bathroom (not counting the closet). We enjoyed having two sinks and plenty of counter space.

The shower and tub were across from the sinks. I actually don’t like the setup they have. It’s tough to stay warm while showering because the heat isn’t trapped. And the tub didn’t drain properly and seemed broken. That didn’t prevent the kids from still trying to use it.

Toiletries are from Sachjuan, which are good enough.

There also are lots of bath salts if you need them.

If you prefer to shower outside, you have the option to.

But let me point out a few things:

It’s not a fully-private area, as someone could just walk back here.
Mosquitoes seemed more prevalent back here.
Water pressure and temperature could be lacking.

All that to say we didn’t use it.

Closet

For completeness, the closet is found inside the bathroom. That’s helpful if you want to change after a shower, but it’s easy to forget. The closet is large enough for a stay of up to a week assuming you’re not bringing a suitcase just for shoes. Yeah, Jenn did that before…

Backyard

Yes, our room has a backyard area, with a nice view of the ocean. It also has a nice view of the sunset, which is a cool bonus.

First up is the double beach chair and umbrella setup, which is nice for lounging.

We also had our own private plunge pool. The kids loved playing in the water, splashing all they wanted.

Next to the pool is an outdoor table with four chairs.

And then closer to the water is a daybed with some(?) shade. But perhaps not much based on the angle of the sun.

And we get our own hammock, as Alex is modeling here.

It’s nice having the beach and the ocean beyond. But those with families should know that this isn’t a sandy beach—or at least not one with a lot of sand to build castles or dig holes. It’s rather compacted and doesn’t have much give to it.

The legal papers St. Regis Bora Bora makes you sign

During the check-in process, the St. Regis Bora Bora requires a signature on up to two documents for both adults in the room. While you could read them there (I did), sometimes it’s easier to review them without someone waiting for you to sign. They do provide a copy of the documents for you to review at your leisure.

The first is the standard disclosure advising you of the St. Regis Bora Bora’s policies.

The second only applies if you have kids.

Recommendation of the St. Regis Bora Bora: Withheld for now

I’m going respectfully withhold my recommendation until the next post. While I planned to include everything into one post, it would have taken a normal person half an hour to get through it. I’ll get to the soft product in the next post, which will help explain the thought process, as it can’t be viewed as just the hard product in isolation.

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