We had terrible weather, but the hotel was beautiful. Our ocean front room had a great view. It was 2 stories with a lot of space. It was hard to get drinking water -- they kept telling us it was not good. I drink tons of water and, in fact had drank lots from the tap in my room. The last two nights several couples around us at dinner complained and we finally got water with our dinner. The food was great, but they did not serve dinner until 7p.m., so being on east coast time it was a long wait. Most nights we ate earlier, but had a very limited menu. The front desk staff was very helpful. The little French that I speak was helpful in the restaurant.

We had a dayroom at this hotel after leaving a cruise and before our midnight flight home. So, we had minimal time there (basically hung out at the pool and had dinner) before leaving Tahiti. The room we were assigned was pretty cool with two levels (bedroom and bathroom upstairs) and the living area downstairs. Both levels had nice decks and was spacious, however, the room was nicked up, dirty and just gross. The shower looked grimy and the sheets had stains. Not wanting to be stuck inside we headed to the pool where they had run out of towels (the pool wasn't that busy) and had to wait close to two hours until they were available. The drinks at the pool were expensive and didn't taste like they had any alcohol in them and the food at dinner was abysmal. As for the beach, it was black sand. Not a fan of that and preferred the white sand at the InterContinental. However, the only nice thing about the hotel was the lovely sound of the waves crashing onto the shore.

We stayed for few days on the way back from our trip to the Tuamotus (Rangiroa and Fakarava) We stayed at probably their best room - the OCEAN VIEW DUPLEX SUITE.

The hotel looks nice maybe even better the Intercontinental Tahiti. As the hotels in Tahiti are generally very bad, for better accommodation you only have few options.

Our suite was nice and big we had complimentary quite fast FREE internet (but with LAN cable provided by the reception)

The hotel is clearly understaffed (we had to wait forever at Check-in as there was only one French guy at the reception (quite a young person) which was not friendly at all, so the check-in process was very slow and negative in experience (I hope this guy is fired)

When we arrived with our 4 suitcases there were nobody in the reception (bellboy) who can help you with the luggage, I had to wait almost one hour to get the luggage in our room.
On the next day it took me 3 phone calls so I can get our suite serviced – they clearly do NOT have enough housekeeping personnel, giving us a lot of stupid explanation by telephone why they did not clean the room on time.

Also what is crazy for me is that even in the most expensive suite they have not stocked the mini-bar and we do not had even complimentary water. We ordered 2 bottles of water from the room service and I realized that I’m paying one of the most expensive water in my life (1 liter of the very, very average still local water O’Tahiti cost 750 XPF (about $8,36) That is bad, 50% more expensive that 5 stars resorts in remote places like Bora Bora and Rangiroa.

I liked the location of the hotel in ARUE and the Lafayette black sand beach – however the sound of the waves is so strong at night that even on the 5th floor is was impossible to sleep with open windows.

The best in the hotel was the dinner restaurant with fresh fish (tuna, mahi-mahi) and some of the best tuna Carpaccio and tuna sashimi we ever had ! The food there was the only reason I give this place 4 stars instead of 3. Also we liked very much this fantastic band from Marquesas Islands. That was very authentic !

By the way for trip to Papeete, if you want to visit at the best place to buy pearls for sure this is Robert Wan (we saw his Pearl farms in Tuamotus). My wife left the Robert Wan shop happy (not so happy was my credit card)

The hotel my guess is about 30yrs. old. It needs a face lift. The rooms are normal size and the elevators are very small. The restaurant is not air conditioned but the rooms are. The rooms have wood floors. And the rooms have a patio. The rooms vary in views from clear view rooms to the ocean to rooms that look into trees that block the room views. The beach is about 50 yrs. from the hotel a easy walk. It has a couple of gift shops and a childcare room for the little ones if you need babysitting. The neighborhood is so so. We stayed their only one night because we couldn't get to Bora Bora the same day coming out of Los Angeles airport. The drive to the airport is about 15 ride. It would not be someplace I would stay for the entire vacation. It is a decent layover Hotel between flights. The food at the hotel was on a Sunday buffet. I would rate the food as average nothing to get excited about. The front desk and room service where very pleasant to deal with.