Mark’s Paradise would be much nicer if Mark was not there. While he has built a beautiful haven in a lovely location (though not on the beach), his personality is wacky! Mark is completely bipolar; one minute he is “over the top” happy and the next moody and irritable and nasty. He does really nice things for his guests about 95% of the time (gave me a private room half off the price, tried to help me make some bookings for the rest of my trip (he had told me on the phone that he knew pensions on all of the islands and that he could help me but when I arrived he just bad mouthed other pensions because “no one is willing to recommend his place”), told all is guests how wonderful I was and that he was trying to convince me to “stay and marry him”, booked diving for me, made suggestions about places to go/see) and he thinks that is “enough” and should make everyone happy…but the other 5% of the time he is a nightmare. He can be very snippy (I was in a room next to reception so I heard many conversations) and within an instant change to extremely happy. The first three days of my vacation he kept telling me and others that “he was trying to convince me to stay on Mo’orea and marry him”. He had nothing but great things to share (about me) with people; he introduced me to all the new guests especially if they were from NYC. Frankly, I rarely saw him as I was off his grounds from 7:30 AM-4 PM diving.. However, on my last day he went on a verbal tirade that was completely unprofessional, inappropriate and embarrassing. I am not sure what happened to make him so irritated but what he said (as I was trying to check out) was downright mean spirited and nasty. He made comments about how I could never be pleased no matter what he did or suggested, how he could understand why I was not married and why no one would want to be with me because of my personality (this is after I shared with him earlier in the week that I was supposed to be married THAT month and things didn’t work out…mind you, with tears and an very obvious broken heart), how I should “give him a break because he works 27 hours a day, 8 days a week” and how I was going to “make him cry”. In all my life I have never been spoken to with such negativity and words that truly were meant to cause hurt; it was verbal abuse. Another guest overhearing Mark’s rant, actually came out to intervene. The other guest commented that “you can come to paradise but some people have serious emotional issues”. My first day at Mark’s Place he said to me that a previous guest had written a Trip Advisor critique that said that he was moody and difficult. His behavior in the 4 days I was there only confirmed that report. If you don’t do what he recommends or suggests, he takes a personal affront to that. He complains nonstop about his competition both on Mo’orea and on other islands. I ran into so many people during my 4 weeks in French Polynesia that had negative encounters with Mark. I stayed on 9 islands and in 10 pensions and had wonderful experiences with all the owners other than Mark. Even if there is any hint of truth in the things that Mark said to me, as an owner, he has NO business articulating them to me or any of his clients. Mark shouldn’t be in the customer provider business or he needs to focus on just building his lovely bungalows and hire someone to be interact with the customers. I would not recommend anyone to stay at his place and be subjected to the kind of verbal onslaught that I experienced.

Firstly, I'd like to mention that Mark is an absolute wonderful person. His generousity, honesty and kindness can be felt as soon as you arrive. He works all day and all night to ensure that his customers are happy and have everything they need no matter what the issue OR time.

We booked four nights at Marks Place, however, due to the excellent hospitality we received, we extended our time for another three nights. The bungalows are all built by Mark himself and reflect the Tahitian style whist maintaining practicality and comfort. For the price you pay for your time at Marks Place, you will receive exactly what you should expect - excellent service, a beautiful Tahitian bungalow (not to mention the well maintained, stunning gardens) and the experience that you will never forget. We were actually quite suprised with the price for where we were staying!After sadly leaving Marks Place (Moorea), we stayed on the island of Tahiti for two nights and willingly went straight back to Marks Place for another five nights after that.

From reading other reviews, I would like to point out that Marks Place is NOT on the water, however its approximately 100 meters from the ocean. We booked Marks Place after looking at the website, and at not time did we think that Marks Place is on the water. In actual fact it is positioned perfectly across the road with a background of the Tahitian mountains - stunning!!

We have met the most amazing people at Marks Place which we will be visiting in the near future. The night before we left Moorea, myself, the two other people I was travelling with and a massive bunch of people from Marks Place including Mark himself went out with dinner to watch a band. We had a great night and Mark was extremely excited and very proud of the bonds we were making. A couple we met whilst at Marks Place had been married one year ago. They spent their Honeymoon at Marks Place and came back the following year because they loved it so much.

We hired a car during our stay at Moorea,however we became friends with campers and backpackers living on a budget who happily managed to hitch-hike or catch a bus around the island with no troubles at all.

All in all, we will be going back to stay at Marks Place and we have recommended it to all of our friends. In fact, we have friends that will be staying at Marks later on this year.

We would like to thank Mark for his hospitality, kindness and of course FUN during our stay. All we have to say is - SEE YOU SOON!!!

From D, C AND M

We booked the honeymoon bungalow for 5 nights over Xmas, then wanting to take a ferry to the outer islands and spend some time there before flying on to New Zealand. For us, the price was relatively heafty, but we wanted a nice Christmas and were willing to splurge. Plus, the place was recommended to us because of Mark's friendliness and hospitality, and it looked great on the website.

We arrived around 10 in the morning, of course not expecting the bungalow to be ready. Unfortunately, there had been a problem with unloading the luggage from the air plane in Tahiti, so an airport official promised to send the luggage on to Mark's place within the day. This was fine with us. :-) Mark was a bit surprised at our lack of luggage, but after hearing our story helped us out by calling at the airport on Moorea to hear if it had arrived yet. This was not the case, however. Still, no problem for us, we were laid back. The gardens looked great, and you could see the effort that had gone into building the bungalows.

For some reason, Mark then offered us his phone, placing a brochure next to it and saying that he wouldn't mind if we chose to sleep somewhere else, and that he would even pay us a taxi. As we were fine with the place (and hadn't voiced any criticism whatsoever) we were a bit surprised at this behavior. We managed to convince him that we really liked his place, etc. and thought he was just a bit eccentric. After all, we hadn't even seen the bungalow. :-) He then told us that the bungalow wasn't ready, and that he would clean it up. We should go to the shop and buy some juice. We obeyed and walked up to the little grocery store around the corner to "buy some juice". When we came back, things had changed: a heavily upset Mark yelled at us "to get out of his life", by no means would he spend Xmas with ungrateful people like us, etc. We were incredibly shocked, as he also used cuss words and was really loud. Knowing that during Xmas everything on Moorea was likely to be booked, we BEGGED him to let us stay. He refused, just as he suddenly took back his offer of a taxi or of using his phone.

The next hour or so we spent using the public pay phone at reception (he wouldn't let us use his internet cafe, either, even though we offered him double the usual price) to try and find a place to stay. Of course, all we could find was a 6-people bungalow for two nights, then even the big and expensive resorts had no rooms available. We ended up taking the 6-people bungalow for two nights and then flying out to an outer island where we spent Christmas.

Around 2 o' clock, we walked back up to the coastal road to hitchhike (there was no bus) to our new bungalow, which happened to be on the other side of the island. Our luggage still hadn't arrived.

The owners of the new bungalow were so friendly. They offered us clothes, food, etc. as everything was in the luggage and we were desperate to get out of our clothes. However, the problem with our luggage still remained. We had left Mark's Place at 2, but he did not listen to us and walked away when we told him where we would be staying so he could tell the guy from the airline and forward the luggage on to us. Small wonder. :-) The owners of the new place called the airport in Moorea and Tahiti, drove with us to Moorea to check if it was there, etc. Unsuccessfully - no one knew where the luggage was. The owner also called Mark at 6 pm, who told her that he would not touch our luggage and hadn't seen it, either. After we had called an office of Air New Zealand in Auckland and told the agent our story, she spend some time researching. Around 9 pm, she returned our call and said that she had called Marks Place after having found out that the luggage was delivered to him at 2:30 pm (therefore, he lied to us on the phone). Mark however told her that he would go to bed now and that we should come pick it up in the morning.

The next day, after 36 hours without our luggage, our friendly patrons drove us to Marks Place, where a miracle had taken place. Mark was incredibly friendly, apologized for his behavior and offered us a one-night refund if we wanted to come back for the remaining 4 days. However, we had already booked flights and accommodation on the outer island, plus, being cussed out by someone is not the ideal way to start off.

All in all, we were incredibly irritated. We have absolutely no clue as to why we were kicked out, as Mark was very friendly in all the Emails we had exchanged beforehand and we had honestly not voiced any criticism whatsoever. This would have been a nuisance during any time of the year, but around Xmas this was horrible for us, both emotionally and financially. As you can imagine, airplane flights are a bit more expensive than the planned ferry rides. We would have thought that we did something wrong, but Mark's apology the next morning contradicts this assumption, as well. The only other thing we can think of is that he was for some reason overbooked and didn't want to tell us.

Baffled, we left Moorea two days later.

Idea location on Mooera for me.Marks place is close to the best surf on the island,and tucked away from the ususal tourist seen.
Mark's place is set in a beautiful garden clearing,with an amazing mountain back drop.The uniquely built bungalows are scattered around so all can enjoy the setting.All the bungalows are crafted in different ways to meet peoples budgets and needs.I found Mark very helpful and welcoming on my arrival and made me feel at home.I shared a bungalow with other travellers which was fine,and kept the cost down to around $25US a night.The kitchens are well equipped for cooking and bathrooms clean and funky.Great hot or cold showers.Kayaks and bicycles are available for a modest daily hire.The shop for supplies and fresh bake bread only minutes by bike or walking distance.This suited me fine,for most restaurants can be expensive on the island.The place could be alittle isolated for some,but for me that's the appeal.As well as getting great surf ,Mark's offered me the best option for my 3weeks stay on Moorea.I would recommened this place to other open minded travellers like myself.I'll be coming back.