When we arrived at the Tahiti Intercontinental Hotel at 6:30 a.m. after almost 20 hours of travel time from New York with a change of planes in Los Angeles, the last thing we were looking forward to was hanging around the hotel lobby until 3 p.m. check-in time. Luckily for us, the friendly woman at the desk offered us a deal that seemed too good to be true, but that ended up being even better than promised. She said that she could get us into a room by 8 a.m., upgrade our room for this stay and for all future stays at Intercontinental hotels for an entire year. We would also receive a certificate for one free night during a weekend stay of at least 2 nights. The cost was $200 which seemed like an incredible bargain to us in our jet-lagged state. We said "yes," and after having a quick cappuccino in the lobby cafe, we were escorted to our upgraded "Panorama" room. Instead of the interior garden-facing room that we had booked, we were thrilled to enter our spacious beach-side room. Another perk of being an Intercontinental Ambassador is that you are given mineral water bottles each day and a welcome gift of basket when you check in. We were happy to see a gigantic platter filled with tropical fruits and accompanied with Tahitian vanilla cookies.
The view from our "Panorama" room.
The advantages of being an "Ambassador" continued with our 6-night stay at the Intercontinental on the island of Moorea. Wanting to economize, we had booked the cheapest available room at this high-end chain. We're sure that the king-size room with lanai would have been perfectly lovely, but now that we were "Ambassadors," we were escorted to a fantastic beach-side bungalow with separate living room and deck. So, before taking your next trip, check out the IHG website.
Our bungalow in Moorea had a Polynesian-style living room and deck.
The water was just steps away from the bungalow.