Intercontinental Moorea Closed
At the beginning of the pandemic the Intercontinental Moorea Resort & Spa closed its doors permanently. As covered by Ben at One Mile at a Time the hotel management figured it made sense to close its doors for many reasons. Some of those included:
- Lack of flights to the remote destination made occupancy pretty much zero
- Long quarantine requirements made stays, even after lock down, unlikely or cumbersome.
- The hotel company decided to focus on the other properties they have in the area, which always performed better.
Here is what was posted on the hotel’s site at the time of closure (HT OMaaT):
The global health and economic downturn resulting from the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has had an exceptionally devastating impact on the travel and tourism industry. A significant income generating sector from many countries in the world including French Polynesia, the pandemic-induced crisis has left many countries who rely heavily on tourism revenue under considerable strain.
Due to the scale of disruption faced by the tourism in “Tahiti and her Islands” and unforeseeable market conditions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, we regret to announce that the InterContinental Moorea Resort & Spa will not be reopening after the mandated closure period concludes.
The permanent closure of the InterContinental Moorea Resort & Spa has been a very hard but carefully considered decision taken to preserve our other hotels within Pacific Beachcomber hotel group.
You may contact your preferred sales representative or our reservations department for assistance with the cancellation of your bookings at the InterContinental Moorea Resort & Spa. Our reservations team is available to assist you by phone (+689 40 86 51 78) and by email (reservation.tahitiregion@ihg.com).
On behalf of the Pacific Beachcomber family, I would like to send our sincere gratitude to each and every one of you for your longstanding dedication and service throughout the years. We will be delighted to pursue our valuable partnership with our other Pacific Beachcomber properties and our teams in Tahiti and Bora Bora look forward to welcoming our common customers soon in the respect of both the required sanitary measures we have implemented and the Tahitian culture.
Was There Possibly An Alternative Motive For The Closure?
My buddy Dave is vacationing in Tahiti and Moorea right now and having a grand old time hopping around hotels in paradise. There was no jealousy on my part in that statement, I swear it! Once he got to Moorea they set up a boat tour with a local guide.
The local guide said that the Intercontinental Moorea is likely to open next year. He said the real reason it closed was union driven. The company realized that the resort would be near vacant for a while and took advantage of the opportunity. The guide said that a property is required to be closed 2 years before they can remove a union per French union law.
I searched French union law more than I care to admit but was unable to confirm this rule. I did find a thread on Flyertalk in response to a French article about a strike the hotel union members did in 2019. The strike left the resort short staffed and unable to provide many services to guests. So I guess this kind of tracks with what the guide said.
Intercontinental Moorea Closed – Final Thoughts
I found this kind of interesting and time will tell soon enough if the guide was correct. If the hotel opens later this year, or early next year, then I think we will have our answer. It doesn’t mean it will reopen under the same brand etc. but we should know something in the near future if it is going to happen.
I think the fact that the hotel had issues with the union right before the pandemic gives this some credibility. I wish that I was able to confirm that being closed two years is a part of French law but maybe a reader who excels in French labor laws can chime in on that.
Let me know what you think in the comments. Do you think they closed because of the pandemic or do you think this was a long term play to get the union out of the property?
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Well it is 2024 now and the intercontinental Hotel in Moorea is still close. We stayed there before Covid and loved it. Interestingly they still have a couple of dolphins there. The dolphins were a highlight of our stay there.