The 84-villa InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa is undergoing a major redevelopment ahead of its planned reopening as Regent Bora Bora in late 2027, extending IHG’s upper-luxury brand into one of the world’s best-known island destinations.
IHG Hotels & Resorts is taking Regent into French Polynesia for the first time, with plans to transform the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa into Regent Bora Bora.
The agreement with long-standing partner Pacific Beachcomber will reposition one of Bora Bora’s established luxury resorts at the top end of IHG’s portfolio. The property closed on 1 June 2026 for an extensive renovation and is expected to reopen under the Regent flag in late 2027.
Set on a private motu on the eastern side of Bora Bora’s lagoon, the resort will retain an exclusively overwater format. Its 84 villas will have direct access to the lagoon, with views towards Mount Otemanu and the Pacific.
The conversion represents more than a change of brand. IHG and Pacific Beachcomber are using the redevelopment to reposition the property around Regent’s approach to contemporary upper luxury, with greater emphasis on design, personalised service, dining and experiences rooted in the destination.
Regent brand elements planned for the resort include its Personal Havens concept, designed around private spaces for retreat; Regent Experience Agents, who act as a single guest contact from before arrival through departure; and With Compliments, the brand’s approach to including selected services and amenities within the overall stay.
For IHG, Bora Bora also gives Regent a particularly visible resort address as the company continues rebuilding the brand at the upper end of the luxury market. Regent currently operates in destinations including Hong Kong, Cannes, Phu Quoc, Shanghai, Santa Monica and Bali. IHG describes Regent as its modern upper-luxury offering, with growth focused on a selective group of gateway cities and resort destinations.
The project also extends a relationship between IHG and Pacific Beachcomber that has lasted for more than two decades.
Pacific Beachcomber founder and chairman Richard Bailey said the aim was to create a form of luxury appropriate to Bora Bora, while remaining connected to Polynesian culture and the island’s natural environment.
That local context is particularly relevant to the property’s redevelopment. The former InterContinental resort has long incorporated an unusual seawater air-conditioning system that draws cold water from deep in the Pacific to cool the hotel. According to IHG, the system reduces the electricity otherwise required for air-conditioning and refrigeration by around 90 per cent. It will continue operating after the resort becomes Regent Bora Bora.
The existing resort also built part of its identity around its Deep Ocean Spa, described by IHG as the first thalassotherapy centre in the South Pacific, using deep-sea water as part of its treatments.
The decision to move the property from InterContinental to Regent is significant in a market where location alone is no longer enough to differentiate at the highest end of resort hospitality. Bora Bora already carries extraordinary destination equity. The challenge for the redevelopment will be to translate that setting into a Regent experience without allowing the global brand to overpower the Polynesian character that made the resort distinctive in the first place.
When it opens in late 2027, Regent Bora Bora will therefore serve two purposes for IHG: giving Regent its first foothold in French Polynesia and demonstrating how the group intends to position the brand in highly distinctive resort markets rather than simply increasing its global room count.
