Pension Hotu

Was canceled by them last minute. Already had flight paid round trip and was in a remote part of the South Pacific with sketchy internet. Hard to find a place then. Thank you to Tikehau Rai BNB and Tikehau Village each for taking me for a couple of days.

The location is great. The food is super good, breakfast simple with toasts and the dinners with fish, salads very abundant. The dinner all together is nice. The common part is very good and clean. Nice bikes and kayaks. The bungalow is a little bit old or not well maintained, the toilet looks a bit ugly/old and the room is fine but with all this tiny ball/bugs falling from the roof that is annoying how all our staff finished full of them. The pillows were very humidity smell what was terrible so we did not use them. Conclusion, for the price, the location and common parts are perfect but I wouldn’t recommend the pension due to the room.

We went for a lagoon tour with them, got really disappointed for the attitude of the owner and some his staff, they took a dog with us on the boat for the tour but left her alone on the mot island with no water or food there. They didn't care less about her at all, we asked them please to go back and bring the dog and when the owner came to us to he was very aggressive and not nice at all, raised his voice and was unpleasant. Really disappointed, there is a way to treat animals and it's shows which kind of a person you are.👎🏽

We stayed 5 nights at Pension Hotu and enjoyed it very much! The large sandy beach is beautiful, easy swimming and snorkeling at the beach! The bungalow was large with our own private bathroom. We did have to ask for the hot water to be turned on and after that the shower great!! We did half board and enjoyed plentiful breakfast with baguettes, jams, cheese, pancakes, coffee and juice. Dinner was also very plentiful,a starter dish, a meat dish, rice and fruit or something for dessert!! I enjoyed the family style meals with all guests sitting together for meals. |You can also purchase lunch and alcohol directly at the pension! |We enjoyed our stay very much and would recommend staying there!

We loved this place - Ben is a great host and the place is beautiful. The bungalows had everything we needed, the view is amazing just as the food! We also very much enjoyed the excursion.

Hotu is located on a beautiful beach and has so much potential. Ben, the employee, played the host, cook, guide, cleaner. Such a wonderful man with so much potential Also. Mael brought us on our tour of the lagoon (manta rays, bird island, picnic on a motu). If we just had to see these two men, hotu would have received a 5star review!||Unfortunately, we met the manager, Herve, and we wondered why he decided to go into the tourism business. Not a very welcoming host I would say. He never once sat with us, or asked us how our stay was, or how we were. ||Also, the “pension” wasn’t managed with a Polynesian flare: besides the welcoming and goodbye leis and some fish in some of the meals, no local goodies. No coconut water available despite the trees being full of coconuts (so full that we thought it was a bit dangerous as we would hear many fall here and there), no local bake goods made with coconut, no evening entertainment. The staff also didn’t know much about the history of the island. They seemed to not have been briefed by the management. Also, none of them is from tikehau, which is weird. ||As for the bungalows, they were quite rustic. It was clean and not high luxurious, which is fine. The billions of mosquitoes were a bit more problematic for us. ||We did enjoy the beach in front and the little sharks swimming around every day.||So overall, we would have loved our stay but were very disappointed with the poor management. If we were to go back to tikehau, we would chose another place to stay unfortunately.

We found Pension Hotu charming, relaxing, and refreshingly not a sterile hotel experience. Highly recommend!||||Let’s start things off by saying this is not a hotel. If you come here expecting house keeping and room service, you do not understand what a pension is. This is a budget accommodation that provides an experience. Do you want to get off the grid a little? Experience life more like the locals? This is for you.||||There are 5 bungalows directly on a gorgeous white sand beach with crystal blue waters. One additional bungalow is not directly on the beach, but is the only one with a kitchenette. The bungalows are very clean. The lagoon water is perfection. Warm but not too warm. Perfectly refreshing. Reef sharks are a common sight (harmless). ||||We stayed for 9 days in the largest bungalow (#3). It has 2 double beds and is good for families. There is no heat or a/c, no hot water - but you really don’t need any of that. We slept with the windows open and the ocean breeze to keep us cool.||||Vanina and Ben were very accommodating. You have free access to use the bikes to go into town, the kayaks, paddle boards, etc. Yes the equipment is a little dated, but completely functional. They have a dive shop on the premises for lagoon excursions, snorkeling and scuba diving. They will do your laundry, give you fresh towels as needed. WiFi hotspot is available too, but it is a bit weak and you need patience. ||||Breakfast and dinner are included in the half board (recommended since there are no evening restaurants in town). Heavy on local fish, light on fruit and veg since the supply boat comes only once a week. They only grow coconuts here. There are a couple small shops in town that carry the bare minimum for groceries. There are 4 snack places that are open for lunch. Usually 11-2. The newest just opened by the harbor.||||Beach dogs at Hotu are very friendly. We fell in love with a little white dog from next door who was a real character.||||There are no ATMs on the island and it is mostly a cash society. Be prepared. Weather is consistently 84 degrees and breezy. We visited late May to early June.

Staying with Benjamin Tiatia at Pension HOTU – Tikehau has been absolutely great! The location, housing – and not least the food – has been perfect! If you are into fine dining with exclusive wines under crystal chandeliers and sleeping in silk sheets under down quilts in a chilly air-conditioned bungalow this is not for you – but if you like a neat hut with a fan in the ceiling, a bed covered by a mosquito-net tent, set on a glistering white coral beach with black-tip sharks circling you as you swim in the almost 30°C crystal clear water and awesome, plentiful fish based food – quite a lot of “poisson cru” (raw or marinated tuna, sometimes other types of fish), this is your place. Can you imagine swim-training seeing beautiful curious black-tips swimming alongside you? I couldn’t before visiting this place. We’re already talking about returning in a couple of years, then bringing a couple of our dive interested offspring.