My husband and I were in New Caledonia last December to scout the surf camp site for the 2011 Pacific Games which will be hosted by NC this August/Sept. We found Hotel Banu from the New Caledonia tourism website and contacted the hotel directly by phone and e-mail from Guam. The hotel location is on La Foa's "main street" which's Route 1 –– our long haul bus from Noumea stops at its doorstep. The tourism office is next door as is the local supermarche. The post office is across the street as is a bank (which does foreign currency exchange).
The hotel –– more a country inn –– is a third-generation family-owned and run establishment; the proprietors and their son can be found at the reception most times. The hotel has a charming outdoor terrace for meals and drinks. On the weekends, bikers and other motorists stop at the hotel for a break so the place is a traveller's hub. A scene that's almost reminiscent of highway towns in northern Calif. The restaurant, probably one of the larger and main eating places in La Foa, has provincial French style decor and a fairly extensive menu. The interior decor of the reception and restaurant is probably best appreciated by collectors of things old and eclectic.
The bungalows are comfortable, clean, private and sleeps 3 (all have ensuite bathrooms, split airconditioner, TV, telephone, closet, one queen bed plus a single bed). There are screens to keep out the mosquitoes. The grounds are well kept. There are standard rooms too but I hesitate to recommend these unless you're on a backpacker's budget. Guests staying in the standard rooms share common bathrooms and toilet facilities.
Mrs. Naillet, the proprietor and her staff are helpful, accommodating and friendly. It's the kind of service you won't find in big city hotels.

Hotel Banu

The Hotel Banu was a pleasant change for Grand Terre after our experiences further north. A comfortable bed in a spacious, clean and well-appointed bungalow for a reasonable price of XPF6350 . The only minor annoyances were the need to close all the windows at dusk to stop mosquito entry and the lack of sound-proofing between the bathroom and the main room. But those were trivial compared to the overall comfort and quality.

We chose to have dinner at the Asian restaurant across the road – which was excellent – so I cannot comment on the Hotel restaurant.

As a side note, the hotel is quite famous for it's accommodation of American servicemen during WWII and also has a quirky collection of baseball caps hanging from the ceiling in reception, see the photo.

With such a positive report I still had two problems with reception. On arrival the evening manager could find no record of my booking, despite me showing her my copy of their email. It was lucky that they had a vacant bungalow anyway. As a separate matter, when I was first planning the trip I had sent an enquiry asking for tariff and availability details for an earlier date; after receiving the reply we changed our itinerary and spent the first night in Noumea instead. When checking out the lady manager became very aggressive about my failure to cancel that earlier booking – when it was never a booking, just an inquiry. On return home I sent her an email with copies of all the correspondence requesting an apology, but none has been received.

Be very careful in how you word an inquiry. However, that does not change the value or quality of the hotel.

Senior travelers we booked 2 bungalows. They are nice and clean and well located, just aside a square across the back road. There is also a litle pool. Coming from Paris we wanted to enjoy regional dishes. You can get a large choice of fish, sea food and meat. Although I can only say it is a tastfull place whith a good Chef. Pricing is similar in france. The restaurant itself is decorated with french antiques. It seems that time has stoped in the fiftith.