You’d think that hotels in Puerto Vallarta would be pretty gay-friendly, because, well… it’s basically the Mykonos or Palm Springs of Mexico. However, one exception seems to be the Sheraton Buganvilias Puerto Vallarta, which has been caught discriminating against gays, again.
Continue reading: Sheraton Puerto Vallarta Still Hates Gay Weddings, Caught Red-Handed
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Mexico has both a national constitutional provision (Article I), and a supporting national law (Ley Federal para Prevenir y Eliminar la Discriminación (LFPED), or “Federal Law to Prevent and Eliminate Discrimination”) which specifically include sexual orientation and marital status as protected classes, which makes what the Sheraton is doing illegal, since it’s a pretty obvious case of this kind of discrimination in what we would call in the US, “public accommodation”.
Realistically, would the federal or state governments of Mexico try to enforce this against this hotel? Or would this couple really want to litigate this? Unlikely. And I doubt the Mexican court system or political environment would be a useful venue to make a political or legal stand anyway. And for what it’s worth, Marriott itself likely won’t be able or willing to take much punitive action, even if they do make statements condemning this behavior of their Mexican franchisee.
All that to say, the best course of action for the couple is obviously to find another hotel and move on with their wedding plans.
And the best response from tourists or locals who object to this kind of discrimination, and travel bloggers like OMAAT, is to widely publicize this hotel as an unfriendly, unwelcoming location and take their business elsewhere.
"I’d say that Marriott corporate needs to step in and set this hotel straight (or gay), but we also know that Marriott has no control over its hotels, so…"
Ha. IMHO may be more accurate to say that while Marriott certainly has leverage over its hotels, it is wholly uninterested in exercising it no matter how egregious the behavior.
Wow, a gay wedding is a non-specialed service? I hadn't heard that one before. Time to show them the Key and Peele gay wedding video. So sorry you have to go through life dealing with people like this all the time Ben.
P.S. - it does appear that Mexico has a has a national agency that is meant to enforce the anti-discrimination laws: National Council to Prevent Discrimination (CONAPRED). And it appears they do have a public web form to directly file complaints of this kind: just Google “CONAPRED Presenta tu queja en línea”
I can’t vouch for what happens after that, or whether that agency is effective. But, on some level, it’s actually kind of refreshing / even charming that the Mexico federal government just has a simple Microsoft 365 web form to solicit this information directly from the public. By contrast, I wish American federal and state government agencies could be as simple and straightforward with their public engagement channels.
Corporations don’t have feelings or inherent political stances, but they do pay attention to public relations. It’s a cold calculation, but if a franchisee engages in business practices that negatively impact the “brand” in the public’s perception, they absolutely would respond with proportionate measures, simply to protect the brand standard.
But we all know how much Marriott cares about their brand standard. So… never mind.
Hey Lucky, curious - do you think the hotel zone hotels might be hesitant to do gay weddings given the reputation of the raucous hotel parties in Zona Romantica? To be clear, I fully support those party hotels, but I’m curious if they’ve perpetuated a stereotype throughout the city of gay tourists. Really appreciate your feedback here - are they downright hateful or do the operators think they’re trying to keep an upscale vibe at their hotel?
It shouldn’t matter if someone is gay or normal. Everyone should be treated equally.
"Oh NOES! DON'T CANCEL MARRIOTT! CANCEL CULTUR!!!!ARGH!!!!!!!BLERG!!11!!!!"
-Some moronic idiot down in this comments section later today
Thank you for bringing this to your readers' attention, Ben. It's only through publicizing this hateful, bigoted behavior that change happens.
They have a reason to charge more....
1. The customer will pay more
2. The wedding is different. There could be special training, like sensitivity training.
Not right but there's an excuse
Did a pre-paid booking at that very hotel. When my partner and I arrived they tried to quote us a number 4x what we had already paid. I called the Marriott Elite corporate customer support to have the amount and dates confirmed and they back pedaled once I had corporate on speaker. Guess I know why they did it now.
Are we sure these are real gays?
I'll say it. Have they been to Puerto Vallarta? Why on earth would you pick an all inclusive Sheraton vs the other GORGEOUS hotels in the Romantic Zone where they're welcome.
Putting your guests through an all-inclusive in PV? Just go to Cancun if you want an all inclusive...
Pardon the obvious sarcasm. Beautiful location for a wedding of any kind... but the Sheraton is in just such a gross part of town right by where the sewers drain into the Bay. If you want your straight guests to feel more comfortable and The Romantic Zone seems like too much, take them to Punta Mita...
OR… like all hotels and venues which put prices up for weddings (period), they figured that a gay wedding couple might have an even greater budget (more disposable income aka the ‘pink dollar’).
My (ex) partner and I stayed there 3 years ago. The hotel is an absolute sh*thole with some of the nastiest and most incompetent customer service I’ve ever had. Even with my ambassador status, I was treated poorly. This is yet another reason why I won’t return to this dump
Obviously, the hotel management and some staff hate the gays. They have every right to personally dislike/hate gays, blacks, whites, asians, jews, women, even those from other Latin American countries.
But that should be kept to themselves, and they should act professionally.
I'm stunned that people do not do their research and go elsewhere.
Since this hotel likes to discriminate, why take a chance if you are on the above list, regardless of sexual orientation?
You just found the difference between a liberal democratic government and a fascist one.
Nothing that Sheraton can say or do will make me want to stay there, but I need to also understand why a gay couple would choose it for their wedding over the Zona Romantica.
The hotel's behavior is illegal in Mexico, against Mariott standards, and unethical broadly speaking for that type of business. They need some serious management change (or, no business). They're not even a particularly fresh or "best anything" property for PV, so hopefully they suffer for this gaffe.
Gay couples have higher median household incomes than traditional couples, and quite significantly so, according to the Census Bureau figures as of 2023. I can see a hotel being well aware of this fact (which is no big secret, after all) and try their luck squeezing more $$$ just because...they can. It really sucks, but there you go. As for claiming this hotel "hates" gays, well that's a pretty big claim to make with very little (actually no legally admissible) evidence beyond wedding quotation.. 'Hate' would be telling them to f* off and don't come back f*ts. Now that would be legal gold.
Charging people different rates based on their sexual orientation is *quite literally* the definition of discrimination. That's what the term means. Despite most people's understanding, it has nothing to do with personal "hate" or animus.
Even if the hotel itself was owned, managed, and run entirely by gay people who don't hate gay customers at all... charging more for gay couples "because they earn more" is still a form of illegal discrimination (in Mexico).
Which is a form of illegal discrimination. It has nothing to do with feelings of "hate" or "love" for gay people. Charging a customer more based on a legally-protected trait or status (their sexual orientation) is what's illegal.
Charging more for weddings (or turning them away entirely), compared to other events of similar size and complexity, is *also* discrimination - a perfectly legal form of it. Because "event type" is not a protected class, nor should it be.
A gay bar, open to the public, which charges women more for drinks than men, is engaging in gender discrimination - generally illegal.
A barbershop that charges much more for "long hair" cuts as opposed to "short hair" cuts is engaging in hair length discrimination - not generally illegal.
Of course, are all cases of actually illegal discrimination prevented by a law existing, or pursed in litigation? No, far from it.
The discrimination that the couple faced makes absolutely no sense. You would think that any event coordinator would be thrilled to schedule any wedding possible and that their boss would be happy they won it over a rival. It's all too bad for them. The Sheraton is going to be losing business now, and in a town that lives and breathes off of the thousands of gay people that visit it each year, you can bet this is going to cost them. I'm going to be telling everyone I can not to stay there and to look into other properties instead.
I appreciate the couple for finding this out. Although I’m already married, good to know our collective crowd can vote with our money appropriately. OTOH this is not a hotel I’d consider for PVR anyway - many better choices.
If it was just the higher price, then possibly. But, the lack of available dates seems otherwise.
Hate manifests itself in many ways. It doesn't have to be direct and blatant. Redlining districts and preventing Blacks from moving into neighborhoods is hate, even if someone didn't directly say, "You ni****s don't belong here." For years, Jews couldn't get into country clubs. That was hateful. Giving preference to some couples over others for weddings just because some are straight and others are gay is thus a form of hate.
I had a stay booked at this property about 20 years ago. PV was hit by a hurricane and the hotel had to close a few days before we were due to arrive.
The property refused to refund us since we had booked a non-refundable rate. I had to do a chargeback to get my money back.
This blog is filled with too much far left ideology instead of sticking to actual travel news lately. Making an entire post about a TikTok video/reddit post of all things is stupid. Reddit is a far left cesspool that is very heavy on censorship so pretty unreliable for "news"
Yet Ben travels to places like the UAE just to fly first class products he's already flown multiple times. Talk about hypocrisy.
Ben will be Ben. The key to keeping your sanity in OMAAT is to sift out the occasional diamonds from the copious amount of turds posted here.
"too much far left ideology"
Same-sex marriage is supported by over two-thirds of the American people, who form the Sheraton's biggest customer base, and about half of Mexicans.
"instead of sticking to actual travel news lately"
This is a travel blog by a gay man who writes about earning points for upgrades and vacations.
"Reddit is a far left"
You have a favorite phrase.
"so pretty unreliable for 'news'"
Do you suggest this story didn't happen?
I would like to see Marriott's PR team argue that the headline should have read "Sheraton targets gays for shakedown."
"Hates" was probably excessive. But it seems apparent that they're discriminating, even if the motive is mere greed.
This is probably just a tip of an iceberg for other locales discriminating, publicly, or not against same sex travelers. They take the money happily however. What's ironic is that PV is mainly LGBT tourist centered; ie. their proverbial "bread and butter" customers and hence high spenders. Seems the management of hotel engages in depth of thinking akin to a puddle after summer day; or just project pure hate, no mater what profit it brings. Shame on Marriott. Wondering if any status with this chain is worth anything anymore, just decline with each month/year passing in all metrics, quality, loyalty, and now, as we see her- ethics.
Adults working in hospitality in the year 2025 need “sensitivity training” to deal with a gay wedding?
You may be indexing on a mis-correlation... as a US based property owner in Zona Romantica, locals in PV, especially in hospitality - have always been welcoming and accepting, but also opportunistic.
Zona Romantica and Conchas Chicas (even though the Sheraton might have been far from) are considered the most affluent neighborhoods in PV are also the neighborhoods overrun with foreign (usually white) gay singles and couples. Not only does that inflate prices in those neighborhoods, its also makes gay couples the target of getting "Mexico'ed" ... that is entering a price negotiation that you don't perceive happening (based on your age+race+sexuality=assumed wealth).
For instance it isn't uncommon for restaurants to have higher prices for food on menu's printed in english, and lower prices on menus printed in spanish. Or just a set of menus with different prices a host will give a tourist family or group of gays.
I suspect the Sheraton representatives envisioned a swimming pool of money when you said "gay wedding" and used the excuse that the hotel was booked up (fake scarcity) as a way to justify their inflated prices... you could probably re-approach them and demand the availability and price given to your girlfriend as a negotiating tactic.
As someone who spends way too much time in Mexico/PV my immediate read wouldn't be discrimination, just the same questionable-faith tactics used to bridge the crazy wealth disparity between locals and (some) tourists.
The least this Sheraton can do is tell the guests upfront that they don't want to do business with gay weddings and save everyone time.
While gay marriage has been legal in Mexico since 2022 it is still a predominantly Catholic country and you will find many who do not support it.
Too many commenters assume every country should follow US norms but every country has a right to have its own laws, culture, and moral values and the US has similar prohibitions. Imagine a Saudi man coming to the US and planning a wedding for his second, third etc wife. The US would not permit him to legally marry yet the law is based solely on morality.