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.
Sheraton Puerto Vallarta charges more for gay weddings
View from the Wing flags the frustration that a gay couple shared on Reddit, while trying to plan their wedding at the Sheraton Puerto Vallarta. The engaged couple have been planning their wedding for 2026, and had been eyeing the Sheraton Buganvilias in Puerto Vallarta as a potential venue.
When they reached out to the resort for pricing and availability, the numbers the resort came back with were unusually high. They were a little suspicious as to what was going on, so they decided to run an experiment. They had a friend (a woman) submit an identical request for a wedding package with a male partner, with the same number of guests, same dates, and same everything.
The woman was quoted a package that was significantly cheaper, and offered much better availability than what the couple was promised. The couple points out how this quiet, behind-the-scenes discrimination still happens all the time, and it’s usually hard to prove, but not this time.
Below you can see a video that the couple uploaded to TikTok, which even shows a comparison of the quotes that were provided.
This isn’t the Sheraton’s first gay wedding run-in
You might be tempted to give this hotel the benefit of the doubt, and assume that maybe there was a misunderstanding, availability changed, or something.
Well, unfortunately I featured this exact hotel in a 2019 story. At the time, a gay Canadian couple was going through the process of planning a wedding at this resort. However, when the hotel found out that this was a gay wedding, they informed the couple that they wouldn’t be able to host it, because their staff aren’t “specialized to carry out an equal wedding.” As the email explained:
“I am infinitely grateful that you have thought of Sheraton for your big day, however, our hotel and our staff is not specialized to carry out an equal wedding and we would not like to take your wedding as a trial and error, and our service could be poor compared to what characterized Sheraton, because we know and we are aware that is your special day for you and your fiance, and do not want that by our non-specialed service some conflict can be generated on your big day, my apologies.”
In response to this, a Marriott spokesperson issued the following statement:
“Marriott has long been committed to providing an environment where all are welcome including our LGBTQ guests and their loved ones.”
The cool part of the story was that the Hilton Puerto Vallarta stepped in, and offered to host the wedding for free. At the time, I tried to give the Sheraton the benefit of the doubt, and hoped that maybe something was truly lost in translation. But clearly that’s not the case.
Obviously I think this is terrible. I have to imagine that the hotel owners are setting the tone here, and not Marriott corporate. 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…
I guess the silver lining here is that we should sort of appreciate the hotel’s warning. I wouldn’t want to plan such a special event, only to find out on my wedding day that the venue seemingly has a problem with me. People should be able to vote with their wallet, so really this is just a warning for anyone who may be considering planning something like this.
I suppose the Sheraton has evolved, though. Six years ago, the property wasn’t “specialized” to carry out an “equal wedding.” Now the hotel is able to do it, just at a much higher cost.
Bottom line
A gay couple considering the Sheraton Puerto Vallarta for their wedding discovered the hard way that the hotel was discriminating against them. The quote they received for the wedding seemed high, with very limited availability.
They were so suspicious that they had a straight friend submit an identical request, only for a straight wedding. She ended up getting a much lower quote, with a lot more availability.
This isn’t the first time that the hotel has been caught up in a gay wedding scandal, because in 2019, they outright refused to host a gay wedding, arguing that they weren’t “specialized” in this.
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