A gay couple said that a Resort Sheraton in front of the beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, cited more than $ 80,000 for their wedding ceremony and guest rooms, said there was no availability until March 2027 and gave their two friends much better for their hypothetical opposite weddings and, in one case, saying that several dates were available in early 2026.
Jeremy Alexander and Ryan Sheepwash, who live in Vernon, British Columbia, published about their experience in social networks last week after months back to the hotel and felt conflict about whether to speak publicly, the couple.
“We feel that we would be indirectly complicit in the system if conscious and we are not fighting it,” Alexander told NBC News. “That was the main driving factor in us wanting to make history.”
The Sheraton Buganvilvilias Resort and the Convention Center did not immediately respond to a request for comments. A Marriott International spokesman, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts’s parent company, said in an email that the company is investigating the matter.
“Marriott International remains firm in our commitment to maintain an environment where each guest feels welcome, safe and respected when they walk through our doors,” said the spokesman.
The spokesman added that the property of Puerto Vallarta is “operated by a third -party franchisee”, but did not provide more information about why that is significant or how it affects franchise policies.
Alexander and Sheepwash got involved in Puerto Vallarta in February 2024 and decided that they wanted to marry the picturesque place of resort on the Pacific coast of Mexico. They returned in November to tour the wedding places in the city, which indicated that it is widely known as a friendly holiday destination with LGBTQ.
After looking several options, the couple decided the Sheraton Buganvilias. They said that Gabriela Espinoza, the hotel wedding coordinator, told them during her tour that the rate for the luxury wedding package ceremony would be $ 8,500 for 50 guests.
Once they returned home, at the end of November, the couple requested an official appointment by email for a wedding in February or March 2026. Espinoza responded several weeks later informed the couple that the hotel did not have the remaining wedding availability in 2026, according to one of the several emails that the couple shared with NBC News.
Alexander and Sheepwash then requested a rate for February or March 2027, and Espinoza responded in mid -January with a price for the first week of March 2027. If they had 50 guests who stayed in 25 rooms for three nights, the cost per person would be $ 485 per person per night, and the ceremony would cost $ 11,500. To reserve the date and the room block, he said the contract, The couple would have to deposit a tank of $ 36,375, which is equal to 50% of the total costs of the room for all their guests.
The couple said they were shocked and confused by quantity, especially the striking deposit, which was beyond their budget. Sheepwash said he later became suspicious and looked on Google “Sheraton Buganvilias Puerto Vallarta Homophobic.” Among the main search results was a 2019 article of the LGBTQ news website The Washington Blade about the refusal of the resort to reserve a same sex wedding for the Vlogger of Travel Josh Rimer and his then promised, he said.
At that time, Jeff Flaherty, a Marriott spokesman, apologized and told the New York Daily News that the company was “deeply worried.” He added: “Marriott has long committed to provide an environment in which all are welcome, including our LGBTQ guests and their loved ones.”
The Marriott spokesman did not answer the questions about the actions he took in the Sheraton after the 2019 incident.
After Sheepwash learned of Rimer’s experience, he said, he and Alexander asked two friends to request quotes from Sheraton Buganvilias for hypothetical weddings of opposite sex.
At the end of January, her friend Marcia Escontria requested an appointment for a luxury wedding package and a one -week stay for 50 guests in 25 rooms in February 2026, the month that Alexander and Sheepwash originally wanted to book their wedding. Escontria said he told the resort that he was helping friends called Alex and Michelle to plan their wedding.
On February 7, Ximena Esparza, a Junior wedding planner for the resort, told him hiding in an email that the hotel had availability for a wedding on Saturday, February 21, 2026, and provided an appointment with a room rate of $ 254 per person per night, with a ceremony of $ 8,500. To reserve the date and the room block, the contract said, the couple would have to deposit a tank of $ 1,700, which is equal to 20% of the cost of the ceremony.
On February 11, four days after Escontria received his appointment, Alexander sent an email to Espinoza, the wedding planner with whom he had been communicating, to “confirm if any appointment could work in 2026”. She responded that day and said there was no availability in 2026.
Although it seemed that he was offered the preferred wedding date at much lower rates, the couple said they wanted to make sure they received a comparison of “apples to apples” for the room rates and the total appointment of the wedding They were offered for March 2027, so they asked another friend to request a quote for all that time.
At the end of March, his friend Simon, who asked to go alone for his first name to protect his privacy, requested an appointment for the same type of wedding package and a three night stay for the wedding and his fiancee in February or March 2027, according to the emails he shared with NBC News.
In an email of March 29, Esparza told Simon that if he and his fiance had 50 guests who stayed in 25 rooms for three nights, the room rate would be $ 272 per person per night and the ceremony would cost $ 9,350. To reserve the date and the room block, the contract said, the couple would have to deposit a tank of $ 1,870, which is equal to 20% of the cost of the ceremony.
To directly compare the rates he received with the rates that Alexander and Sheepwash received, Simon also asked Esparza if the complex had any availability during the first week of March 2027 and, if so, if prices would change. Esparza said in his response that the complex had availability and “can honor the same prices for the first week of March.”
When asked to discuss the correspondences by email and the differences in the rooms of the rooms, the costs of the ceremony and the deposit requirements, Esparza declined to comment and Espinoza did not respond to a request for comments.
After Simon received his appointment, Sheepwash said, he and Alexander felt angry and helpless. They decided to publish about that on social networks and “talk from the heart,” said Alexander. The videos they shared on Friday on Instagram and Tiktok have accumulated more than 150,000 combined visits.
“We just want other people to know,” said Sheepwash, and said that six years have passed since Rimer’s story became public. “How many people have passed the same situation?”
Alexander said that a representative of diversity, equity and inclusion of Marriott called him on Friday, a few hours after sharing the video on Instagram, and told him that he was investigating the incident. Marriott did not confirm whether that call occurred or its content.
Marriott has long supported the LGBTQ community. He has been a member of the IGLTA, the LGBTQ Travel Association previously known as the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association, since 2010, and the organization recognized it in 2018 as in the “higher level of the leaders of the global brand that have been committed to support throughout the year for association and LGBTQ outgoing trips”. The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ Defense Organization in the United States, also gave the company a perfect 100 -score in its 2025 corporate equality index, which qualifies companies in their LGBTQ inclusion policies and benefits.
‘A discrimination story’
Alexander and Sheepwash, who are still looking for a wedding place, said they don’t necessarily want an apology of Sheraton Buganvilias, because they believe that what happened to them is not an isolated incident.
While investigating the hotel, Sheepwash found a Tiktok video published by Daniel Galecio, a wedding planner in Puerto Vallarta, who said he received an email from Espinoza on November 13, the day before Alexander and Sheepwash toured the resort with Espinoza, saying, in Spanish, that due to the internal policies of the company, the resort cannot organize the same sex.
Galecio shared a copy of the email with NBC News, adding that he initially communicated with Sheraton Buganvilias to request a price for an opposite sex wedding. After receiving that appointment, he said, he told Espinoza by email that he had homosexual clients who were also interested in getting there. He was surprised by his response, he said, and pointed out that the Constitution of Mexico was amended in 2001 to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Same sex marriage has been legal throughout the country since 2022.
“That hotel has a history of years of discrimination, and everything that the city knows, all gays know,” Galecio said.
Marriott did not respond to Galecio’s claims.
Alexander said he wants Marriott to commit to a significant change in Puerto Vallarta Resort.
“It is very clear that there is a problem to the top in this particular Homophobia Sheraton,” he said. Marriott “would need to make a really shocking change before entertaining what they have to say there. They are part of many queer travel alliances, and the actions have to align with reality, and at this time it does not.”
