Resort staff pressured ill guests to sign NDAs during Cancun vacation, say Sask. families

Two Saskatchewan families say they felt more like hostages than guests of a resort in Mexico when they got severely ill and were pressured by staff to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in exchange for medical help.

Jesslyn Schigol, her husband and two sons — a teenager and a four-month-old — travelled from Yorkton, Sask., to the Royalton Splash Riviera Cancun in Mexico for a Christmas holiday. On Christmas morning, Schigol sought medical help at the resort's front desk when her husband couldn't stop vomiting, his second bout of sickness after they had arrived about a week earlier.

"The front desk presented me with this NDA and said, 'You must sign this. This is a must or else we're not sending the doctor to come see your husband,'" Schigol said.

"I said, 'There's no way I'm signing this as it pretty much says you can't say anything, you can't come after the hotel,'" she said. "They said they will not send the doctor unless I sign this."

Schigol took a picture of the NDA she was asked to sign. It appears to state that by accepting medical help provided by the resort, guests cannot hold the companies involved responsible and are forbidden from talking about their experience publicly.

Allison Field, her husband and four-year-old son fell ill two days after travelling from Saskatoon to the same resort for their Christmas vacation. When her husband and son got sick again three days later, Field decided to check out of the resort and take her son to the hospital because he seemed very ill.

Field said resort staff were reluctant to help her move her bags or book them a taxi, and that they pestered her to sign an NDA before leaving.

"My son was vomiting and vomiting and shaking and they wouldn't let us leave, and [staff] just kept trying to get me to sign the NDA," Field said.

"So yeah, I was incredibly upset.… It was flagrantly clear that they really didn't care about us or our health."

WATCH | Sask. woman shares the nightmare story a Mexican resort tried to keep quiet: 

Sask. woman shares the nightmare story a Mexican resort tried to keep quiet

20 hours ago

Duration 2:54

Allison Field says her family felt more like hostages than guests of a Marriott resort in Mexico when they got severely ill and were pressured by staff to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Field and Schigol did not sign an NDA, but they know other guests who did. They said offers for compensation ranged from $500 to $1,000. The two Saskatchewan families, who didn't know each other before connecting over their resort experiences, want what happened to them to serve as a warning for other travellers.

Royalton Splash Riviera Cancun is owned by Blue Diamond Resorts. The resort is also part of Marriott's "Autograph Collection" business, which lets independently owned resorts use Marriott branding and loyalty rewards programs.

Questions sent to Marriott were referred to Blue Diamond Resorts. An emailed statement confirmed the company is investigating the claims.

"We are currently conducting an internal investigation into the reports, and while we cannot comment further at this time, please know we are committed to addressing this matter with the utmost care and attention," said Alejandro Rodríguez del Peón, vice-president of marketing and public relations for Blue Diamond Resorts.

He added that the resorts operate with "strict standards that either meet or exceed local public health regulations."

NDAs not uncommon, says prof

The use of non-disclosure agreements at resorts is increasingly common as companies strive to control brands and reputations in a highly competitive tourism industry, said Wayne Smith, director of the institute for hospitality and tourism research in the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University.

But it doesn't make for good customer relations.

"The message the NDA sends is that we're not going to fix this problem. We don't care if our guests get sick," Smith said.

"That's not the image you want to put out to the broader audience when the news of the NDAs do come out. It's not a good business practice."

Smith suspects the NDAs in this case are not official company policy but the work of local management and staff. He said it's a good idea to buy travel insurance, especially for international trips, and suggested travellers learn which foods are most likely to be contaminated.

"Leafy vegetables, things like meat that's been sitting out a long time, buffet-type food, all those are more likely to have pathogens and other things that will make you sick versus freshly prepared food," Smith said.

Field and Schigol both said they noticed poor food handling techniques during their stay.

Field's son was hospitalized for 16 hours due to dehydration. They have travel insurance that will likely cover the bill, but they had to pay out of pocket at the hospital before her son could get care. Field said she's been in contact with two dozen other people who stayed at the resort and got sick around the same time she did.

"I felt like they were stopping us from receiving care. I felt held hostage," Field said.

"People did sign the NDA because if they're really sick and they really need to go to the hospital, sometimes they're just going to sign it. But it's totally under duress. An NDA signed like that, is it really even legal?"