Resort staff pressured ill guests to sign NDAs during Cancun Christmas 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."

Field said tests at the hospital confirmed the presence of bacteria in her son's stool sample.

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.

CBC News emailed Marriott International and Sunwing Travel Group for comment. Royalton Splash Riviera Cancun is owned by Blue Diamond Resorts, which in turn is owned by Sunwing, which is now owned by WestJet. 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.