Several travellers who bought an all-inclusive vacation package in Mexico say they got a nasty surprise after arrival — they were booked into a hotel for one night less than expected and had to check out 17 hours before their morning flight home.
"Everyone in our package was in the same boat," said Tony Lucas, who bought the Sunwing/Signature vacation package from Vancouver to Puerto Vallarta with his wife, Stacey Riediger, at the end of November.
"It was a great deal … [but] it was a travel ripoff."
The couple from Abbotsford, B.C., paid $1,451 for the all-inclusive, eight-day package. It was Riediger's 40th-birthday celebration and her first time on an airplane. The couple — along with several others — ended up sleeping in the lobby of the hotel Riu Jalisco on their last night, because they had to check out early.
"It was cold. There was a lot of people with blankets sleeping on chairs and it was noisy. And it is open to the outside, so you are basically outside," said Lucas.
"The end of the vacation was definitely ruined. The beginning was ruined too, with wasting a day in the lobby … trying to get an answer to what's going on."
The Sunwing package is advertised as "eight days," with no reference to hotel checkout times in the booking confirmation from Expedia, the site the couple booked through.
"Especially being my first trip, I was nervous and I checked out everything," said Riediger. "We didn't see anything that said we had to be out at noon [the day before the flight back]."
It wasn't until the first afternoon in Mexico — at a Sunwing orientation — that the couple, along with several others, learned they were expected to vacate their rooms after seven nights.
"I felt like I had been lied to," said Riediger.
Lucas and Riediger said the Sunwing representative at the hotel gave the group two options: pay an extra $130 for a "late checkout" on their last day or take a "late-night tour" for $90 per head.
If they took the late checkout, they still had to vacate their room by midnight, the night before their early-morning flight home.
"It's all-inclusive. Why am I going to pay more money? I have already paid for the all-inclusive," said Riediger.
Sunwing vacation includes sleepless night
