Secrets Resort and Spa (A Hyatt property)

Preface: My wife and I love to travel espically when we get the chance to travel outside the United States with our favorite spots being the Caribbean and Mexico. During the majority of the tvacations we have used Cheap Caribbean to book our trips along with using Secrets Resorts as our hotel choice. I believe this is important information to anyone reading this blog as this was not our first trip with either Cheap Caribbean and/or Secrets Resorts (ie. repeat customers who have dropped thousands of dollars between these two companies) .

In May of 2022 my wife and I decided that we wanted to do something extra special to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary in October. After much discussion my wife and I booked a trip to Cancun Mexico through Cheap Caribbean as we enjoyed Mexico so much on our last trip (which was booked through Cheap Caribbean and Secrets at their Riviera Maya location, which sadly is now closed). The Secrets Resort we choose this time was Secrets Riviera Cancun Resort and Spa (which is owned and operated by Hyatt) which is located in the Puerto Morelos region of Mexico.

On the first night of our vacation and our actual anniversary date (10/18/22) following dinner, my wife and I were walking back to the preferred club when I slipped and fell on the wet cement path. Where my fall occurred was at the bottom of a few stairs that were poorly lit. There was a metal drain/grate running across the cement but there was some standing water. Due to no signage about excess water or proper lighting, I did not see the water and my feet slipped out from under me. I was able to stand back up with my assistant but was concussed and bleeding (heavily) from my head and above my eye (eyebrow). My wife quickly rushed me into the preferred club and notified someone that I needed medical assistance. My wife was informed that the resort's on-call doctor was being notified and would be there shortly. It was obvious that due to the size of the abrasion on my head and face that I would need to go to the hospital and my wife had asked for an ambulance to be called. As we waited for the doctor to arrive, two different couples my wife and I met earlier in the evening arrived at the preferred club to offer assistance for me. No ambulance was ever called but when the on-call doctor arrived, she observed my injuries and confirmed that I was indeed concussed and would need stitches for my two wounds. My wife was informed that the hospital would require our passports and credit card for medical treatment, both of which were located in our room. When my wife left the preferred club to get the required items (passports & credit card) the resort personnel began asking me to sign a release waiver form (keep in mind this is happening as I'm sitting there with my eyes closed, bleeding and drooling on my, due to his concussion) as well as asking me to get up and walk to the medical office, thankful the other couples (we met earlier in the night) said absolutely not and demanded a wheelchair for me to be moved. Before leaving for the hospital (via a taxi that we had to pay for), the staff began asking my wife to fill out an incident report and sign the release waiver form. My wife did complete the incident report but refused to sign the release waiver form. Eventually my wife and I were directed to an elevator to the lobby where the bellhop helped me get me into a taxi cab to be taken to the local hospital as no ambulance was ever called.

Approximately 45 minutes later, my wife and I arrived at the local hospital (Hospiten Cancun, Avda. Bonampak, lote 7, 77500 Cancun-Quintana Roo. Mexico) where I received a CT scan along with six stitches in my head and three stitches in my eyebrow. After receiving treatment, the hospital called a taxi to take us to a local pharmacy and then back to the resort.

Upon our return to the resort, we asked to speak with a manager and were told there was no manager available and to come back tomorrow. When they asked me , "how are you doing" (as I stood there in blood stained clothes and bandages on my head/face), I replied "not good" and informed the hotel personnel that this fall could have been prevented if there had been some grip tape or mat on the cement to help prevent someone falling, to which my I was simply told "it is impossible to have mats everywhere" and were sent on our way back to our room.

The following morning, no one from the resort called to check us (other than Amstar calling to say they needed to see us to book our return transportation to the airport). After meeting with Amstar to book our transportation, my wife asked to speak with the chief concierge. At that time, we had requested to have the resort's doctor come to our room to do a check up on me as well as translate the directions on the prescriptions we had to purchase from the local pharmacy (everything was in Spanish). The chief concierge asked my wife to bring me down to their medical office in order to be seen by the medical officer but my wife refused due to the distance from our room to the medical office and this only being 12 hours after the incident (still showing signs of concussion). The resort doctor came to our room and translated the hospital's paperwork and also informed us that I was not allowed to swim and needed to protect his wounds from sand, dirt and sunlight. This, needless to say, presented a domino effect which subsequently changed our entire vacation. We needed to rearrange/change our excursions due to not being able to snorkel, ride atvs and zipline.

On 10/20/22, my wife and I went to the spa for our couples massage that we scheduled when checking in to the resort, the spa informed us that my incident was listed in their computer system and was told the only way I was able to receive any type of treatment (I suggested a hand/foot massage) was if I signed a release form (similar to the night of the fall), to which I refused. My wife was able to receive a 20 minute treatment (not the 50 minutes like we paid extra for. Be sure to read my blog post on Cheap Caribbean) as I sat and waited in the spa lobby.

I'm appalled to say that during the rest of our stay, no one from the hotel management tried to contact us to find out how I was doing....

Our out of pocket expenses: $5,322.07 (Hospital treatment) $42.67 (Prescriptions) $100 (Taxi cab - $50 to hospital / $50 to return to resort)

To this day, no one from the resort, Hyatt, and/or Cheap Caribbean has ever made an attempt to speak with my wife and I about the incident and what might be done in the future to try and prevent this from happening to future guests.

I have made numerous attempts to contact Secrets, Hyatt, and Cheap Caribbean only to end up being ghosted in the end.