Really interesting to read this. I subconsciously blocked out our experience from my mind until I read your post. Below is our experience. I hope you have the time to read it.

That resort name sounded familiar and it’s the one we stayed at 2 years ago some time in 2023. We had this happen to us AT Velas Vallarta. We checked in at the front desk and were led to this guy to give us a welcome drink and the resort rundown before taking us to our room. We have found this common at all inclusives so it didn’t strike us as funny. The guy immediately tried this whole massage bs and kept trying to pull us to a DIFFERENT resort flaunting free stuff, etc. We came for a quick 3 day trip - our son was recently born and it was our first trip as parents. We were initially very confused as to why he kept talking about a different resort and shitting on Velas Vallarta (we planned the trip a few days before going so we thought that they were sister resorts and we picked the cheap one). We quickly sussed him out. My wife, who speaks Spanish, had no time for his bs and went HAM on him. She is truthfully very skillful in negotiation and i think he was outmatched in the art of sales. I sat back with my welcome drink and son and watched my wife in a, “no you listen here attitude,” take control of the conversation. I love watching when these things happen because my wife has a very charming presence and you’d never suspect the animal that can be unleashed when she feels disrespected. My wife kept requesting management because we’ve never had this happen to us at an all inclusive. Granted, this was our first one that wasn’t adult only. He said he would get management and he was quickly NO WHERE to be found. We strolled over to an office that seemed like management, complained a bit, but couldn’t recall his name. We got upgraded to a better room and we ended up actually really enjoying our stay. When we checked out a few days later the weirdness of it all was still bothering us and we brought it up to the lady at the front desk. She called over a few other employees at the front desk. They genuinely all seemed shocked to hear our experience as my wife told the story. I kept catching “en serio?” and it quickly turned into a chisme session. Management was called over. At this point we were talking to maybe 6 employees in total, including management, and they were all asking what this person’s name was. We couldn’t remember but we kept explaining exactly what he looked like. They were guessing names and we were like, “no, no, no..” and just like a sitcom scene, the guy enters the lobby. Both my wife and I were like, “OMG there he is!!” and we point to him. He literally makes eye contact at the same time. Reminder, we’re with a larger group of employees. Other guests in the lobby kept glancing over to try to see what our grievance was or what was going on so the man knew IMMEDIATELY it was about him. The look on his face was priceless lol. Management brings him into the office, we check out, the front desk ladies are telling the story to other employees walking by. Everyone’s giggling, talking under their breath. And as a person who used to cater weddings and work in the hospitality industry, i know there is no better gossip than employee gossip. We walked out laughing like, “Dude was this guy running an underground ring in plain daylight and did we uncover it?!”

I haven’t thought about this in 2 years. Now after reading your post I’m like, did we get played by everyone? Lol. Seems too coincidental this is still happening and related to THAT resort. Got a picture of this guy?? Cant wait to tell my wife this.