We are owners at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach in Cabo San Lucas. We purchased in August of 2001 when there was only one model up on the area where Sunset Beach is now. We have five children and a grandson (with upcoming husbands and wives) and the Penthouse was one of a few that could accommodate us. We fell in love with the style of the unit but the Travertine used on all the floors and in the shower and bath areas set the unit off. It made it more of a custom home feeling rather than just your average timeshare looking unit.

If you visit Sunset Beach now, you are shown models within the finished buildings that have the Travertine flooring and tile, which is beautiful. When we stayed there in 2002, the unit looked like what we purchased. We went back in 2003 and stayed one week in our Penthouse, which again looked like the models. We stayed another week in a newer building and we were shocked when we walked into the room. The Travertine flooring had been replaced with cheap porcelain tile! I quickly walked into the bathrooms and to my surprise, even the shower and bath surrounds were now porcelain tile.

To the average person, it may go completely unnoticed. I was a contractor for over 20 years and things like that quickly catch my eye. But one has to realize, this now makes the units MUCH cheaper to build. But Pueblo Bonito is charging even more for them now, and do you think there is any mention of the construction changes when you take the tour? NO! This is your basic bait and switch in the construction industry. What you see is not what you get at this Pueblo Bonito resort any longer. Today if you read about the units on the website, they still boast about having marble floors. This is a selling point that has been removed since 2003!

When we arrived home, I put together an email and complained (among other things, the owner of Sunset Beach decided to put his home on the very point where the sun sets.) My complaint was forwarded to Galileo Vega, Hotel Operations, who then sent the matter to Alfredo Ramirez who is the Member Services Manager. Alfredo said there wasn't much he could do, but he offered a very small concession. He stated that whenever we came to Sunset Beach, we could stay in the unit of our choice. It wasn't much, but we accepted his offer.

In January, 2004, I contacted Sunset Beach to make our reservation. I told the reservation manager what Alfredo promised us and was told it was not possible to pick a unit. I contacted Alfredo and asked him to take care of this for us, but he backed out of it. I have written other correspondence to Alfredo and he is no longer getting back with us.

We're trying to find other contact personnel higher up the ladder, but in Mexico it's very hard to get useful information. The only thing we can do at this point is voice our complaint and hope others find it and read it.

E-mail: Terry Rather

We're not the only ones voicing a complaint. We have been contacted by over a dozen buyers who are dissatisfied with the way they are being treated. We are starting an email contact list below of people who have had other issues with Pueblo Bonito (who don't mind being contacted). You may want to check with them to get their input on a situation that may be similar to yours:

Rich and Kande
Purchased a Premier agreement and have been unable to reserve any other weeks than the one they purchased.

Sandi K.

Lisa D.
Lisa and her family were told that exchanging into the United States wouldn't be any problem. Until they tried to make a reservation!

Charles and Elena F.
They were told they could rent their timeshare for a net of $5000 to $7000 for a week. They later found that the "average" rental rate was only one and a half times the maintenance fee, or about $1500.