A 28-year-old Mexican man who confessed to beating and abandoning a Canadian tourist in a hotel elevator has been denied bail.

Jose Ramon Acosta Quintero was arrested in connection with the attack on Friday and admitted to beating Sheila Nabb at a news conference the next day.

Nabb, a 37-year-old office manager from Calgary, had been on vacation with her husband Andrew at the five-star Hotel Riu Emerald Bay in Mazatlan when she was found beaten and bloodied in a hotel elevator.

Quintero appeared in a closed-door hearing on Monday morning to face charges of attempted murder.

In an interview from Mazatlan, freelance journalist David Agren said Quintero was not released on his own recognizance, nor given bail.

"He has been ordered held, for how long we're not sure," Agren told CTV News Channel.

Quintero maintains he didn't mean to harm Nabb when he encountered her in the elevator at the hotel's sixth floor.

"I didn't try to abuse her, or I didn't … I didn't try to kill her or anything like … or rob her or anything. I was just afraid and I wanted to leave," he told reporters on Saturday.

In his version of events, Quintero said he had been riding the elevator to the hotel's top floor because he wanted to look down at the resort city's lights.

He said Nabb entered the elevator with no clothes on. When Quintero tried to prevent her from leaving, he said she screamed and he panicked.

Quintero has admitted to covering her mouth and hitting her with his fists but says he did not kick Nabb at any point.

Police have said they identified Quintero from surveillance tapes and blood detected on one of his sandals that matches Nabb's blood.

At the news conference, Quintero said he used his foot to push Nabb's hand back into the elevator to allow the doors to close.

Despite the public confession, Agren stressed that Quintero has not been convicted yet and is still under investigation.

"What generally happens in Mexico is suspects are held as police and investigators continue to build their cases against them," he said.

Nabb was flown back to Calgary via a private air ambulance on Friday and then taken to a local hospital where doctors put her into a medically induced coma.

Her family has said that every bone in her face was broken after the attack.