SonderReviews of sonder.com

This has been by far the worst hospitality experience I've had. Deceptive advertising, no refunds for unhappy customers, customer service that is rude and unresponsive. I booked in for a month and after the first hour I was sure I needed to leave, they refused to give me any refund at all, they told me I could 'upgrade for £1300' or I would be stuck in the terrible room they'd booked me into. I offered to pay for a week, they refused and told me I need to pay the entire month no matter my problems. When I stayed at Sonders a few years ago, I loved the experience, but much has changed. They are pretty on the surface but underneath be prepared to get ripped off. (also, there is no artisan coffee.. very small thing but thought I should mention it)

The Sonder company appears to be uninterested in actually running hotels. I have coached many startup company founders, and Sonder appears to be a typical example of its founders having an idea—in this case, a cross between a hotel and an AirBnB—that they want to sell to someone. They want to sell the idea, not an actual hotel or hotel chain. Their current “hotels” seem to be merely proofs of concept to attract a buyer. Sonder is maximizing its attractiveness to buyers, by maximizing profits by removing the “hospitality” from the hospitality industry. Their “hotels” fail to provide even the most fundamental characteristics that either a hotel or an AirBnB provides, such as the ability to reliably, smoothly, and quickly check in. I got no communication from Sonder after I made my reservation via the AAA site and had a AAA confirmation. I had no idea that the “hotel” has no front desk, indeed no staff on site except part time cleaners. I arrived at the front door to discover the door locked, with a keypad for entry. No instructions at the entrance. Not even a phone number. So I phoned the phone number on their web site, and had to listen to a long automated message before learning I should press “1” if I was trying to check in. 15 minutes passed before a human spoke to me. I gave him my AAA confirmation number, because that was all I had. After an unreasonably long time, he found my reservation. Meanwhile my partner called AAA and spoke to the marvelously helpful AAA agent, who gave my partner the Sonder (vendor) confirmation number, which I told the Sonder person. After another unreasonablly long time, the Sonder person told me I had not paid a deposit nor the balance due, and had no credit card on file. And that was all the information he offered. No next steps. Apparently he thought his job was finished. After AAA’s agent talked to Sonder multiple times, eventually I got email from Sonder that linked to a form for me to enter my credit card information. This was now 45 minutes after we arrived at the “hotel,” so we were at the event we were attending that evening, not knowing if we had a place to spend the night. I interrupted my participation in the event to fill out the form, but then the Sonder web site showed a cryptic message about my details still being verified. I kept refreshing the page for a while. Eventually that message disappeared but still I had no check-in instructions. Then I realized the message on the site now was that my identity was being verified. After a while I figured out that the Sonder system had text messaged a phone number that was not mine. My guess is that it was AAA’s phone number, because I reserved via AAA’s site. I replied to Sonder email I had gotten (after AAA's multiple interventions), saying I still had no check-in instructions because of the wrong phone number. I got no reply after 30 minutes (but I did two days later!). So by email I asked AAA’s agent to call Sonder yet again. Again the agent succeeded (AAA Travel is awesome), and two hours after we had arrived at the “hotel,” I had what Sonder’s email and web site claimed were the keypad codes for getting into the building and then into the room. Those keypad codes were wrong. Nonetheless, after multiple tries (in the dark cold outside), the door opened. We managed to get into our room, went to our next event, and returned to find the same inability to get into the building, until again after multiple tries the door opened. Later I figured out that the last two characters of the building keypad code that Sonder gave me were unnecessary and indeed not allowed. The only reason we got entrance was because sporadically my delay between keystrokes was long enough for the system to conclude I had finished entering all the characters, before I got around to pressing the last two. The Sonder email reply that I got two days later obviously had minimal human input, because it said "I see that you already checked out. How's your stay so far?" Sonder's web site and text messaging claim that they are experiencing higher than normal volumes. But they have shown that message continuously for two days, so obviously this is not an exception, this is their standard operating procedure. It is totally unacceptable in the absence of any in-person staff, and in the absence of even the most rudimentary, standard procedures to support reservations and check-ins. There is no reason to stay in any Sonder property.

Unreliable booking experience, suspicious use of personal data to deny/refuse bookings.

Terrible. If you want no one to answer your call and get ripped off via credit card fraud. Made one reservation. Charged my credit card twice. When I ca...here is no one that picks up due to "unusually high call volumes." You have to communicate via an app. They refuse to have a manger or supervisors call. Or call back. Insist on keeping my money even though an error was made by them and a call to rectify made within 24 hours (which is still within their cancellation policy). basically committing fraud. They are giving me "Sonder credits" and not my money back. This "hotel" does not belong in the hospitality industry. any LEGITIMATE HOTEL CHAIN WOULD NOT TREAT A CUSTOMER THIS WAY

They canceled my booking and lied and said my name wasn’t on my credit card, that’s bS this company is racist!!! Once they looked at my ID and saw I was black they canceled me 😡 and it’s no way u can contact them because nobody never answer the phone. These people are so unprofessional!!!

Nightmare experience. Force you to use their junk app. Poor if recognition. Impotent customer service teams. Save yourself the headache and never bother to use them.

Terrible service, stay away!!! I booked a specific studio and less then 24 hours prior the check-in, they sent me a message saying that they needed to relocate me to another studio, totally diferent that I paid for. I spent more than 3 hours on the phone to speak with Sonders team to solve the problem. Second point is that I received every week, emails from their team saying that they needed to enter in my Unit to fix something. Very anoying and unsafe due to covid having people you dont know inside your Unit. Very noisy place, cleaning service need to get better as well. If you need something and need to talk to them , good luck, I waited hours on the line and got a extremely poor customer service. Never returning again.

Sonder is to customer service what the Hindenburg is to air travel. An absolute disaster. Absolutely no empathy for their renters. Got COVID? Too bad. Facing travel restrictions as a result? Don't care. They claim one cancellation policy at booking, then refuse to pay when the time comes. Claiming an entirely different policy. Even when proof of the former is shown. I wouldn't recommend them to my worst enemy. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Trust me on this.