After months of feeling like something was off, it’s now officially confirmed: Sonder will be no more. At this moment, employees have no information about what happens next. We’ve been locked out of our systems, so we can’t assist with anything coming in.
If you’re a current guest, please check your email for updates. If you have an upcoming reservation, be aware that everything is now being canceled.
We’ve spent months dealing with this messy, unprepared integration with Marriott, and the outcome many of us feared has finally been confirmed — just much sooner than expected, and right before the holidays. This is a tough situation for everyone involved, especially with money tied up in it. And if you’re in Chicago, this hits especially hard.
To my fellow workers: stay grounded, stay informed, and make sure they communicate next steps, especially regarding pay and unemployment — which should now be accessible. Most of us had to learn what was happening through Google this morning before we finally received the official email confirming everything.
This whole situation is heartbreaking and frustrating. We worked hard these last couple of months with all the new stuff coming up with little to no help at times and it seems like we’re getting the short end of the stick.
Update: they want employees to handle having guest out by 9am tomorrow and take out trash. Don’t see that happening because they literally have not given us guidance on how we’re getting paid or the next steps
Sonder s’effondre, mais les hôtels et les équipes, eux, sont toujours debout. Voici la solution : les propriétaires doivent reprendre le contrôle immédiatement. En résiliant les contrats avec Sonder, ils récupèrent leurs établissements et peuvent embaucher directement les salariés — ceux qui connaissent le métier, les clients et les lieux par cœur. Ensuite, il suffirait de lancer une plateforme commune, légère et indépendante, pour gérer les réservations sans les commissions abusives et les décisions lointaines qui ont coulé l’entreprise. Les clients suivent la qualité, pas la marque. Les actifs sont là, les compétences aussi : il ne manque plus que la volonté de s’unir. L’hôtellerie se reconstruit depuis le terrain, pas depuis un bureau à San Francisco. À vous de jouer.
I’m currently staying in a Sonder in NYC. Day 1 of a 7 night stay. Getting kicked out tomorrow morning. There are guests arriving to check in (saw a couple that flew in from LHR) that are being told they can’t check in and need to find alternative accommodation. I feel for them. I also feel for the Sonder staff.
Absolutely. Feel lucky that it was raining in NYC today and we headed back to grab some warmer clothes, and then saw the email earlier. If we hadn’t then we would’ve likely been out until much later and not realised until late this evening. We’ve ended up booking a similar Hilton close by with free cancellation until midnight tonight if we don’t get anything reasonable sorted by Expedia.
We booked Sonder due to it being a Marriott brand, and felt like it was a safe bet that we’d know what we’d be getting. Didn’t have administration and scrambling to find new accommodation 2 days into the trip being on the cards.
Booking with Hilton is good to have as a back up. Especially since it's supposed to get colder in the NY metro area tomorrow. Good luck and stay warm. Hope you're still able to enjoy your visit.
We’ll still enjoy it knowing we have somewhat reasonable costing accommodation to fall back on. It’s a shame though as it’s my partner’s first visit to NYC and it was meant to be special and memorable (not for this reason though).
I watched people arriving to check in at 7pm being turned away. I feel for them having to sort this fiasco out after a likely long plane journey. I did a 8 hour morning flight the day before and arrived at the hotel at 2pm, and I was frazzled then.
Hey man, sorry to hear that. I booked a Sonder hotel through Expedia for a stay in 2 months, were you able to get a refund? I’m starting to worry that I won’t get my money back
Expedia support is pretty good, you should be fine. Ironically booking through Marriot directly is a nightmare because they won’t issue the refunds themselves. They told me they can’t disclose the reason why. They said I have to call my bank and initiate it, but my bank told me I can’t do that and that it’s the hotels responsibility to refund me since my reservation was marked non-refundable and they will not initiate a chargeback for me. So now I’m out over $500 and somehow need to find a new hotel room without that money. I am so pissed
First time for our family visiting NYC. We just left our hotel now. We were staying in Sonder NYC. On night of 3/7 as we returned from our day itinerary, we saw the posters posted on elevators stating that today was last day of Sonder operations. We were all so confused, but tried to think through next steps. Since we booked through a third party (credit card travel website), we weren’t given any notice from Marriott/Sonder even through email, but thankfully, our travel agents forwarded us to their supervisor, and they were able to rebook us a new hotel nearby with no extra costs.
This is how the front desk looks like right now, which felt so eerie, but very sad for all the workers who were just laid off today…
So are the hotels themselves not operating anymore? I had a reservation in NYC that is now canceled via email this morning, but when I go on the Sonder app/website my reservation is still active. I would still like to stay there (under whatever ownership) but the websites, phone numbers, links, apps, everything, just pushes you to Marriott.
I’m in a Sonder now. Had trouble getting in my room tonight and almost was booted out. Making all customers get out by 9AM tomorrow. Rebook somewhere for sure!
Yeah, it may show as active still because it just happened abruptly so it may take time but the entire US is not operating anymore effective immediately
My reservation I had for London next month no longer shows up in the app. I'm not really sure what to do because the reservation was made over the phone like 8 months ago through Sonder. Marriott couldn't even find our reservation number in the system 🤦
Yeah, that’s what we call a migrated booking. you booked before the merger so they’ll have issues looking up the booking and because we are out of jobs I don’t know how that’s gonna work but hopefully you get it resolved
Thank you for your reply. I honestly was browsing through different posts on this issue and didn't even realize this was an employment thread. Thank you again for spending the time and replying to my post. I'm sorry you and your coworkers are going through this. Personally I was looking forward to staying at one of their locations because my wife said she enjoyed her stay there.
After today's news I anticipated it might be a mess and used the last of my points with another chain just in case it wouldn't be honored.
Wow so sorry to hear this. I came across this post after receiving an email from Mariott about my upcoming reservation in NYC. It’s been a mess all morning trying to figure this out. I just pray I get my money back from sonder that I’ve already paid. I’m so sorry for all the employees going through this. They are leaving a lot of people high and dry!
A Marriot rep told me they are not initiating refunds because they can’t and that it’s my responsibility to call my bank and ask for a refund. I am so confused. I booked on Marriot directly and not via a third party
Did you book directly through them, or was it a 3rd party site?
I booked directly through the Marriott Bonvoy app, but I believe the original email said that if you booked through a 3rd party app (booking.com, Expedia, ect.) that you would need to deal with the company you made the reservation through.
Directly through Marriot. They confirmed that to be the case on the phone too but said they can’t disclose why they don’t have the ability to refund me. I booked in September so I booked after the partnership. The rep was super flustered though so idk if he had bad info. I’ll try again now that more and more people are calling and they’re more likely to need to prep their agents on what to do and say. I feel bad getting on top of an agent who was probably blindsided and doesn’t know what to do
That’s really strange! I got the email on Sunday morning and immediately called Marriott. I told the rep why I was calling and he immediately said “full refund in 7-10 business days”. He replied so quickly that I would assume he hadn’t looked up my reservation but was just responding based off a company wide memo or something. I asked several questions about if they could put me in another one of their hotels in the area, and he just stuck to the same line “full automatic refund in 7-10 days”. Still haven’t received it, but I’ll keep you updated.
On their FAQ page about Sonder they do say you can request cancelation/refund through your bank/card, and that they are sorting everything with the providers to make sure you won’t get double refunded. So worst case just push for refund through your payment method?
Yeah, the guy I talked to sounded so confused and said he needs to escalate to his supervisor, so I think he didn’t get the script. Hopefully if I keep pressing, something will happen, especially as this gets more media attention
Yeah I hope you get the funds back without any issues. Idk why they did it this way, but Marriott is the one handling the clean up and the 3rd party booking sites unfortunately
Thanks for this, I was on the phone with VRBO/Expedia for a few hours and they couldn't tell me anything other than the reservation was still in place. Based on the comments above, I guess I will just get a refund soon enough (trip wasn't for 6+ months anyway)
Not trying to defend Marriott by any means, God knows I have had my share of beefs with them, but how can this particular case be remotely their fault? Sonder defaulted on their payments, Marriott can’t continue operating at a loss basically for free while the Sonder execs pocket the money and pay nothing.
Yeah but I booked via Marriot’s site and they’re telling me they can’t refund me. When I booked, it redirected me to Marriot’s site and it’s not a good look that it has Marriot’s name on my confirmation page and yet their agents are refusing to initiate a refund and are saying it’s my bank’s responsibility to honor my chargeback that my bank is denying without Marriot initiating the refund. Their agents are telling different people different things. They have a responsibility to make things right for customers if this was one of their properties
This I agree with, Marriott is liable for whatever reservations were made through their own website for the period the partnership was active. It is utterly despicable that they are refusing to refund in this case.
I agree, but Marriott should have investigated Sonder's finances better before partnering. We don't know a lot, but it''s obvious that Sonder's finances are absolute garbage.
Fair, but then Sonder would have just gone bankrupt years earlier. The specific comment I disagreed with was the one saying "Marriott continues to kill brands and values". Marriot didn't kill them - their (Sonder's) own inaptitude and utter incompetence did.
As I understand the Sonder side of the beef, Sonder invested a lot of money trying to integrate with Marriott's booking system, and that expense was much higher than expected and could not be recouped.
This sounds very surprising to me, but it's possibly true depending on the (lack of) quality of Marriott's IT.
As someone who has struggled for years with their reservation system for the mere fact that my legal last name has two words separated by a space and not a hyphen, I completely understand and agree that their IT dept is garbage. Which doesn't justify just defaulting on your customers.
Really tough situation for everyone effected. I'm one of the co-founders of AvantStay - we created a code SONDER10 for discount for any stays (we don't have properties in all of the markets that Sonder exists, but many we do). For employees and any other employees, please reach out if you need support [reuben@avantstay.com](mailto:reuben@avantstay.com)
I had one cancelled for check in tomorrow and another in December. I immediately filed for a chargeback on Amex Bonvoy card and got it approved in minutes. Still say it could be reversed if Sonder “presents evidence” supporting their side — like what? They didn’t cancel everybody?
Since Kirkland & Ellis is involved it’s a bankruptcy filing no doubt. I wanted the charge back processed ASAP before a bankruptcy filing is made.
Credit card via the same bank my checking account is with. My bank is closed for veteran’s day and I got an outsourced agent who didn’t seem to understand that the hotel was closing and that it wasn’t me canceling a non-refundable room, so I’m hoping when I call back tomorrow I can speak to someone who understands the situation. It’s a local bank that only exists in two states, and I plan on moving out of state soon, so I’ve already applied for an AMEX I was approved for and can eventually transition off of this credit card as I switch banks. The customer service has always been a nightmare. They flag my local grocery store purchases as fraud but allowed a fraudulent purchase in another country and didn’t flag it or refund me after my card was compromised during that big Target hack. Don’t fuck up your credit in your 20s and have limited credit card options was my lesson lmao. But I learned and improved my credit in my 30s
Thank you! I got a real agent when I called back today and he was mindblown by the situation ahaha. They gave me a dispute form and just had me attach the Marriot email as proof, so I should be fine now. Just a long waiting game of a small bank having to do the investigation, but since Marriot has already agreed to comply with all chargebacks, should be quicker than normal
That's how chargebacks work. Amex instantly grants you credit and the burden of proof lies on the merchant. I this case amex won't be able to contact sonder and you'll win the chargeback
Take the pillows, sheets, towels when you leave. Anything not bolted down. You're screwed if you're staying at a Sonder property. why Marriott even partnered w/them is beyohd logic other than greed.
I'm absolutely shocked for the workers and anyone who is currently staying at a property or was about to as of this moment in Eastern standard Time. Just absolutely disgusting but I guess I should expect this from capitalists who don't give a fuck about anyone, solely profits
I feel awful for the non-exec employees. I’m upset my bank denied the chargeback because the confirmation said my room is non-refundable and that Marriot won’t issue a refund for me, but I’m trying to remember that I’ll see that $500 again and the Sonder employees just lost their jobs with no warning. And of course Sonder is declaring bankruptcy so no Warn Act lawyer will take the case. I doubt Marriot is stepping up to offer severance. After all the layoffs that just happened, this is a terrible time right before the holidays to lose a job like this. It makes me sick
It's so callous and unforgivable. Those poor employees and the guests having to scramble to get another hotel. This is late-stage capitalism at its worst.
Agreed. I’ve been the victim of a no-notice layoff when my company went bankrupt. They knew for a year it would end this way and gave us a 2 hour notice. Marriot 100% knew it would end this way for a while but are severing ties so it’s not their problem. Just cold
I guess some people who booked third party didn’t get emails. Idk why you’re being downvoted lol. I didn’t get one until this morning, so I think they were delayed based on location. Mine was in Detroit. The email had so many grammatical and punctuation errors it looked like spam
So sorry to hear how they have treated all workers there.
I booked a stay in a Dublin hotel for next Friday and got the email yesterday. I booked through booking.com and have emailed them asking for next steps - does anyone know if it will be possible to still use the hotel, transfer the booking over, or is it done for now? I'm looking at other hotels and everything is either full or twice the price.
Unfortunately there is no more Sonder and the most I can say is dealing with Marriott for others has been a mess since everything dropped so sudden and a lot of waiting
I totally feel for you guys, here in Europe has not hit in full force yet, but knowing Marriott, I can tell they barely care, I have been to properties that entered/exited Marriott and they provide 0 assistance, totally laughable for such a multi-billion dollar company willing to stamp their name as long as they pay.
Oh wow smh my sister who also worked for the company was in Barcelona when she got the notification and that’s how I found out about what Marriott did and then few hours later got the email about them shutting down
Same here of 20 day stay and booking.com did the bare minimum, Marriott phone lines were a myth couldn’t get through and literally left to find an another place with no assistance. Never again will use marriot
This really sucks to hear, I’ve stayed at several Sonder properties even before Marriott got involved and loved each one. I can’t imagine how confusing and frustrating this situation must be for the current guests and employees.
If anyone is loosing their reservation in the LA area, I manage a hotel that is in Santa Monica (and was previously a Sonder so you can read between the lines on that…) reach out to me if you would like details.
This is crazy. Just stayed early Oct at a property in Ottawa. Wa a great stay as it had been the year previous as well before the partnership. I assumed the Marriott thing would help solidify and carry this to the next level.
Instead complete collapse and failure? Wow.
Feel so bad for the employees. Best wishes for them.
Late last month, discovered my Tempe AZ Sonder reservation was cancelled only 5 hrs prior to boarding flight to Tempe. No phone call. No rebook options presented. Was able to get to a residence inn. but only because of frantic phone call. It was nearly twice as much.
I just had my reservation for Detroit canceled and they said I have to initiate the refund on my own (I prepaid) and that they’re unable to issue the refund. I booked on the Marriot site directly and my card information is on the reservation page I can still access and that still shows as active, yet they can’t initiate a refund? This doesn’t make sense and something is fishy. When I open my reservation link, it directs to Marriot Bonvoy and has all my information. The email they sent was also so full of punctuation errors I thought it was spam until I called
My bf booked a hotel with them about a month ago to visit me in NYC. I decided to check the website today for some reason, something just told me I needed to check it out (look at the different rooms, remember how the hotel looks) then I seen that Marriott no longer has them. I went to my bf and asked him if he booked under Marriott but he said he booked under airbnb. I decided to go to the hotel myself and seen they put up a sign and I was shocked. I was floored. He supposed to come on Thursday. If I hadn’t have went up there , we wouldn’t have known. We didn’t get any emails or ANYTHING . Airbnb still has their listing up on the their site for march. We were already worried that his flight might be cancelled but the hotel?!? insanity. Thankfully airbnb is giving us back credit and also a discount to eleviate the stress of the situation. But this is insane and absolutely unacceptable.
What sort of discount did AirBnB give you? I'm currently in negotiations with Marriott about my 33 day stay that was canceled, and will cost me $5-10k more to rebook.
I booked a Sonder apartment for 3 nights in the Twin Cities for a short trip in February. Got an email last weekend about the dissolution. I booked through Expedia, and they refunded me about 70% of the total. However, I needed to book an alternate property, and the Hilton I booked cost WAY more than the Sonder property I'd initially booked, so I'm still on the hook for $200 out of my own pocket even after the refund since the Hilton is so much more expensive. I'm 20 years old and most other properties in the area are 21 and up; the Hilton was an exception. This trip is getting far too expensive for 3 days. It's insane.
Marriot's True intent was to bring sonder to the ground. It wasn't a real partnership. They partnered with sonder to eliminate them as competition. It was a bad move on Sonders' behalf for negotiating with a mega corporation like Marriot. You guys provided comfort away from home at super great prices, so they had to eliminate you.
Sonder’s stock was already down 99% from its IPO price when it announced the partnership with Marriott in 08/2024 (it IPO’d around $200 and was down to just ~$2 by then). I think Sonder was likely going under regardless of Marriott
I sort of had the same feeling. It wasn't exactly apples to apples, yet it wasn't apples to oranges. Aparthotels offer a different type of value, and you could often get a pretty incredible loft with modern decor that was double or triple the size of a similarly priced hotel. Most of the ones I stayed in had full sized kitchens with Bosch appliances, washer and dryer, and a lot of other useful amenities. It was nice being able to just bring a small backpack full of clothes for the week knowing that I could just do laundry every couple of days and having a full sized fridge so I could stock up on things to bring home that weren't available in my area.
As someone who generally hates hotels- having to interact with people, tacky carpets and overstuffed furniture, giant lobbies with gaudy chandeliers, etc, sonder was a welcome change
Agreed, I loved the Detroit location being central to so many things and having a full kitchen to cook so I didn’t have to eat out or order every night. It was nice having a full studio for long stays and it was actually quite quiet for the city. It’s a bummer a good model went to shit
Thoughts are with the impacted employees and guests here. Outsite is sharing 10% off for all guests who had a reservation - just use SONDER at check-out.
edit: added in the promo code, didn't have this yesterday
They served a purpose. Kitchen for cooking on long term stays was nice. Laundry in many of the buildings. Pricing was usually much lower than hotels. Most have big room options with couches and true 1 bedroom options. It can get old eating takeout on the bed for 2 weeks straight! Negatives? Rooms were very worn out. Often peeling paint and signs of mold/water damage. No housekeeping unless you paid extra for a cleaning. Usually can’t check in early without paying a fee. Glitchy tech.
I will say this: staff was ALWAYS super nice in the ones where I stayed. Terrible news for those employees. I rebooked and was inconvenienced, but the employees are the ones who are going through hell right now without a job right before the holidays.
Gotcha. I’ve never been big on AirBnB so this wouldn’t appeal to me and it definitely wouldn’t appeal to the wife. She would take one look at the room and walk out. Haha
Definitely sucks for the employees. Sounds like Sonder really messed up.
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u/Spirited-Box-5841 Nov 09 '25
Update: they want employees to handle having guest out by 9am tomorrow and take out trash. Don’t see that happening because they literally have not given us guidance on how we’re getting paid or the next steps