Airbnb Rival Sonder Abruptly Shuts Down, Orders Guests To Leave (cbsnews.com)
- Reference: 0180055312
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/1528206/airbnb-rival-sonder-abruptly-shuts-down-orders-guests-to-leave
- Source link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sonder-marriott-bonvoy-partnership-guests-24-hours-vacate-rooms/
> Paul Strack, 63, visiting Boston from Little Rock, Arkansas, told CBS News he received an email from Marriott on Sunday about his Sonder stay, but he initially mistook it for a scam. The email said that Marriott's agreement with Sonder had ended, and that "we are unable to continue your reservation beyond today."
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> "[W]e are kindly requesting that you check out of the property as soon as you are able," the email read, according to a copy obtained by CBS News. Because he had mistaken it for spam, he ignored it. But on Monday, after exploring Boston and returning to the family's accommodation at the end of the day, Strack found his room's door wide open and his family's belongings packed up and left in a hallway.
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> [...] Sonder on Monday said it would wind down operations immediately, and that it expects to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy to liquidate its U.S. assets. The company describes itself as a global operator of "premium, design-forward apartments and intimate boutique hotels serving the modern traveler" that has faced financial challenges related to its agreement with Marriott, which the hotel chain terminated on Sunday.
[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sonder-marriott-bonvoy-partnership-guests-24-hours-vacate-rooms/
That's a bad look on Marriott. (Score:5, Insightful)
In a situation like this where the occupants aren't at fault, you honour the reservation for the duration of the stay, and you comp the rest of the stay ("It's on the house.")
In this way you generate a ton of good-will for the Marriott, and positive word of mouth advertising that you only wish you could buy on demand. Marriott decided to take the low road and kick the occupants out mid-stay. Bad form.
Re: That's a bad look on Marriott. (Score:2)
This is not on Marriott, but on Sonder. And in this case it's also in the user, as he got a mail during his stay, so he should at least called the frontdesk to see what's up, niw saying he thought it was spam is of course just an excuse to try to get some sympathy. Of course I do feel for people when such a thing happens, but it's a business, not a social institute. And those accomodations need to generate money. It's not on Marriot that Sonder didn't pay their bills as Marriot wouldn't just terminate the c
Re: (Score:1)
so he should at least called the frontdesk
Do you actually investigate every spammy email you get?
If so, when do you sleep?
Re: (Score:2)
Too bad. I recently stayed at a Sonder. It was a little bumpy at first, but the overall experience was decent. I agree this does not look good for Marriott AT ALL. I ran into an issue a few years ago with Hilton. They contracted booking through a third party for a convention. Despite my cancellation nearly six months in advance (well within the posted cancellation policy), the third party would not refund the reservation holding fee (one night). Hilton accepted no responsibility for the vendor they chose t
Was Sonder not paying when they got the $ (Score:2)
Because this only makes sense if Sonder was consistently not paying Marriott for bookings.
In any case, Marriott should have guaranteed the price - offering to let you continue if you gave a credit card directly to them.
Re: Was Sonder not paying when they got the $ (Score:2)
Maybe that was also some offering in the mail which the user thought it was spam. So the user himself is mainly to blame for having been evicted from the room. If you get a mail like that while you are there you should just take it up with the frontdesk to check if it was spam or not.
Re: (Score:2)
> Maybe that was also some offering in the mail which the user thought it was spam. So the user himself is mainly to blame for having been evicted from the room. If you get a mail like that while you are there you should just take it up with the frontdesk to check if it was spam or not.
Maybe someone from the hotel could have, like, spoken to them in person. What if people don't check their email on vacation? Would that be on them too?
Re: Was Sonder not paying when they got the $ (Score:2)
Who said they also didn't try that? We only have the story of this user. But if the customer is away most of the time, it might be hard to get in touch in person.
Unprofessional (Score:2)
> Sonder, ... abruptly went out of business ... leaving guests scrambling as they were told to vacate their rooms immediately.
> Sonder on Monday said it would wind down operations immediately ...
Immediately kicking people out of their in-progress reservations doesn't seem like winding down. No mentions of compensation for any inconvenience Sonder imposed on their now-former guests either.
I'm genuinely bummed by this (Score:3)
I've had a bunch of great stays in Sonder apartments. They're beautifully decorated and extremely affordable. I use them as locations for photo shoots as much as anything else, but getting a 3 bedroom apartment that's a block off Canal Street in New Orleans for $120/night, or a $900/week 2 bedroom apartment rental that's literally next door to the Brooklyn Bridge/City hall subway hub is about as nice as I could ever hope to find.
I've been at the point where Sonder has been my first choice for accommodations about the last three years. I'm actually impacted by this news since I had reservations to stay at Sonder locations in December and again in February.
Re: (Score:2)
I use Airbnb and would have been happy to try our alternatives if I had known about them and seen positive reviews like yours. Their marketing must have sucked.
Web site is still up (Score:2)
The Sonder site is still up and appears to be functional. I never got to see if there were still listings as having to unblock the 20+ scripts and who knows how much other cruft wasn't worth my time.
One would think taking down the site or at least putting up a message would be one of the first things to do when you're going out of business. But then, when your web site has that much cruftiness, maybe they couldn't figure out how to change anything.
Re: (Score:2)
Or the people who made the web site were contractors and there's no one doing maintenance.
I have active (future) reservations and I still haven't gotten any direct notification that there's any operational status from the company yet, even though I've been seeing news about this for the last three days.
Huge Impact (Score:5, Funny)
I'm sure that this was a huge impact to all four of Sonder's users.