NEED TO KNOW
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Sonder, a short-term rental and boutique hotel brand, announced plans to file for bankruptcy on Monday, Nov. 10
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The day prior, Marriott International announced an end to its licensing agreement with the company
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This left current and future reservation holders without accommodations, leaving some travelers stranded
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Guests Minjun Chen and Kevin Ngo tell PEOPLE they only had 24 hours to vacate their room in New York City
Marriott announced that it was ending its partnership with short-term rental and boutique hotel brand Sonder on Sunday, Nov. 9, causing future reservations to be immediately canceled and forcing current guests out of their accommodations mid-stay.
New York City content creators Minjun Chen and Kevin Ngo described their “horror story” of being booted from their accommodation on TikTok.
“I got a random email from Marriott being like, ‘Marriott and Sonder have cancelled their partnership, your existing reservation is no longer in effect. You need to move out immediately,” Ngo explains in a Sunday, Nov. 10 video.
The couple says they were already halfway through their two-week reservation at a Sonder property in New York City. Since they are “in between apartments,” they “scrambled” to pack up their belongings in 24 hours and find another hotel.
“We prepaid for the reason that the rates were obviously much cheaper when we booked it a few months ago,” Chen says. “Now that they cancelled the reservation, we have to go look for another hotel and hotels are way more expensive right now.”
After calling both Sonder and Marriott, they say the companies did not provide immediate accommodations and denied their request to price match other properties. Chen and Ngo tell PEOPLE that have yet to hear any update regarding a refund or compensation.
In a follow-up video, the couple says they stayed up until 2 a.m. packing all their belongings. They later learned that all Sonder staff was laid off as well.
In a Monday, Nov. 10 press release, Sonder officially announced a “complete immediate wind-down of operations,” with the company expecting “to initiate a Chapter 7 liquidation.”
“We are devastated to reach a point where a liquidation is the only viable path forward,” Sonder’s interim CEO Janice Sears wrote. “Unfortunately, our integration with Marriott International was substantially delayed due to unexpected challenges in aligning our technology frameworks.”
L: Sonder Logo; R: Marriott Bonvoy logo
In 2019, Sonder reached a valuation of over $1 billion and was considered a serious competitor to Airbnb, according to TechCrunch. After the company went public in 2022, it struggled to turn a profit. In August 2024, Sonder struck a “strategic licensing agreement with Marriott International” and was rebranded as Sonder by Marriott Bonvoy. The agreement allowed the company to market its properties on Marriott websites.
In a message shared with current and future Sonder guests obtained and reviewed by PEOPLE, Marriott said its “immediate priority is supporting guests currently staying at Sonder properties and those with upcoming reservations.”
Katie N.
An email from Sonder sent to future reservation holder Katie N. and shared with PEOPLE.
However, Chen tells PEOPLE the couple was “hoping for more support, but unfortunately, we haven’t gotten that.”
“It’s definitely giving us second thoughts, I would say. But I think we’re still hoping that [Marriott] has the opportunity to make things right as far as providing refunds and providing compensations,” she says.
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She adds: “It’s been really shocking, honestly, to see the aftermath of the situation given how sudden it was.”
Representatives from Marriott International and Sonder did not immediately replied to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Read the original article on People
