Picture this: you’re on holiday somewhere, enjoying your stay at a short-term rental that you thought you got a good deal on — a hotel for people who don’t need all the accommodations of a hotel.
Then, without warning, you’re evicted from the room you paid for before you can finish your early afternoon martini. The startup you were renting from, it turns out, has gone belly-up, leaving you on the street.
That, in a nutshell, is what happened last week to guests who were staying at properties across the world held by the firm Sonder, which suddenly went bankrupt after its partner, Marriott, decided to end their partnership.
The decision precipitated an epic and unceremonious collapse for a multibillion dollar startup that was once being hailed as a potential rival to Airbnb. And it couldn’t have happened in more embarrassing fashion: stranding, or at least majorly inconveniencing, travelers just ahead of Thanksgiving. It was not, in fact, “a stay you can count on,” as Sonder’s website promised.
Disgruntled vacationers complained about their ruined travel plans online.
On the r/Marriott subreddit, one guest said they couldn’t get back into their room to gather their belongings so they could checkout. Another claimed they were told they were being kicked out of their room while in the middle of a winter storm in Chicago, with the heat being turned off during the remainder of their stay.
Speaking to the New York Times, a 47-year-old guest and his husband said they were informed that Sonder was no longer honoring their reservation moments after they checked in, effectively forcing them not to leave the property in case they got locked out.
“I was basically trapped and like a prisoner in my room, because I was afraid if we left, we would never get back in,” the guest told the NYT.
Sonder offered short-term rentals for properties it owned, instead of offering rentals controlled by a third-party, like on Airbnb’s marketplace. It was a formula that fueled its quick rise to a valuation of $1.9 billion in 2022, but couldn’t rake in profits.
To reinvigorate its struggling business, Sonder entered a licensing and leasing agreement with Marriott in 2024, allowing its thousands of rentals across 40 cities in ten countries to be listed on Marriott’s websites, which could also be rented through Marriott’s rewards program. It was no longer just “Sonder,” but became “Sonder by Marriott Bonvoy.”
The agreement was supposed to last up to 20 years. But on November 9, Marriott terminated the deal, claiming Sonder had defaulted on it. Sonder immediately announced it was liquidating its assets, and on Friday, officially filed for bankruptcy.
Sonder claims that much of the blame lies with Marriott being a poor business partner.
“Sonder has faced severe financial constraints arising from, among other things, prolonged challenges in the integration of the company’s systems and booking arrangements with Marriott International,” the company said in a statement.
In the aftermath, Marriott has told the press that its “immediate priority” was supporting guests by helping them get new reservations, but customers have complained of egregiously overpriced bookings, or of support lines that don’t even work.
More on flailing finances: The Stock of Trump’s Tech Company Is Crashing So Hard It Isn’t Even Funny
The post Guests Kicked to the Curb In the Middle of Their Stay After Airbnb Rival Goes Bankrupt Right Before Thanksgiving appeared first on Futurism.
