It’s a swanky boutique vibe, wood floors in chevron pattern with lots of wood, brass and black accents. It’s very simple and minimalistic. They have a nice bar that is not being used which is odd. Perhaps it’s a hangover from scarce Covid times. But it would be a great place to offer breakfast items to go with fresh coffee/tea/water and than for evenings, a little happy hour goodness!
Rooms were comfy and quiet. Linens are crisp cool white. Beds are on firm side, pillows squishy wonderful. It’s cute with the black and white tile in the bathroom, has an RH feel. Shower has fabulous water pressure! The coffee/tea in our room was great and the mini fridge was helpful.
There is only 1 wall mounted night stand between 2 queen beds - which is not enough. I had to put stuff on the floor on my side and that was ridiculous. Each side of the bed should have a wall mounted table. The water cooler in the hall has hot, tepid and cold water and that was massively utilized by the entire floor. Sometimes there was a line! They could use another in the other hallway. But really appreciated that feature!
FREE UNDERGROUND PARKING!! THIS WAS AWESOME!! Cars are safe and they stay cool. You have a direct entrance into the building. Really appreciated that! The staff were nice and friendly and as helpful as they could be considering they seem young and tied to their computers.
This hotel feels like an upgraded hostel- it’s simple but nice and there is a strong feel of independence. They assist but you really need to be self sufficient. The crowd of guests seemed young, maybe just out or in college, a little hip with awkwardness and that is definitely the vibe of those working there.
The Negatives:
The checkin is a stupid pain. The electronic process of being contactless isn’t smooth. Communication being all electronic is slow and confusing. It took days and days to get a confirmation code that would work. Their process needs attention to make it actually smooth and easy. You can’t get into the building or your room with out a ridiculously long 7 digit +* numbered code. It took several times before we could get it memorized- and we aren’t THAT old! Even 20 somethings were having to pull up the code in their app which took time. It’s stupid to have the code be so long. And when you are out front, and struggling, and they don’t get up from their chairs to come let you in, that’s annoying. It also doesn’t feel safe- it’s hot outside, random people walk by as you struggle not paying attention to your surroundings. It shouldn’t be such a struggle to get into the building. When someone did come and assist, that was appreciated. A scanner with a QR code would be easier and much more “contactless” They also didn’t have hand sanitizer to use afterward. No masks either. Employees were not wearing them and they didn’t have any for guests to use.
BIG thing to note… there are NO REFUNDS. Even with serious acceptable out of the ordinary reasons- they will not refund you. Our car was stolen and I really needed to cancel and they would not budge. My husband ended up still going but it was so stressful and I regretted deeply not noticing if I could have bought insurance or just not going with Sonder at all - because how can a hotel NOT allow a refund?! I know their prices are more affordable, the concept is simple, which I suppose is how they keep prices down, but to not allow cancellations with a refund is maddening. Perhaps this was an issue with the fact we booked through Airbnb- there was so much back and forth with messaging between the 2 companies- I regretted the entire booking. A credit was considered but we live no where near a Sonder and had no idea when we would travel again, and feared it would have been wasted.
I would definitely NOT book through Airbnb, but download the Sonder app and book direct. Maybe it would have been less of a migraine headache.
The location is about 20 ish blocks away from the downtown Santa Monica area. So we did have to drive in for most things, but that was ok. It was too hot to walk much anyway.
One last negative
They offered an early check in of 2 pm, but to accept this, we had to pay an additional $25. Seriously, pay $25 for 2 hours early. Normally, never would have agreed but my husband arrived at 2pm because he had nothing else to do and didn’t want to leave valuables in the car. However, the code didn’t work, there was lots of back and forth with a temp code, and the hotel worker, then several more tries and by the time he finally got into the room, it was 3 pm!
I asked for a refund and they denied it, saying “well, you got in an hour early, so…”
Nope! Not good enough!! He could have wasted an hour of time for FREE. So absurd. And there hasn’t been any further communication.