This property is run by a corporation not a person. WARNING: they will want you to send in a photo ID and scan your face into their website. That’s just the beginning of my terrible experience with the corporation that runs this rental apartment and posted this property on Air B&B, Sonder. In the end, my experience cost me $400 additional dollars, lots of frustration and ruined long hours of my time with my son.
My son in mildly autistic and as a single dad I wanted to have a pool available for him to decompress in case he was over stimulated. But not many homes in Denver have pools. So I settled on this place. When I checked out it said “non-refundable” I had never seen that before on an Air B&B… this was the first sign.
The second sign that something was off was the email.
In this email sent right after completing my Air B&B reservation said I would need to complete the Sonder checkin process or loose it… even though on Air B&B it was confirmed.
The third sign; giving up my Identity.
In the link it asked for a photo of my ID… sus. I almost canceled but then remembered the no refund… I thought, “Well, Hilton has something like this on their app when I travel for work. And it’s for my son. Let’s just embrace the it.” Next it wanted to scan my face… this was an unnecessary invasion. But again I thought I’d see it through. Then the last step they wanted to download the app to send the info… fine the point of a vacation is the not worry.
A month later, after driving from Dallas Tx, I was sitting in my van out front of the Apartment and the app was not working. My reservation was not connected…or something. I had no info to get into the building. I called the number and also a chat in the Sonder app.
The fourth sign: bad communication.
The phone call sent me in a circle of re-confirming my reservation. Resending photos of my id and scanning my face… the representative could only resend the original email over and over.
But no information would appear in the app or email.
Convinced there was nothing to they could do I asked him to cancel the reservation, but he couldn’t do that either. After 30mins of sitting on the street on the phone, I would have to start over with Air B&B to explain why I needed a refund on a non-refund stay.
He also told me not to talk to the people at the front desk “they can’t help you.”
Just as I was going to hang up, the person I was chatting with on the Sonder app got me the info in an email. This was the first time I’m actually getting any details about this rental (not the normal Air B&B experience)
I pulled up to the garage. I was still on the phone with the representative and asked about codes and parking. “Yes the you can park in the garage, it’s free” (weird because all the apartment buildings I’ve ever been in are free) He continued robotically (I asume reading something) “just go down the ramp and you should see a sign.” I was literally driving down the rap when he was talking. A sign pointed left as he had said. I parked just left of the sign. I said thanks and finally hung up. The time on the call lasting over 30mins. Terrible communication over… I thought.
The room was as expected, except the window handle was broken and wouldn’t shut all the way, letting in the noise of the cooling units on the lower roof we were adjacent too. There was a lock so I wasn’t too concerned about someone getting on the roof and braking in. The air conditioning in the room was like a freight train, but I grew up next to the train tacks. Not special but not awful.
We spent 4days in Denver, leaving and parking near the same spot I had been guided to on the phone. There was nothing indicating the spot was special or reserved like others. So I was shocked when I walked down on the last morning at 6am to load up and drive back to Texas only to find my van had been towed from the parking garage.
I lost it. How could this have happened?!? I was on the phone with the representative when I was parking!!! I called Sonder up again and they made it out to be my fault that I didn’t follow the signs, that I had information about were to park. (Information that I got just before I was in the garage) It was apparently, all my fault and they couldn’t do anything for me. There was no consequences for their poor customer experience, or terrible communication.
The spot I chose had no “reserved” lettering like the others on the opposite end I had driven past. While there where lots of warnings about residences only parking. I assumed I was a resident for the next 4 days. And remember, I was told the people at the apartment “couldn’t help me” so I had to trust the guy on the phone.
I assumed that if there was a big problem or specific place to park with real consequences then that would be front loaded in the conversation. But I was just told it was free.
Apparently, I was to follow the little sign to another little sign (I had just parked next to the sign, the arrow literally pointing at my van) and although the entirety of the garage had no numbers of special indications besides “ reserved” sprayed on the ground for some spots.
So I started walking around with the person on the phone and one level down way in the back wall of the bottom of the garage were special signs for