Let me begin with the positive. Great location, easy access to downtown. The space had lovely natural light, and it was nice that each bedroom had its own bathroom. The layout of the space is well-suited for a group of six.
After years of great experiences on Airbnb, this is the first review I’ve ever left that’s somewhat negative. While I take no pleasure in outlining the negatives or leaving a less-than-stellar review, there are issues that should be voiced.
We did not have a good check-in experience. My messages requesting an early check-in unanswered (sent on Airbnb after Sonder app did not work properly). We showed up to the place 30 minutes early, hoping for the best but prepared to wait. We spoke to a Sonder representative on the phone who had to go through various levels of bureaucracy to get us any kind of straight answer, and eventually had someone on site come up to talk to us in-person. This associate was professional and kind, and came to attend to us relatively quickly. He let us know that the cleaning crew was still inside, and that the place wasn’t ready. That was fine and expected, and we were more than willing to wait 20 more minutes to go in. Not so fast. Apparently, the previous guest had been there for months and it would take much longer to get the place ready as a result. Seeing as Sonder explicitly states “*MONTHLY DISCOUNTS*” in the listing title, they not only expect but encourage long stays. So this is certainly something Sonder should have anticipated and accounted for.
We were allowed to drop off our bags, and wandered the city for 3 hours before the place was ready. I was sure to get the Sonder associate’s personal phone number as the communication via Airbnb app had been awful up to this point. This particular individual who worked for them was friendly and helpful, even if the situation was a mess. As recompense, Sonder offered us a free dinner. We appreciated the gesture very much, but unfortunately our troubles did not stop there.
If you are going to rent this space, PLEASE BE AWARE, it is a 4th floor walk-up. This listing discloses that “there is no elevator”, but what they fail to disclose is that there are 3 full, steep flights of stairs, which were especially tough on my aging in-laws. An omission of this scale is significant and inadmissible.

Next, the skylight in one of the bedrooms could not be closed... There was no remote to do so, and when we reached out to Sonder, they sent someone to look at it who let us know that they did not have a ladder tall enough to close it, and that someone else would have to come back the next day to look at it. I politely declined considering the continued disturbance, noting in the forecast that no rain was coming. But if it had started raining in the middle of our first night?
Additionally, there was a light out in one of the bathrooms, the hall toilet did not flush properly, and it looked like all the carpet in the apartment had been recently pulled up (?) exposing tape all over the floor. The floors were still so dirty in the middle bedroom that when my mother-in-law walked in her room barefoot, the soles of her feet turned black. And their door was so squeaky that it woke up the whole apartment when she went to get a glass of water in the middle of the night.
While it is true that we could have contacted Sonder about these remaining issues at the time of our stay, at that point we had already waited 3 hours for the space to be ready and had contacted them about the skylight which was attended to but went unfixed. We reached a point where we simply wanted to try and enjoy the rest of our stay without further disturbance (particularly because we didn’t want the rest of our group to have to leave the apartment and walk around in 90 degree heat, with many indoor/air-conditioned restaurants in downtown Chicago unavailable because they’re still closed for the pandemic). These little things, on top of larger issues, do add up.
I would recommend seeking other options if you can, when you book with Sonder, you are engaging with a big company that lacks sufficient accountability and contact, not a host. They will give you the run around in their Kafka-esque bureaucracy.
Also worth noting I raised all of these issues with them before I wrote this review, but heard nothing back, even after following up, for 4 days.