I have never written a bad review as I tend to not want to hurt a business. However, in this case I wanted to report my experience with our host Sonder and, by extension, Airbnb to warn others.
We are retired and planned to travel and stay places for extended periods ( natural Airbnb customers). We booked a month in New Orleans to cover the month that included French Quarter and Jazz Fest… late September to late October. Both festivals were canceled due to COVID in mid August. We decided to go anyway. Then Hurricane Ida hit, really taxing the city at the end of August. At that point we asked Sonder if we could postpone our trip. We got an email back with bad grammar indicating that we could switch but that in addition to the$6,000 we spent, it would cost another $18,000 to switch. This despite similar prices ($6,000) at similar units for the dates we asked to switch to. We attempted to speak with someone but they make that impossible. We decided to go and checked in, albeit a few days after our start date as we had no reason ( Fest’s canceled, city recovering).
Then the real fun began. The apartment we stayed in had bed bugs. When first noticed we thought perhaps a spider bite ( we had no bed bug experience). We went to urgent care when the bites became rampant. They explained what it was. We packed up and left and had to make arrangements elsewhere quickly. Sonder took no responsibility in helping us relocate. We took pictures of our multiple bites and sent the medical report to Sonder and Airbnb. Sonder’s first response was to deny that the bedbugs existed … again via email as there was no one to call or contact. They later admitted ( in person when we finally found a local manager) that they did find bed bugs. We asked for a refund and for expenses incurred ( new clothes, new luggage, the various transporting expenses of moving to hotel, not to mention losing days of our time). They offered us $90 at first. We kept after it and they we settled on a pro rated refund of the days not spent there. No reimbursement for anything else (and paying for the days with the bugs).
I am writing this review as a warning. When you book an Airbnb it is nearly impossible for any reason to cancel. In the future , I will pay up for a hotel with reasonable cancellation policies.
Moreover…. I highly advise to never, never, never book with Sonder. Horrible/ non existent customer service seems to be part of their business model. They make it near impossible to actually speak with anyone. When we did finally speak to a person they were unable to help and would always suggest that they would “ talk to the team”. The email exchanges were a joke. If it weren’t serious I’d have actually found them to be funny. When I brought this up with the local manager she explained that “we are a “ technology based company” so that’s what happens.
I hope readers find this helpful in making plans going forward.