Our stay in Sonder New Orleans was the worst stays we’ve had ever especially with Airbnb (we’ve been booking with them for years). My husband and I along with our friends had also booked with Sonder for a friend’s wedding.
My husband and I started our stay about 2 days earlier than our friends and they discovered mold in their air vents. It was not just a little bit of dust or dirt that wasn’t cleaned. It was dark, black mold spreading from the air vents to the sides of the walls. This is an extreme health hazard to anyone staying at their location and could lead to detrimental health issues. They immediately contacted Sonder and Airbnb and left to another location. They notified me shortly after they left and when we got back to our room we packed up and left the same evening to a hotel. And at this point I had been feeling pretty sick and having issues with breathing and lightheadedness which we didn’t have when we arrived to New Orleans. Immediately the next day we felt so much better with our breathing and my headaches were gone. But by that point I had already gotten sick enough to have to go through the rest of my stay in poor health.
We contacted Airbnb to figure out if we could get a refund and it was the most difficult process to figure out any type of resolution. They would only refund days we didn’t stay and prorated certain days and didn’t refund cleaning fees or taxes. To even get to this point we’ve already called approximately 10 times while also waiting on the support chat where they would send us the same pre-written spiel that they give to all their representatives. We would get transferred multiple times to people who would tell us the same things over and over. Every time we would call we would have to go through the same cycle of events.
This was the same calling Sonder and their helpline. They said they could partially refund us but we would have to talk to Airbnb and then Airbnb would tell us the same thing and to contact Sonder. There was no one who would be understanding of our situation and provide a reasonable resolution. They would not even refund us enough to at least cover the remainder of our stay with the hotel we moved to.
We understand the representatives may not have the authority to do certain things but they would not send our call to someone who could help us. At this point we have spent a more than what we originally paid for and left still feeling sick and exhausted.
We are incredibly disappointed and sad that this is the service we have received after using Airbnb’s service for many years. Please use discretion when booking with locations run by other companies or large groups rather than an individual. We don’t want anyone else experiencing what we have experienced.