The following is the feedback I provided to Sonder about our stay at one of their properties in New Orleans.
During our stay, the electronic entry system for the building DID NOT work 70% of the time and the elevator DID NOT work 80% of the time. Occasionally, we encountered people in the hallway who said they worked for or were affiliated with Sonder and they explained that someone “would be by soon to fix the problem,” which NEVER HAPPENED! Fortunately, the building door worked on our arrival at 11:20 p.m. but I can only imagine the hassle we would have experienced if the door hadn’t opened. Keep in mind it was very dark outside and the few people we observed walking around the area put us on edge. If an emergency like this had happened there should be a telephone number provided that will be ANSWERED BY A REAL PERSON who can buzz you in. There is nothing worse than feeling unsafe in a place you are not familiar with. The text message I received at 11:20 p.m. welcoming me to my Sonder accommodations said “let us know if you need anything” and I replied at 11:39 a.m. the next day with two requests asking how to connect the TV to WIFI and an update on when the elevator would be fixed. There was no response from Sonder.
We wanted to be familiar with the process of exiting the building if there was a fire so we walked down the set of stairs designated for this and upon exiting the stairwell (but still inside the building envelope), we encountered more human feces than I care to describe here.
The living room had a loveseat (seats 2 people) and there was one side chair (seats 1) and this was for a 3 bedroom space which can accommodate 6 people. The dining room table had 5 - 6 straight-back chairs which were fine when sitting at the table but were terrible for normal lounging and watching TV. There simply wasn’t enough comfortable seating for a unit this size.
The instructions to stream TV (via Chromecast) were for a Samsung TV but we had an Insignia TV and no instructions. It took quite some time to figure out how to stream TV.
Interesting to note the closets aren’t large enough to hang clothes inside. They simply aren’t deep enough so your hanging clothes are partially outside of the closet due to the shallow closet size. Not a big deal but it was more evidence of the lack of attention to basics.
I have water saving showerheads installed in my home but the showerheads in these bathrooms conserve water to an extreme. There was no water saved considering how long you had to run the shower to bathe.
On a positive note, the AC worked well, the kitchen was functional, and the bathrooms were nice and clean.