The collapse of an AirBnb rival service called Sonder has caused holiday chaos worldwide with tourists kicked out of their rooms mid-stay after the company’s deal with Marriott Hotels fell through.
The abrupt shutdown left travelers stranded from London to New York, with some returning to find their belongings stuffed into plastic bags or dumped in hallways.
Sonder, once valued at over $1 billion and hailed as a rival to Airbnb, filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on Monday after Marriott International terminated its licensing deal — forcing the company to wind down operations immediately.
Sonder allows customers to book apartments worldwide, the service differs to AirBnb because Sonder owns the properties.
It also had a tie-up deal with Marriott Hotels which allowed customers to book one of 10,500 hotel rooms worldwide.
After the collapse of Sonder customers who booked Marriott rooms through the service have been ejected.
The collapse came less than a year after Sonder — which offered short-term apartment-style rentals and boutique hotels — rebranded as Sonder by Marriott Bonvoy under a 2024 partnership that allowed it to list rooms on Marriott’s website.
But the two companies reportedly struggled to integrate booking systems, leading to what executives called a ‘sharp decline in revenue.’
‘We are devastated to reach a point where liquidation is the only viable path forward,’ said interim CEO Janice Sears.
Guests were blindsided on Sunday when Marriott and Sonder ordered them to vacate immediately — some halfway through their stays.
Carol Tsai was in the middle of a six-day stay in a Marriott hotel in London on Sunday when she abruptly received an email informing her she must vacate the premises by 9am the following day.
A guest is seen abruptly leaving the Sonder hotel she was staying at in Philadelphia with her luggage in tow
Social media posts showed her blissfully enjoying a visit to a local pub before the ‘horrible’ news left her with no place to stay.
‘Back to my room after a long day and about to shower and call it a day as we have plan for tomorrow early morning,’ she wrote in a post on Facebook.
‘Fortunately I checked my email and voila! Horrible message that we are told to check out asap as our reservation is no longer valid??!!! For a 6 night fully prepaid booking and we are now being thrown out ??!!
‘Tried to call the customer care at Marriott International, only [to] give up!! With no time to research, we can only just book another hotel and hopefully that’s going to be ok.
‘The holiday is literally ruined thanks to Marriott International.’
Meanwhile Brits are facing the prospect of shelling out large sums or cancelling their plans after being informed their future stays would not be honoured.
Sarah Hughes, from Ellesmere Port, was planning a trip to New York with her family at the end of the month.
‘We’re due to fly out 28th November,’ she said. ‘Just had an email to say our reservation cannot be honoured as they’ve lost their licencing agreement.’
Fellow Brit Connor Harley told how a trip to New York next month that he paid for in February was placed in jeopardy by the sudden Sonder bankruptcy, and he has now had to pay for a more expensive hotel instead.
He said that after phoning Marriott’s customer service line, he was told ‘my reservation had been cancelled and I could go online and make another booking with Marriott.
‘No mention of what would happen to my money that they accepted from me some 9 months ago and clearly no plans to accommodate me unless I went online and made another booking!
‘I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect some form of a plan to accommodate customers that you are happy to cancel through no fault of their own.
‘Thank you as always to Hilton Garden Inn for coming to the rescue, all be it more expensive. I am now going back to stay in the hotel that I used on my first trip to New York over 10 years ago.’
Meanwhile in the US, TikTok user Avery, from Edmonton, shared a video of herself rolling her suitcase down a street in the snow alongside the caption: ‘POV, Trying to maintain my composure while dragging my luggage down the street after Marriott Hotels & Sonder Hotels broke up with each other on a random Sunday and told us to get the f*** out of the hotel room we had booked for another three nights in Montreal’.
One TikTok user, named Avery, posted a video of herself wheeling her luggage through snowy Montreal after getting booted from her hotel
A person travelling with her was also seen leaving the hotel with his suitcase after the hotels ‘broke up with each other’
Another couple, Minjun and Kevin, also took to TikTok to explain how they were ‘kicked out of our hotel reservation at Sonders in New York City’ that they had booked through Marriott
The pair revealed they were kicked out of their Sonder hotel with less than 24 hours notice while they were in the middle of their reservation
In 2024, Sonder signed a high-profile licensing deal with Marriott International and rebranded its properties as ‘Sonder by Marriott Bonvoy’ — a move meant to bring its short-term rentals under Marriott’s global loyalty program
Another couple, Minjun and Kevin, also took to TikTok to explain how they were ‘kicked out of our hotel reservation at Sonders in New York City’ that they had booked through Marriott.
They said: ‘Our experience getting kicked out of our Sonder hotel in New York City that we had booked through Marriott with less than 24 hours notice while we were in the middle of our reservation.
‘Apparently Sonder defaulted and Marriott terminated their partnership all of a sudden…’
Katelyn Caralle wrote on X: ‘Received a message from Sonder giving me less than 24 hours notice to vacate the property because its partnership with Marriott was terminated.
‘I’m lucky because my trip ended today… but what are others doing who already paid and had their stays cut short?’
Retired tech executive Steve McGraw said he and his wife were evicted halfway through a 17-day New York stay booked through Marriott.
McGraw holds Elite status with Marriott Bonvoy.
He thought is stay at the Marriott-partnered Sonder Battery Park Apartments in NYC’s financial district would be like the hundreds of other hotel trips he’s booked with the company over the years.
However, on Sunday — about a week into their stay — he received emails from Marriott and Sonder ordering him to vacate by 9am the next day.
‘We ended up spending several thousand dollars more to find a new place,’ McGraw told Business Insider. ‘It was very, very disruptive. They treated us so poorly.’
McGraw was just one of the many guests who were caught off guard with this tricky situation.
Paul Strack, a 63-year-old business owner from Arkansas, said that when he returned to his Sonder apartment in Boston on Sunday, he discovered all his luggage had been packed up and placed in the hallway.
Those staying in the boutique hotels and short-term rentals were notified on Sunday by Marriott and Sonder Holdings that they would need to vacate immediately (stock image)
The company signed a licensing deal with Marriott International and rebranded as Sonder by Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott and Sonder guests were abruptly ordered to vacate, some mid-stay, as staff learned they had lost their jobs the same day
Sonder offered short-term rentals and boutique hotels in 40 cities across the world, including Amsterdam all the way to Dubai (pictured: a guest at Sonder’s Dubai hotel)
Sonder was forced to wind down operations immediately and initiate a Chapter 7 liquidations after Marriott terminated its licensing agreement (pictured: a Sonder hotel in London)
‘They handled all our personal belongings, toiletries, clothing, computers, electronics,’ Strack said.
‘Some they packed into suitcases, and some they put in plastic bags. It was quite shocking and very impersonal.’
Alec Arritola, a 27-year-old Harvard student, said staff at the Sonder hotel he was staying at in Boston were as surprised and devastated as he was.
‘I immediately went to the office to speak with the manager, who was also shocked and saddened to learn she would lose her job today,’ Arritola said. He had been planning to stay in the residence for 18 nights.
TikTok user Avery shared a clip of herself dragging a suitcase over a cobbled road in Montreal as snow was falling.
She wrote: ‘POV: Trying to maintain my composure while dragging my luggage down the street after Marriott Hotels & Sonder Hotels broke up with each other on a random Sunday and told us to gtfo of the hotel room we had booked for another three nights in Montreal.’
In an update, Avery said she was able to get another hotel room for $220 a night.
Another, who uses the handle reece.traveling, shared online: ‘Got kicked out of my hotel today… total nightmare. Marriott dropped Sonders, so now I’m basically homeless.’
