Duane Street Hotel Tribeca, Sonder

We have a reservation through Booking.com with a quoted fee of $1185.3 for four nights and can be cancelled for free according to the terms and conditions. Several days later we receive an email from Sonder asking for our payment info to secure our booking. I provided our payment info and then got charged for $1.249,87. I confirmed to Sonder and they said that it was the correct amount. I thought maybe there was an increase of price. This was in August 2025. On November 5, 2025, i cancel the booking due to a change of circumstances. I was informed that i will receive a refund within 14 days. I try to confirm this with Sonder but got no response at all. After 14 days, i tried reaching out again to Sonder and this time to Booking.com also. Booking.com replied immediately and has been very helpful. The refund for $1185.3 was processed immediately but when i asked abt the discrepancy with what Sonder charged me, they did not know since it was not in their system. To date, i have not heard anything from Sonder which is very very disappointing.

There’s justice to be made to this hotel: a lot of bad reviews seemed now to be somewhere in the past. I stayed there for a week and although there are some welcoming renovations (a cafe at lobby!) that can be disturbing (and a weird noise from A/C sometimes) my room was new, clean and comfortable. Yes there were some stains in curtains and housekeeping was just OK (do not expect any service but a sincere smile from the staff), but for the price point and unbeatable location this is a good choice for NYC.

I want to share a terrible, outrageous situation that happened to my family because of Sonder. I paid 100% for the stay one month in advance. I booked 7 nights in that exact apartment — yes, the one with the clawfoot bathtub. Check-in was supposed to be at 4pm. But by 10am on the day of arrival I still had no door code. I reached out to support asking where it was — and they told me they won’t send it, because “there was some error” and apparently someone else is already staying in my apartment… They sent me a different address and told me to go there. I came there with my family. They showed me the apartment, but didn’t let us check in — they said we should come back in the evening because they still needed to clean it. I came back at 8pm. And they told me they can’t check us in. I asked: what are we supposed to do? They said: “we don’t know.” And they didn’t give us our money back. We ended up spending the night outside with two small kids. It was a horrible night in New York. Never use Sonder.

Great location, horrible hotel. I stayed for 10 nights, my room was made up ONCE. Changed rooms because AC was loud, shower looked like it had never been cleaned (I had to buy cleaning spray and do it myself) and would leak in the middle of the night. Also found a worm on room floor… Staff was nice but there was usually no one at the desk. Elevators were slow, and it all seemed dirty. No closet in the rooms, just a cheap-looking rack and NO storage space (in either room). The restaurant (?) was being remodeled during my stay and the rooms didn’t even have a safe. Overall it’s nothing like the pictures, and it should not be advertised as a 4-star hotel when it clearly isn’t. Would not return to this hotel and am very disappointed because as I mentioned, the location is great.

We are really impressed with the Sonder Hotel. I found it quite by accident by looking for a place to stay during our trip to New york. The location is perfect. It is near for most of the places are that my son wants to see what's over here. It's a small hotel, with a manned front desk only during a few hours during the day. It appears to have been recently remodeled. The bathroom is really nice. It comes with body wash shampoo and conditioner already in the shower and large bottles that you can use to your heart's content. Even though it is small, it does not feel small. The beds are large and comfortable. There's not a lot of storage, but we made do. We will be definitely looking into staying here again should we ever have an opportunity to return.

My stay at Sonder Duane Street was kind of traumatizing. Someone on our floor began blaring their TV after midnight. I tried knocking to ask them to stop but there was seemingly no one in there. I began a live chat through the app which was extremely painful as responses took 5 - 10 minutes at times. At any other staffed hotel, one could dial the concierge with 1 click of a button and there would probably be an in person response in <5 minutes. Due to the nature of this hotel and unavailability of staff at night, I was on chat with someone for an hour while noise continued to blare and eventually, over more than an hour of reporting and staff needing to drive to the hotel, staff responding to the insane guest blaring their TV. The whole ordeal took hours and it took me further hours to calm down after being so upset by the experience. Brutal night and I will seriously think twice about ever staying at Sonder or any such non-staffed hotel again. Edit: Added a star due to the hotel’s response to me. Very thoughtful and they compensated me for one night. Thank you

I am really disappointed with this experience and I honestly did not expect it. The most important issues (not the only ones) - Access codes for entering during the check-in were not working when we arrived. Issue was not solved until the next day as the technical personnel was not working at that time. We managed to access our room via the Bluetooth option offered by the app. - We stayed for 4 nights and our room was never cleaned nor did we receive any clean towels. This is a first for me in a hotel. In Google, it is claimed that the hotel is a 4-star hotel. How is this even possible? - The room was so small that we had a constant struggle opening our suitcases and moving around. I'm having doubts that this room was even 19sq as advertised (king room). While photos do show the actual room, in reality it is not as good as someone would expect. - We paid almost 400$ per night - there was not even a bottle of water in the mini fridge. - We could not set the thermostat in the desired settings. We could only switch it on and off. - The TV remote was not working. We had to download an app to control the TV. - It was not that soundproof with respect to the corridor. - The rain shower was not convenient. On the positives, the personnel was very friendly and the bed was comfortable. Location was not bad either. All in all this is not acceptable for this price. I am happy to provide further details if requested.

This place is a DUMP and should be avoided if you want a peaceful stay in a clean spot. Rooms are teeny, tiny; Windows were streaked and filthy; bathroom was utterly disgusting; Towels were like sand paper; luggage rack and ironing board were stored under the Bed! Who looks there for anything unless you dropped something?! You need a code to enter the building and your room because they have skeletal staffing- maybe 10am-4pm. Overall it was a terribly unpleasant experience and not worth the money spent. |I can't believe this place is a Marriott property and will never be staying at this abomination of an "apartel".