Sonder The Beverley

I had a very pleasant stay at the Shining Star Hotel. While there were a few minor issues, such as occasional noise from the street, they were quickly addressed by the staff. I would definitely recommend this hotel to both business and leisure travelers looking for comfort and convenience.

Stayed here as both the location was convenient and the price was right. The room was small, but there is lots of storage for luggage and I was only sleeping there. I found it to be extremely quiet and the room was clean. It was well stocked with toiletries. There are no amenities to speak of. The Wi-Fi was easy to connect to. Overall a good experience.

It was a very disappointing stay for multiple reasons. Our air conditioning unit made a loud, buzzing noise every 10 minutes and when we approached it with the staff (online), they could not provide any solutions and said 'they would keep us updated' and would 'send the maintenance team'. This continued until the third day of our stay when they sent an email stating that the noise is the result of a normal functioning AC unit and they had provided ear plugs in the room for that. Our trip was ruined due to poor sleep and the constant to and fro with the staff to get a known problem- fixed. They refunded us $75 which is arguably a measly attempt to pacify us. Poor accountability on their part.

Booked one of the large room. Hotel has "new security system" which is great and all but they have NO manual locks inside the rooms themselves. Something that should definitely be made clear prior to booking. Room itself was a decent size with a nice view. Coffee pot barely worked, and I had to search for an outlet to plug it into. Hotel also in interest of social distancing does not have a front desk so there is no one to actually talk to when you have a question. Had to use the live chat to ask questions which took them 20 mins to reply to. Overall not the best stay.

One of the worst "hotels" I've stayed in. Part of this is the room itself and part is the business model. Both are bad. |THE ROOM: |Tiny cramped space, with furniture gone a bit shabby. The design looks snappy in photographs but the room is not. The window behind the bed in the photos is made of glass, but opens onto a tiny light shaft (maybe eight inches deep and extending several floors up before it opens out... to the sky?). It was like a hip prison cell!! The furniture in the room did not allow for any decent writing/work space. I ended up having to get into bed to edit the things I was presenting at my conference. |THE OUTER SPACES: |Entry and hallway had a tenement vibe to them. There is no front desk or lobby--you come right off the street into a grey linoleum stair that felt like the fire stair at a warehouse. |THE BUSINESS MODEL: |I'm going to guess that Sonder is an example of a business that adopted a no-touch model during the pandemic and then never went back to a live-service model. And I get it--they're probably saving a lot of money that way. But it doesn't feel good to be the customer in this model, and I don't really think they're passing along the savings to us. There is no front desk, which makes the place feel unsafe and abandoned. There is an app and a telephone number, but these don't really make a human being feel welcomed. There is also no housekeeping--when I called in the middle of my four day to see about maybe getting some new towels and a fresh supply of in-room coffee the clerk (seemingly in some headquarters in some other city) seemed to think this was an odd request, put me on hold for about ten minutes, and then returned to the phone to tell me that these requests usually need to be made 24 hours in advance and that there was a cost associated with it. The cost turned out to be $62 (Canadian, but still!). I was appalled. |In sum: |Lousy room, lousy "service" and though not super expensive, not at all cheap either.|I will NEVER stay in a Sonder again.

The good: great location in Toronto, very clean, and easy to access The could be better: toilet needed maintenance, room is very small, and no sheets/towels changed throughout the stay Overall review: great for low maintenance visitors on short trips to Toronto, but not ideal for longer stays or anyone accustomed to typical hotel perks like daily cleaning, concierge staff, or breakfast.

The room itself is beautiful. We had the queen room which overlooked Queen street. Plenty of room and space. The bathroom was big but no bathtub. The water system took a while to heat up and sometimes it didn’t at all which was not ideal in winter! There was someone staying in the room above us and they would make a lot of noise around 10pm-12am which was a nuisance but other than that we hardly heard them. Extra amenities such as towels, shampoo etc was available on another floor as no room service.

It would be a perfect place to stay for one or two nights. I stayed there for four days and there was no garbage bin outside of rooms so I had to keep garbages and dirty towels for days though, if you only need a bed and shower during layover or business trip, they provide everything you would need.