Global vacation chaos as 1000’s of vacationers are kicked out of their rooms mid-stay as Airbnb’s rival Sonder goes bust after Marriott deal failed

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 holidaymakers 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 (£762 million) 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, but its service differs to AirBnb as Sonder leased and managed the properties, rather than simply providing a platform for them to be rented out.

It also had a tie-up deal with Marriott Hotels which allowed customers to book one of 10,500 hotel rooms across the world.

After the collapse of Sonder customers who booked Marriott rooms through the service have been abruptly ejected, some halfway through their stays. 

Guests were blindsided on Sunday when Marriott and Sonder ordered them to vacate immediately, leaving some resorting to desperate measures and sleeping in their cars.

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.

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.’

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 licensing agreement.’

Carol Tsai was in the middle of a six-day stay in a Marriott hotel in London on Sunday when she unexpectedly received an email informing her she must vacate the premises by 9am the following day.

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.’

And Australian Kianna McKandie was on her first ‘big trip’ without her parents in London when the Sonder bankruptcy spoiled her plans.

‘When I returned to the hotel just after lunch today I was told that I had to leave,’ she wrote on Facebook on Monday.

‘They told me I should have received an email about it yesterday, [but] I received no email about it. There’s only one person over here that I know but he’s a busy man.

‘I was on and off hold with Flight Centre for two hours before they found me a room in a Novotel. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry multiple times in the last few hours.’ 

The sudden collapse came less than a year after Sonder 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. 

Staff employed by Sonder reported being left in the dark about the severity of the company’s problems, with some even being told by hotel guests that the firm had gone under.

‘Many of us on the ground didn’t even hear the news from corporate,’ one former employee said in a Reddit post.

‘We found out from guests. Guests came up to us showing canceled reservations on their phones before we even knew what was happening. That is how we learned we no longer had jobs.

‘Managers (front line) were left completely in the dark. We began reaching out to senior leadership for guidance, for anything, and were met with silence. We were trying to support our teams with no information. 

‘There was no warning, no communication, no compassion. Just confusion and panic as we tried to manage guests’ frustrations while processing our own shock.’

A second employee in the corporate side of the business added: ‘Even most of us at the corporate level were left in the dark. We didn’t find out anything until our city teams started messaging us for more information, which if course we didn’t get.

‘We received notice Sunday that more information would be sent to us today (Monday the 10th), and literally senior leadership was silent ALL DAY.

‘The only thing we received was an email saying “thanks for your service to the company, here’s a link to the DOL’s unemployment website. Your employment is terminated effective immediately”.’

Meanwhile in the US, TikTok user Avery, from Edmonton, shared a video of herself rolling her suitcase down a street in the snow.

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 get the f*** out 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 (£168) a night. 

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.

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.

‘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.