Sonder Duane Street

DO NOT BOOK HERE. THIS PLACE IS A COMPLETE SCAM. The pictures online are deceiving and it's more like a single step up from a hostel. First day here we overheard four staff sitting on couches in the lobby talking about how shocked they were that people paid so much to stay at the hotel. This is my first time ever leaving a review for anywhere because of how terrible of an experience I had at Sonder in Tribeca. I booked a King sized room for three nights at around $600 per night, which ended up actually being so small that my partner and I couldn't even have our suitcases open. First night the AC stopped working, the thermostat was reading 80 degrees in our room and so I messaged the app. Two maintenance people came into our room and said it was busted, one maintenance guy apparently told my fiance "it's not even that hot in here". This was after I asked him to give us a few minutes to pack to move rooms and when I asked if that was okay he said, "well I guess it'll just have to be". Apparently this was the maintenance manager? Where is the professionalism? I ended up having to cancel a dinner with a friend of 20 years who I had not seen because the entire ordeal took over two hours. The person at the front desk said there were no upgrades available to move to a different room and that we could move to an identical room in the building where the air was working. Once we finally agreed to that, we entered into the new room and they had DOWNGRADED us to a queen size room in much worse condition. When I went back down to the front desk (for the fourth time) to tell him he had moved us to a smaller room after saying that the room would be identical he said "oh yeah, looks like it's a queen. That's all we got." We proceeded to spend 1.5 hours on the phone with customer service, who refused to let me speak to a manager or supervisor and said someone would call me back in 24-48 hours and that they couldn't issue me a refund. And then, get this, the AC in our new DOWNGRADED room DOES NOT WORK. I have a theory that this place puts thermostats in the room that make the person believe they're setting the temperature to something but the whole building is probably set to 75 degrees to save money. This place is definitely on the verge of getting shut down. It's bad here: the rooms are in bad condition, poorly managed, unprofessional staff, terrible customer service, and totally uncomfortable. Our stay was only for three nights, if a hotel can not refund someone for very solid reasons less than $2,000 then there's something bigger at play.

Great and friendly. There is not an ice machine available. I wanted to have ice for an injury I had but that wasn’t possible since there was and is no ice available for guests. That’s a bummer for me. Other than that, awesome. Nice comfy bed, interesting staff, super silent protection from the city sounds…making a good nights sleep possible.

As stated in many reviews, this is an apartment style accommodation rather than a true hotel. There is no breakfast, fresh coffee, daily housekeeping, 24hr attendant, etc. Other than that, the room and lobby were fine. It was safe and this location (Duane St) was wonderful for exploring Manhattan.