This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jessica Barnes, 36, a Canadian software professional. It has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider verified her booking at a Marriott-Sonder property in Barcelona.
This trip was a dream vacation to Europe with my kids, and their first time overseas. But the Marriott-Sonder breakup ruined our first stop.
We had been planning this trip for a while, and my kids were extremely excited. We arrived in Barcelona on Saturday, the first stop in our trip, which also includes Paris and London.
We had an amazing day in Barcelona on Sunday. The kids walked further than they’d ever walked before, from the hotel through the beautiful area around the cathedral, all the way to the beach and back.
When we returned to the hotel, on the second night of our three-night stay at Sonder’s Casa Luz Hotel, the kids were exhausted.
That’s when I checked my emails and saw that I had just received a notice from Marriott saying that we needed to leave the hotel “as soon as you are able.”
Scrambling at night to find new accommodation
It was unbelievable because I had no idea such a thing could happen. My kids were scared.
I called Marriott, and the customer service representative for platinum members said, “No, there’s no information available for this. You’d have to call Sonder.”
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Sonder put me on hold, then said I needed to leave the hotel as soon as possible. They said they would help me book a different hotel, but I would have to pay last-minute prices, which wasn’t very helpful. They also had no plans or processes in place for dealing with us.
It was upsetting that Marriott didn’t have a plan for this, especially on a Sunday evening.
I used my Marriott app to book a hotel called Moxy Barcelona, and on Monday morning, we packed up all of our things and went there.
I’m a resourceful traveler. But I’m a single mother with two children in a foreign country where I don’t speak the language, which was scary.
It’s an expensive trip, too. We spent the evening trying to make a new plan and lost some of our vacation time.
It could have been easily avoided if they’d given us even 24 hours of notice.
I hope that Marriott will do the right thing by providing compensation for a future trip that is not ruined by its decisions. I still have Marriott stays in Paris and London on this trip.
Representatives for Marriott did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. The company said on Sunday that customers who had booked a Sonder property through Marriott’s channels would get a full refund.