Guests Left Without Marriott Sonder Rooms Are Getting 40,000 Points — If They Ask

Marriott pulled the plug on its partnership with Sonder, the serviced apartments brand. Sonder is now liquidating. Guests were told that their reservations were cancelled. Guests who were already on property were told to vacate the same day by Marriott, even before Sonder went out of business.

There hasn’t been a lot of assistance from Marriott so far on this, but reader Andrew shares that he complained about a future reservation that was cancelled and was given 40,000 points.

I had a Sonder reservation in Paris over Christmas that was cancelled along with all the others. I called and asked to be given the points that I would have earned on the stay (just under 40,000). The elite nights didn’t really matter to me so I didn’t ask for those (and I won’t be re-booking at a Marriott).

After getting connected to a supervisor she said she “couldn’t give me the points I would have earned but can give me 40,000 points as a goodwill gesture” which is a distinction without a difference in my book.

It seems to me that guests who were evicted from their confirmed Marriott reservations are far more disserviced and should receive greater compensation, but 40,000 points approaches what customer service can generally award.

The distinction between ‘the points that would have been earned’ and ‘points for goodwill’ don’t really matter to the guest. And Marriott shouldn’t really insist on saying “no, but yes” to the points – better to just say yes! They don’t want to create a ‘precedent’ but it’s not clear that calling it a goodwill gesture really matters here. The distinction is more important for their internal budgeting. Marriott isn’t going to make more money off Sonder, and they’re a bankruptcy creditor, so ‘goodwill’ matters more for their internal budgeting.

Marriott had only just added Sonder apartments as part of Bovoy. They trumpted a 20-year deal. Sonder was financially troubled which is why the deal happened in the first place, and Marriott renegotiated key terms to try to keep them afloat. Pulling the plug meant they were no longer a viable concern, though they might not have survived anyway as they sought to downsize and reduce expenses.