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Sonder Apartment Hotels Review - Travel Tip Tuesday · Travel Mug Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey everyone, and welcome back to Travel Tip Tuesday with the Travel Mug Podcast.
• 0:05
  I am Jenn joined as always by my partner in podcasting, Meggan.
• 0:11
  So Meggan, last month, my husband and I traveled to Ottawa and Montreal, and when we were researching accommodations, we'd come across a brand name we had not heard before.
• 0:24
  And that is.
• 0:25
  Sonder, so, Hmm.
• 0:28
  I will say Sonder has been around since 2014.
• 0:33
  I'm not sure why I haven't heard of it, but I hadn't.
• 0:36
  Okay.
• 0:36
  in 2024, Sonder integrated with Marriott Bonvoy so you can earn and redeem points when you stay at the Sonder.
• 0:45
  So when we were searching for hotels, we noticed that the Sonder locations were cheaper than hotels.
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  So.
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  You know, naturally we were interested to see what the deal was.
• 0:58
  So essentially they are a short term rental that's kind of a combination between an apartment and a hotel.
• 1:06
  stayed personally at Sonder Arlo in Ottawa and Sonder Lambert in Montreal.
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  Both were great locations.
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  Both of them had fully stocked kitchens including tea, coffee, pots and pans, et cetera.
• 1:21
  And our Montreal apartment might have been one of the , nicest places we've ever stayed.
• 1:26
  Oh wow.
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  opened the door and my husband and I were like.
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  Whoa.
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  Like this is very nice.
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  It also had laundry in the unit.
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  both locations that we went to had luggage storage.
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  We weren't able to check in until 4: 00 PM You could pay to check in a little bit sooner, but we opted not to do that.
• 1:45
  We weren't able to check in until 4: But, uh, they had luggage storage, which was essentially like a locker where you set the code yourself.
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  We weren't able to check in until 4: , And the Ottawa location had a huge like games room and coworking space.
• 1:56
  We weren't able to check in until 4: They had a 24 7 front desk staff At the, at the Ottawa one in, or Yeah, Ottawa one.
• 2:03
  We weren't able to check in until 4: We did not see a single staff member when we were at the Montreal location.
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  We weren't able to check in until 4: So.
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  We weren't able to check in until 4: Nice.
• 2:07
  We weren't able to check in until 4: It varies.
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  We weren't able to check in until 4: Yeah.
• 2:09
  We weren't able to check in until 4: Yeah.
• 2:09
  We weren't able to check in until 4: The Ottawa one was really nice because the, the basement where it had the games room, like we hung out down there before our room was ready.
• 2:16
  We weren't able to check in until 4: Um, but the Montreal one didn't really have that kind of space.
• 2:20
  We weren't able to check in until 4: , So they have an app and they sent me the door code for the front door and our room via the app a couple days before check-in.
• 2:28
  We weren't able to check in until 4: We actually had an instance in Montreal where our code wouldn't work on the front door.
• 2:35
  We weren't able to check in until 4: And I was able to connect with them through the app and they were able to tell us that the front door had actually just gone offline.
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  We weren't able to check in until 4: Oh.
• 2:41
  We weren't able to check in until 4: uh, yeah, so that's not ideal, but like technology, like those things happen and then we were able to get back.
• 2:49
  We weren't able to check in until 4: , So we booked these and then I saw some like not so great reviews about Sonder, and so I was like a little bit worried honestly.
• 2:58
  We weren't able to check in until 4: But all in all, we had a really great experience and I would book with a sonder again.
• 3:04
  We weren't able to check in until 4: I think it's important to note that each Sonder property is really different in terms of what they might offer, and so it's really important to read the reviews for each specific property before you book.
• 3:15
  We weren't able to check in until 4: Meggan, had you heard of Sonder before?
• 3:17
  We weren't able to check in until 4: I've brought this up.
• 3:19
  We weren't able to check in until 4: I have not, and it sounds like a very interesting concept and somewhere to sort of keep in my back pocket for future travel.
• 3:26
  We weren't able to check in until 4: I can't.
• 3:27
  We weren't able to check in until 4: It's hard to believe, especially if they've been around since 2014.
• 3:31
  We weren't able to check in until 4: I know they've now, um, connected with Marriott and whatnot, but still, like if they've been around that long, I can't believe we've never come across them in all of our searching for like accommodations to travel.
• 3:40
  We weren't able to check in until 4: So how did you actually come across them?
• 3:43
  We weren't able to check in until 4: Um, we were searching just on like booking.com or hotels.com and just like clicking on places and noticed that there was a bunch of places called Sonder we just kind of started looking into them and yeah, I'm not sure they're, they're kind of like a blend of like an Airbnb and a hotel because Sonder owns the entire building.
• 4:06
  We weren't able to check in until 4: Um, so like all of the rentals in that building are.
• 4:09
  We weren't able to check in until 4: You know, people, short term stay people.
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  We weren't able to check in until 4: Uh, so it's a little bit, it's interesting, I really enjoyed it.
• 4:16
  We weren't able to check in until 4: It's in, I can't remember how many cities now.
• 4:20
  We weren't able to check in until 4: It started actually in Montreal, so there's quite a few in Montreal.
• 4:23
  We weren't able to check in until 4: Um, but there are some in Europe and uh, Canada and the US for sure.
• 4:28
  We weren't able to check in until 4: So just an interesting concept, but don't be like terrified of them.
• 4:33
  We weren't able to check in until 4: We personally had really great experiences, so Good to know.
• 4:37
  We weren't able to check in until 4: Yeah, so that is all we have for this week.
• 4:40
  We weren't able to check in until 4: You can find us on our website travel mug podcast.com, and on social media at Travel Mug Podcast.
• 4:46
  We weren't able to check in until 4: We would love it if you left us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or you could support the show through Buy Me a Coffee and until next time.
• 4:55
  We weren't able to check in until 4: Bye everyone.