Sonder the Industrialist

The big surprise they hide is that the shower is unusable. It's installed around a foundational beam, leaving only a space of 18" for you to stand in and take a shower. In order to move around, be prepared for full contact with walls and curtains. The sink also prevents you from washing your face, because of a shelf. The entire place was falling apart. The vents into the room were full of crud. The curtains did not work. The windows do not open. When reaching management about the problem, I was ignored. I imagine this is part of the design for more than just my room.

The location is pretty solid for exploring Brooklyn, but the building itself has some bad issues. For starters it’s adjacent to a big construction site that looks like it’ll be ongoing for quite some time, and you can hear every hammer strike and every time the freight elevator goes up and down etc. We sprung for the “nice” balcony room, and the bathroom was a complete failure: the sink AND the shower were both at a pitch such that the water couldn’t all drain out, leaving a gross soapy puddle every time you used either one. There was also very poor lighting in the bathroom and an access panel into the ceiling that was left unfinished and unsecured so you could hear rats running around up there and sometimes it would just fall open. The carpet was very dirty and the door to the balcony wouldn’t lock. We also had zero control over the temperature (thermostat was set to 82° and it never got above 65° in the room with an outside temp of about 40°). Sonder will never score very well on service because of their hands off model, but even within the pared down service they offer, this place was disappointing: the night security guard (who we met several times) went out of his way to be unhelpful and condescending whenever we were entering etc, if he looked up from his phone at all. Overall, this place would make sense if you were paying ＜$100/night, but you’d be better off at a red roof inn 9/10 times.

The room was amazing... the staff -- when they were there -- were some of the friendliest, most helpful people I've encountered this year. But unless you're okay with handing people copies of your legal documents, good luck checking in if the floating front desk person is at another property. I had to wait 20 minutes for someone to appear. And the rooms are industrial minimalist, though the bed is super-firm and they views are amazing. The shower head is a true rain shower setting...which is all good.

Walkable to a variety of places, room was nice, only complaint was the TV situation and having to fo through a bunch of steps and apps.

The hotel was very self-service as expected, using a code for the exterior door as well as the room, which was fine. The bathroom only had one can light over the shower so the vanity area was VERY poorly lit, I had to bring in the bedside lamp to get a little more light to do makeup/hair. The TV had to run updates and then never worked, it also did not extend out so it was not possible to watch TV from the bed.

The room was clean and the bed was comfortable, staff friendly. But the space was too small and there was only one chair. The coffee maker left grounds in the coffee. Bathroom shower was good but too much water splashed onto the floor, there was no fan and lack of adequate counter space…lighting very poor for doing makeup.

The hotel staff was great. The hotel itself was very basic. If you just need a place to stay and no amenities it is fine.

I chose this hotel because at the time of booking it was the closest to my relative’s apartment. The hotel had the courtesy to provide ear plugs, not for the traffic—which was not an issue, but for the bone jarring construction going on directly across from our unit—not the hotel’s fault, but guests beware for the next, what 6 months to a year(?), there will be workers making extremely loud noise, all day, 6 days a week—starting promptly at 7 am.

At last I found a hotel that shares my philosophy of living simply. I really liked the efficient use of space and the well-thought out function and design. This is the first hotel where I felt right at home. I will definitely stay here again—nothing negative to report!