Sonder Duane Street

Well located for easy access to many a tourist attractions like 9/11 Memorial, WTC , Charging Bull etc. Easy access to subway network. Staff is friendly polite and very courteous. Overall a pleasant place to stay.

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.

Do not be confused with the former Duane Street Hotel, located at the same address in Manhattan. This Sonder facility is nothing like the namesake whose name it has co-opted. The hotel is filthy, with no real staff (just a lone unhelpful person at the door, stuck behind her computer), the rooms tiny, even for NYC. I asked for ice, was told I could buy some at the 7-11 down the street. The "lobby" is just a couple of chairs by the scratched and dirty door. My wife and I checked in, arrived at our cramped, noisy and astonishingly depressing room and decided to find another hotel nearby. Stayed 15 minutes and relocated (the first time ever for us to do that). The next day I contacted Sonder management online and requested a refund. They gave me half back, which you may consider fair, but I believe the entire operation is a misrepresentation of the former boutique hotel and is simply a second-rate hostel with a tony address. As to my photos, just a couple of quick shots as I was retreating to the street.

Cancelled my reservation online shortly after booking but never received a confirmation email. When I noticed two days later they refused to (even partially) reimburse the money, despite this clearly being an IT failure on their side. On top of this the customer experience was really poor as I had to wait 45min to speak to a live agent who wasn’t able to help at all. Can only recommend choosing another hotel to stay in NYC!

no hot water