Minjun and Kevin Ngo were in the middle of a two-week stay at a Sonder rental in New York City when they were notified by Marriott they’d need to evacuate the property immediately.
The couple was in between apartment leases, so this Sonder rental was the only place they had to stay.
“Now that they’ve canceled the reservation, we have to go look for another hotel, and hotels are way more expensive right now,” Minjun said in a TikTok video posted Monday.
@minjunandkevin We got kicked out of our hotel reservation at Sonders in New York City that we booked through Marriott 😭 @@Marriott Bonvoy@@Sonder @Minjun and Kevin | Travel ##marriott##sonders##hotel##nyc♬ original sound – Minjun and Kevin | Travel
They were among thousands of customers who had been hung out to dry due to Marriott’s abrupt split from short-term rental company Sonder, which acts somewhat like AirBnb, but properties are more apartment or hotel style. On Tuesday, Sonder customers were notified by Marriott that their partnership had ended, and they had less than 24 hours to vacate the properties in which they were staying.
“I think it’s just inconceivable that a corporate entity could treat human beings that way,” Bonnie Strahs, a Sonder guest in Philadelphia told local news station ABC6 on Monday.
Georgia Fowkes, a travel advisor with Altezza Travel, told Fortune there’s really no precedent in which guests were told to vacate.
“There’s been plenty of brand exits before, but I can’t recall a precedent where guests were literally told mid-stay to pack up their belongings and leave immediately,” she said. “Sorry, that’s not justifiable at all, it’s a complete breakdown of hospitality at its core.”
Sonder and Marriott’s partnership
Sonder and Marriott had launched a partnership in 2024, planning to add thousands of Sonder’s apartment-style units to Marriott’s global portfolio. But financial turbulence at Sonder undermined the agreement, leading to Marriot’s abrupt abandonment of the partnership because of Sonder’s default.
Both companies had also expressed difficulties with tech integration, which caused substantial delays in integrating Sonder’s systems with Marriott’s booking and reservation platforms. This also led to unanticipated costs for Sonder, resulting in significant revenue declines. Sonder’s Q2 2025 financial results, released in October, showed a $101 million net loss for the first half of the year—a staggering 469% decrease year-over-year—as well as a stockholders’ deficit of more than $715 million.
“We are devastated to reach a point where a liquidation is the only viable path forward,” Janice Sears, interim CEO of Sonder, said in a statement published Monday.
Sonder didn’t respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
What Marriott is doing
Marriott said in a statement published Monday its “immediate priority” was helping guests staying at Sonder properties and those with upcoming reservations. The company said it would contact guests who booked directly though Marriott, but said guests who booked through a third party would have to contact those organizations.
However, guests expressed frustrations with both Sonder and Marriott during the debacle.
In one video, Kevin Ngo said he had contacted Marriott to ensure the message he had received about the evacuation was even real, considering how abrupt and strange it felt. Another TikTok user, @allthingsluchi, said she also thought the message she received about her canceled booking was “spam” because of how absurd it seemed.
@allthingsluchi This isn’t a joke. Very disappointed in how this was handled. @Sonder @Marriott Bonvoy @Marriott Hotels #adulting#hotel#traveltiktok#roadtrip#allthingsluchi♬ original sound – Luchi | Traveling Introvert
“Imagine my surprise—the Lord’s Day, Sunday—I get an email, which I registered as spam, because it made no sense,” she said. “Whatever’s happening in the divorce, leave the kids out of it.”
When Kevin was on the phone with Marriott, he said Marriott suggested he just book a new property on the site. But he said this seemed unfair, considering hotel prices are much higher now than they were when he and his wife had originally booked.
“This is really disappointing because we’ve stayed with Marriott a lot,” Minjun said. “This is probably the worst level of customer service I’ve ever received. How is this even a thing?”
Marriott didn’t respond to Fortune’s request for comment on how the company intends to help impacted customers.
“As a travel professional—if any of my clients had been affected by this I would be livid—and the folks who have been kicked out of their hotel room without warning are indeed livid,” Robert S. Kraus, founder of Small Conferences, told Fortune. “Marriott has only themselves to blame.”
And while Sonder customers who were already in the middle of bookings were left stranded, there are also many customers with upcoming bookings who are scrambling to find alternative accommodations—especially with the busy holiday travel season looming.
“I need help,” TikTok user Jaycee Brammer said in a video posted Tuesday. Her reservation in New York City over Christmas time had been cancelled by Sonder. She had asked Marriott “at bare minimum” if they could book her at a different hotel at the same rate.
They told her no, that they couldn’t do anything, and that their cheapest hotel was $150 more expensive per night than her previous reservation. She got crickets when she tried contacting Sonder, although she was empathetic toward Sonder’s employees who had been sacked due to the default.
As if the abrupt cancellations for thousands of customers wasn’t bad enough, Sonder’s employees were also let go due to the partnership termination.
“We learned about [the termination] the same day and we had to kick out all of the guests,” another TikTok user and Sonder employee said in a video this week.
“Although we knew something was going on, we just didn’t know it would happen like this,” former Sonder employee Eboni Rivera said in a TikTok video.
Travel advisor Fowkes also told Fortune that “surely, Sonder’s financial troubles weren’t a secret for the industry.”
“So when Marriott says the breakup came ‘unexpectedly,’ well, nobody will buy it,” she said. “The real question is why Marriott entered that partnership in the first place? If they were not ready to protect their own guests when—not if, but when—things go bad.”
