Sonder Downtown Towers Apartments — Hotel in Dubai

Security incident and the worst hotel experience ever:

I stayed with my family for two weeks. While we were in the outdoor pool, someone threw a bottle from one of the hotel room which we thought was like a bomb, it hit the ground, broke and one small particle injured my wife’s eye. We informed hotel security immediately , someone from hotel management came after 10min, although I insisted to call either security or police as it’s a serious event, but he said it’s not possible to find that person anyway, we don’t have cameras capturing either balconies or pool due to the privacy. Cleaner told that the same thing happened few days ago also. As a compensation hotel manager offered 3 free nights within a year, once we have done check out, he never answered my calls or messages.

Unbearable smell in the room: Once we arrived at the hotel, the kids went to their room and after a few minutes they ran away due to the unbearable smell in their room. I called the reception and informed them about the very bad smell, and asked if someone could come and check if maybe there is a rat dead under the bed. Maintenance team came in an hour, confirmed the smell, just put some spray and said tomorrow we will come and change the AC filter, it's due to the bad filter. They never did, we had to put windows open for few days just to get out of the bad smell.

Cold rooms without heating: Last week in Dubai it was rainy and cold, we were freezing in the room, called them to help us to adjust the AC to warm up the rooms, they came and said you can only turn off the AC, we do not have any kind of heating availability. In the middle of the night, I had to ask for a few more blankets to cover the kids where they got sick anyway.

Hot water unavailability : On our first day, we wanted to fill the bath and take a shower, but after 10min, hot water ran out. After talking to the maintenance team, we were informed that unfortunately their hot water tank capacity is 50l only and it's normal to run out of the hot water in the middle of the shower, we just need to wait 15min every time, after that it will be warmer :)

Cleaning challenge: We called them on the 5th day of our stay and asked for the cleaning, they did not come and promised to come the next day, where they did not again, after 2 days we tried to conceive them that we really need housekeeping as it was new year and we want our apartment to be clean, they said we can only send someone to change the blankets :) I had to go to reception, complain madly, show them the contract that weekly cleaning is a part of it, only after 3 days ( on the 8th day) we managed to get cleaning.

Not allowed to watch fireworks: Because my daughter was sick, we had to come back from new year dinner early with the hope to watch fireworks from our hotel. As our room has sea view and firework is not visible from the room, we decided to go the gym&pool area to watch the burj khalifa fireworks just 10 min before the new year, and securities did not allow us, they said pool and gym closes at 10, we could not watch the fireworks from the hotel :) There were many people fighting the security for their unprofessional approach and complaining they paid so much money just to watch the fireworks at the hotel and now they are not allowed.

Note: I am super easy person and never complain easily but this experience was one...

I usually don’t leave negative reviews, but my recent experience at sonder downtown was so disappointing that I feel compelled to share it. Unfortunately, it was a series of issues that led to a very unsatisfactory stay.||First and foremost, the pool, which was one of the main reasons I booked the hotel, was unexpectedly closed for maintenance during my stay. No prior notice was given, and it was incredibly frustrating to find out on arrival. This could have been communicated ahead of time so I could have made a more informed decision.||Additionally, 2 out of the 3 lifts were out of order throughout our entire stay, which made things extremely inconvenient. The hotel is several stories tall, so having only one lift working meant long waits and, at times, being stuck in a cramped space. It was really unpleasant.||It takes 20 minutes minimum to go down to reception even with all lifts working thats because there are 150 apartments per tower and only 3 lifts, no service lifts. Guests share lifts with the service staff. There is a lot of staff. ||To make matters worse, there were water works taking place during our stay. We were told not to use the water and had to leave it running for 15 minutes before it was usable. This felt both wasteful and frustrating, especially when basic amenities like this are essential for a comfortable stay.||The customer service was another letdown. When I raised concerns about the issues with the lifts and water, the staff didn’t seem to care or offer any sort of solution. It was hard to get any kind of helpful response, and it felt like the staff were not properly trained or motivated to resolve issues.||Overall, this was a very disappointing stay, especially considering the price I paid. The lack of communication, poor customer service, and numerous issues with basic amenities really impacted my experience. I would not recommend staying here, and I won’t be returning unless significant...

They let you sleep in a apartment with gas leak. Life-threatening behavior, unprofessionalism of the team.

In the middle of our stay, we pointed out that we could hear something leaking from the stove. Subsequently the team came, said they had checked it and fine. They offered to change our room but assured us that everything was 100% and we could rely on the maintanence team and everything would be ok.

Two days later we were woken up at 1am by a GAS ALARM. I quickly ran out opened the windows, turned off the gas supply and the gas alarm went silent. Apparently we had a gas leak in the kitchen even after making sure everything was ok. Now comes the funny part.

We ran to the front desk at 1am and asked them to change our room, saying we weren't going to sleep there. Unfortunately, they told us they would not change the room because they didn't have one. And even though there is one room available, it will be occupied tomorrow. Yes, they let us sleep in the room that had a gas leak a few minutes ago. They offered to have the maintenance team check it out. Absolutely unacceptable. I told them to completely disconnect the entire supply to the apartment, otherwise we won't be sleeping anywhere.

The next day they told us it was just a gas alarm fault and everything was fine. After explaining that if you open the windows and the gas alarm goes off, it's probably not a fault because there was obviously gas. The manager offered us a 40% refund of the stay. With a laugh I eventually accepted, even though we appreciate the cost of living here in Europe a bit more.

Even more funny part? At check-in the next day, the second manager informs me that management has decided to refund only one night. So congratulations!

How much do you value the lives of your customers? One...