Sonder Gabriel Richard Apartments Downtown — Hotel in Detroit

I loved staying at this location with some caveats. I really liked how spacious the two-bedroom apartment was. It was clean, spartan, and a little dated. You could see the wear. There is only one bathroom and it needs hooks or shelves -- there aren't places to put things. There was only 1 fork in the kitchen, so we went out and got disposable. I imagine folks have been stealing or losing their stuff, because there were PLENTY of spoons.||I stayed in the bigger of two bedrooms and it had a huge walk in closet. You could probably fit a twin bed in there and make it another bedroom! I loved the comfortable king bed in there, but (since I stayed out late) I wasn't a fan of the bright light coming in from the super tall windows (they need blackout curtains!!!) They have curtains but they are for privac, bot for black out and the windows go all the way from mid-wall to the ceiling. The 2nd smaller bedroom is internal, right by the front door, and gets ZERO light because there are ZERO windows. This is great for night owls but could be considered a little claustrophobic. That bedroom has water pipes going across the ceiling that make A LOT of water noises. Everytime someone flushes or showers, it sounds like a bucket of water is being dropped on your head. There were no leaks, but that could affect your dreams. The person in that room, said that he wouldn't stay at that place again. I loved my room, so I felt bad for them.||The service at the Sonder is mostly wonderful. I didn't care for the Sonder app. I don't like downloading random apps just for a weekend, so I never downloaded the app, which means that I couldn't ask for early or late check out, since that is all through the app. The "front desk" folks are nice and helped when my door code didn't work. I put "front desk" in quotes because the lobby is a small narrow space and there is a tiny desk right at the front door that serves as the "front desk." I arrived at 7am but check in isn't until 3pm, so I actually slept in the lobby until a reasonable hour and then stored my bag in the luggage closet (accessible with your front door code) while I went and got brunch with some friends. So luggage storage is really easy, but maybe not the MOST secure since everyone in the building has access to it.||The room I had was directly across from the gym on the second floor, which was actually very convenient because there was fresh filtered water there. I did use the treadmill one day and I think I was the only person in that gym all weekend. Even though we were directly across from the gym and the elevator, we couldn't here them.||Side note: a lot of people mentioned getting bumped from their reservation at this place because they overbook, and in the hours that I was in the lobby waiting to check in, I saw this happen to an older woman who had booked through Expedia. The hotel put them up at the Indigo across the street, which is a nice hotel, but not the same as an apartment with a kitchen. Keep in mind this hotel will prioritize bookings made through their website and through AirBnB before bookings made through third party websites, so be aware.||I would absolutely stay here again, but now I understand that the apartments are not all made equal and the rooms are not all equal. This is a quirky older building with lots of character, right in the thick of Detroit. I could walk to Hart Plaza, Greektown, and Ford Field within 20 minutes. There is also a Whole Foods a bit away and it's easy to take a car service or the bus there...

We enjoyed a wonderful stay at the Sonder Gabriel, Detroit and a great weekend with family visiting downtown Detroit.

We researched this location and read many reviews, so our expectations were set realistically. The Sonder is located in an older building that shares space with renters. The lobby is well used and could use a facelift, as could the hallway carpet. Beyond these small details, every other aspect of our stay was excellent.

We arrived just after 3:00 for a 4:00 check-in. Our room was ready and we were graciously allowed to check-in a bit early. The staff was very attentive and friendly, always, every time we came and went. The building was updating its WiFi on the Friday we checked in so that presented a few hiccups getting into our key-pad locked room and reconfiguring the Roku. The staff communicated well and these glitches were fixed in no time.

The room, a king suite with a view, was beautiful. Modern. Clean. Very comfortable. Loved everything about it. Our bed was very comfortable, with warm and clean bedding. So many pillows! The bathroom was clean and had a functional shower with lots of hot water. We didn't. use the washer and dryer but appreciated that we could have. The kitchen was large and well stocked. We made coffee each morning in our Cuisinart coffee maker. We ran our dishes through the full size dishwasher when we left. For an extended stay, the kitchen would have been wonderful.

We had three large windows with a nice view from the 7th floor. One window was drafty, but overall the temperature of the room was comfortable. . Our unit was at the end of the hallway so it was very quiet. Only heard vague neighbor-noise one night; not a problem as it was brief. The street noise was not an issue on Friday and Saturday nights.

We enjoyed access to a Roku, signing into apps with our account information. The option to automatically be signed out of all apps upon checkout was a nice touch. We liked lying in bed and watching our show.

The location was perhaps the best feature. Walking distance from everything downtown and literally a stone throw away from the People Mover Michigan Ave stop. It made getting around a breeze. Combined with the Q-Line, which is also free to visitors, access to sights by foot is completely doable. Any visitor to downtown Detroit knows that the food, entertainment, culture and shopping options are plentiful. We had a full and enjoyable weekend taking in the holiday lights at a time of year that crowds were minimal (January 10-12).

Other reviewers comment on the homeless population. Detroit’s a city with much diversity. Be kind. Be generous with dollar bills you plan to distribute (in your pocket; don’t take out your wallet). Treat others like you would like to be treated. You will be fine. The vibrancy of the city allows for a feeling of safety from morning to late night in well-traveled areas.

We parked across the street from the Sidner’s front door in an outdoor, gated, 24/7 attended lot for $30/day. Very convenient and felt very safe. We had access to our car anytime, though we had no need to use it during our two-day stay. We could see our car as we came and went. There’s also an indoor lot with 24/7 staff and ability to come and go two blocks away, same fee.

We would absolutely recommend the Sonder and will return for a...

My experience with booking and canceling a stay was among the worst I've ever had with a hotel. The amount of time I wasted totaled about half a working day. If their on-site hospitality is anything like their reservations system, it would be a nightmare to stay here.

I had to book twice because my first booking was canceled without my authorization. I had to spend well over an hour on the phone to fix the situation, going from Sonder to Marriott and back more than once, since apparently they operate like two different companies even though Sonder is a Marriott property. It took me days via email to get anyone to provide a cancelation policy with a declaration of how long in advance the cancelation needed to be requested. How can you call it a cancelation policy if you don't say how long in advance you have to cancel? For a while they tried to gaslight me by acting like they had provided a legitimate policy. Here is the policy they initially gave me: "Our cancellation policies vary depending on the rate you choose." This is after I had given them my credit card information and they had sent me a receipt, so they knew my rate.

After all of this I was still hoping to stay there at a conference. But unfortunately my plans changed and I needed to cancel. I sent an email to Sonder with a forward of my receipt, including the confirmation number and asked to cancel. There was no response two days later and I was worried that my business travel card was going to be charged, so I called. I gave the representative my confirmation number and she put me on hold while "looking up my reservation". With a proper system and proper training, I dont see why that would require putting me on hold, but I figured it would only take a few minutes. Several minutes in, they came back on the line and said they were still working on it. 15 minutes in they came back on again and apologized, but said they were still working on it. What could take that long about looking up a reservation?

When nearly half an hour had gone by, the representative got on the line again and said that this was considered a group reservation, since I got a rate associated with conference I had planned on attending. They said I should contact the group to have the reservation canceled. I said I was not going to do that, because I had made the reservation through them, and I knew they were able to cancel it, since they had already done so once previously. She said she would get back to her team and find a way to cancel, and then call me back.

Then she texted me about a half hour later and said again that I would need to contact the organizers of my conference and have them cancel.

I finally found a number for Marriott (that was not on the Marriott site). And a representative there finally helped me cancel the...