Merchant LES Hotel — Hotel in New York

OVERALL (5/5) Modern, minimal, and surprisingly full-service for a Sonder property. Great Lower East Side location, comfortable rooms, and solid amenities including a rooftop bar and small gym.

LOCATION (4/5) -- Located in the Lower East Side (LES), a hip and trendy neighborhood with lots of eclectic energy. -- Great neighborhood for nights out, walkable to hundreds of lively restaurants and bars. But can be loud if you want to sleep early. -- Walkable to the F/J/M/Z train.

ROOM (5/5) -- Upgraded to the top-floor corner unit (#1504) with wraparound, floor-to-ceiling windows and views spanning downtown to midtown. -- Room was modern with exposed concrete. -- Included Nespresso coffee machine, but no steamer or iron.

GYM/FITNESS (3/5) -- Small gym with one bench, a functional trainer, free weights up to 50 lbs, and a few treadmills and bikes. -- New equipment and gym was kept clean -- Sufficient for a quick workout, but limited for much else. -- No pool or other spa facilities.

BAR/RESTAURANT (5/5) -- Bar Tetto is the rooftop bar with 360° views of lower Manhattan and trendy ambience. -- Cafe Bon Ami is a coffee shop in the hotel lobby. -- There was also a restaurant on the first floor, but I never saw it open (maybe it’s still being developed). (I didn’t get to eat or drink at any of the restaurants, but all seemed very nice.)

ELITE BENEFITS (4/5) -- Upgraded to a top-floor corner room. -- Welcome gift included pretzels and bottled water. -- 4pm late checkout honored,but not able to offer Your24 beyond that. (These are the benefits provided to me as an Ambassador Elite.)

SERVICE (5/5) -- Friendly service overall. -- Sonder app includes messaging, and I was able to request ice to be delivered to the room. -- Didn’t interact much with staff due to Sonder-style operations, but all encounters were positive.

OTHER NOTES -- There was a water leak from the rooftop bar, but it didn't really impact me much. -- Unlike most Sonders, this one was 24/7 staffing, so they also offer...

I stayed at The Merchant for a week and I would definitely recommend this place. However, some things to note. This hotel is beautiful but it’s brand new so there were a couple of teething problems. Annoyingly the air conditioning in our room wasn’t working and we were there on some super humid days (25 degrees on some days) and the room was super hot. The staff were so helpful and accommodating, they got us fans and offered to move us to a different room which I declined as I preferred my room with the view. We had an issue when someone had to access our room for maintenance repairs and when we came back, we found that it wasn’t put back properly and it was actually a serious health and safety issue. I cannot thank the staff for doing everything they could to rectify this problem. I was compensated for this issue which I greatly appreciate. I want to especially shout out Rob, Hamza, Bre and Ashley for amazing customer service. They genuinely went above and beyond and didn’t make me feel like I was being unreasonable at any moment. The rooms are beautiful. I stayed in a king room with a view. And wow the view was beautiful. The beds are super comfy, the room is spacious and the bathroom was delightful with the most beautiful gold finishes. I also thought the shampoo and other amenities were great! They had just opened up the rooftop bar when we were there and it’s a must see! The hotel is in the perfect location especially for food, coffee, shopping etc. Things nearby I would recommend KiKi’s (Greek cuisine), Cervo’s (seafood) and loads others. For bars, you’re spoilt for choice! You’ve got so many on your doorstep. Would...

Book if you don’t mind losing your money and booking last minute.

Sonder is an irresponsible and unethical company. They took non-refundable bookings for The Merchant, and then close to my trip moved me to another Sonder accommodation which was at an inconvenient location. I asked for a refund, and received a refund amount of over $100 less than what I paid for. Understandably there were some currency exchange differences from the date of the booking to the date of refund. But losing 10% of your booking on this is unheard of. There might have been some bank charges that took some of this refund amount but was I responsible for this?

When I raised this to Sonder, they said that they are not responsible for me losing this amount and won’t do anything about it (sorry you lost $100+ but too bad for you). I also had to find an alternative hotel which by this time cost more since it was close to my date of travel.

My point is — why open your hotel to non refundable bookings AND charge people—of who many would be using foreign credit cards—even though you are not ready to welcome guests?

But the lack of understanding and empathy is what is most appalling. They just simply said sorry it’s non of our business. Oh and add to that the refund emails were ignored for over 2 weeks and I had to...