Sonder at St. John's Garden

I must caveat this review - I got a refund for 2 nights. I’m normally good at reading reviews on Tripadvisor, but for this stay with Sonder I (stupidly) did not. All the dreadful reviews are sadly true. I booked via their website, for 3 nights at the Clerkenwell location. Once inside the building, the communal areas are dirty - filthy carpets, rubbish left out, coat hangers on the floor. The smell of poo (sewage) is overwhelming. Our room (#18, 4th floor) was only disclosed to us on the morning of check in. We climbed to the 4th (top) floor. The stairs are very narrow. Making the climb tricky with luggage… & if you have bad knees… or any form of accessibility needs. The carpets were filthy & the smell of smoking was strong. The room was tiny. TINY. There was a small double bed. A kitchenette (I could reach the sink from the bed, lying down). There was a ‘desk’, but no chair. No wardrobe, or anywhere to hang /store clothes/suitcases. One power point worked & it was behind the bed… The other power point was hanging out of the wall & unsafe to use (also behind the bed, but the other side). The room was very hot. There was a fan. But if the fan was running you could not run any other electrical appliance (laptop, phone charger, hairdryer etc). Again, the smell of poo (sewage?) was overwhelming. The ‘stocked ‘ kitchen consisted of 2 x coffee sachets , 2 x tea bags & 4 x sugar. The shower room was the smallest room I’ve ever seen & or ever been in. This room is not big enough for 2 people. My partner had to climb over the bed to get to his side, as there was no room to walk round. We had booked for 3 nights & my partner had planned to work from the room whilst I shopped. This did not happen, it was too small. I contacted Sonder, they promised to send maintenance round. By 10am the following day with no resolution, we left. One night was enough. One night was one night too many. Days later , days after we had checked out after 1 night & after much to’ing & fro’ing with Sonder, they refunded 2 of the 3 nights we had booked. Book somewhere else. This place is awful. Sonder should remove from Their listings. 0/10.

Traveled with my wife to London for our 1 year anniversary. The space was small, but cozy. We were close to the Farringdon stop on the underground and could make it to all that we planned in London. Would strongly suggest this space for a couple or solo traveling across Europe! Sonder answered and responded to all of our questions when we needed assistance which was minimum because all was well thought out!

Perfect Space for a soft landing in London! Well located, many shops and supermarkets around. Clean and Comfortable, the suite was well supplied. It’s really close to metro station. I highly recommend it! I look forward on returning back.

Fantastically CLEAN and new room, 4-to-5 star quality for 2–star price. Huge suite with separate fully appointed kitchen. Really good size for London, and really great location too - right in the city but tucked away so nice and quiet as well!

Very well situated with easy access to local amenities. The room has everything you need especially for a business trip. Short walk to Farringdon train station. Lots of local cafes, restaurants and pubs

I stayed in a single room that ended up being on the fourth floor, in the attic. It was the worst hotel experience of my life. It’s up four flights with no elevator, which is at least as advertised if annoying, but the room was disgusting. The worst offense by far is that the bathroom had a foul, terrible stench to it — it smelled like mold or a dead rat or a dead rat with mold on it. Every time I walked in I was hit by it, and running the fan and the noisy bathroom fan only barely dealt with it. So I was living in a fetid, possibly hazardous stench the whole time. Next up, the room was hot AF and the windows were tied down in such a way that they only opened about three inches, meaning it was hard to get a good ventilation system going. Maybe if it was in the 50s outside it would be fine but one day it hit 90 and it was miserable, even at night. The room amenities were partly missing, with not enough coffee to last my stay plus no dish soap and no dish sponge, and none on offer in their grotty essentials room to collect. I had to acquire all that on my own. Then you can add to that the run down state of the room, full of cheap hardware, cracks and scrapes and a worn down feel, and it was utterly miserable. And then there’s the customer service reps I complained to. When I brought all this up they said they would send someone to investigate, but nobody ever came. When I complained again they said someone came by, but when I wasn’t there so they couldn’t get in. But they never told me I had to meet the person there, much less give me a time to do that, plus they work there so they should have just gone in without me. That’s what maintenance people at hotels do! They were almost certainly lying about someone ever coming by. So they said they would send someone again. They never came. I complained again, and they said once again that they would send someone. They never came. They never came. They never came. All of it was lies. After an excruciating hour with someone on chat on night they did offer me a £204 refund. But when I explained that the room was paid by someone else so this did nothing for me, they didn’t get it. Finally, at last, they offered to transfer me to another hotel and pay for the Uber, but it was nearly 1:00am and I was too exhausted to start that process. Oh, and I asked them why the windows were bolted shut and they said it was to stop people from accidentally falling out. But the windows were so tiny that’s impossible --- the only way to get out would be to force yourself out, though honestly after several days in that hotel room I wouldn't blame someone for trying. If I had to guess I would say the real reason the windows didn't open properly was that they just like torturing people for their own amusement. Do not stay here. It is an abysmal, disgusting hellhole, and it is bad for your mental and possibly physical health. This entire hotel is in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Sonder should be tried and convicted in i

We ended up staying somewhere else as we couldn't get past the convoluted verification process to access our accommodation, we arrived in plenty of time to enter our apar**ent, started the verification process they had specified in their emails and were still sat in the stairwell two and a half hours later and our mobile phones slowly running out of charge, we managed to find somewhere else to stay( whom I have already reviewed on here) and had a fantastic time no thanks to this company

I stayed at the Sonder at St Johns Garden in a "Double Room +" category Room#7 located on the 2nd floor of the apar**ent building. I was taken in by the slick interface of the Sonder app, some generally positive reviews by friends who had stayed at other Sonder properties and the photos of the apar**ent on the website. I'm afraid I was entirely mistaken. The mixed reviews on the Tripadvisor website should have warned me off - but I have learnt to take these reviews with a pinch of salt. First off, the check in experience was smooth: the instructions on the app were crystal clear and I required no assistance in accessing my room as advertised. The towels and sheets were clean, as was the studio room itself. However, the carpets and common areas were in utter disrepair, the corridors had a peculiar musty smell that reminded me a bit of an overused drainage system. The steep walk-up almost certainly merits an elevator of some sort and the lockers on the first floor required urgent repair (and were not on the 2nd floor as listed on the app). The Studio Room was tiny - far smaller than advertised and the photo listed against this property is misleading (and was almost certainly taken either from being seated on the WC within the small bathroom or while hanging outside of a window!). The small kitchen area was well-stocked, clean and perfectly functional so certainly some positives here. But the ultimate let-down was the bathroom - the door of which was within half-arms length from the side of the bed, which would have been convenient from those suffering from incontinence. Except that the bathroom itself smelled of sewage for the 2 days that I was there and needed to be left open for ventilation (which leant itself to the lingering maloderous effect on the entire flat, and probably the corridors!). A cramped WC area which seemed like an afterthought, a bath stall which required considerable gymnastic skills to fit into (and I am by no means a large man) and an instant-water heating-apparatus which belongs to the stone ages that provided a few minutes of lukewarm water, all make this a never-to-be-experienced experience. I must recommend that Sonder takes this off its listings and retires this property for the greater good of humanity.

Really awful and unhelpful customer service. A veneer of friendliness but with no substance or actual support underlying it. Sometimes they respond to messages in French because they just do not pay attention to what their guests are actually saying.