No 284 Powered by Sonder

The space was beautiful and the location couldn’t be beat. It’s an old building, though, so very drafty. There were some issues when I arrived (TV and electric kettle weren’t working), but they were resolved.

It was clean, GREAT location. Staff was very responsive and friendly even though it was all on the internet. I didn’t care for the beds, pretty uncomfortable for both me and my husband. But we would stay again 100%.

During my recent stay at Sonder in Boston, I encountered a few issues that impacted my overall experience. Our arrival was well ahead of the 4 PM check-in time, around 11 AM, and we had planned to use the hotel’s luggage storage facilities, as advised by their customer service. However, we were disappointed to find that the larger lockers were already full, leaving us with no storage option. Seeking assistance, we approached the office staff to ask if we could temporarily leave our luggage there. Unfortunately, the staff member was unable to accommodate our request, explaining that he might be out for the day. He suggested using a nearby service called Bounce for luggage storage, stating it was a short walk away. While I appreciate the alternative solution, it felt like a dismissal of our immediate needs and lacked a customer-focused approach. We also explored the possibility of an early check-in or leaving our luggage in our room, but were informed that neither option was feasible due to language barriers with the housekeeping staff. This rigidity and apparent reluctance to help guests was quite disheartening. The room itself was satisfactory and conveniently located. However, a note of caution, the shower door in our room was poorly sealed, leading to water leakage on the bathroom floor. This initial experience, coupled with the inflexibility we faced, might influence my decision to choose a different brand in the future.

Back bay is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Boston and staying in the resident style building seemed great. While the room wasn’t super clean initially (there was some blood on the bed sheet when we first got in..?), we were still enjoying this little place, it was a small old building but renovated to somewhat modern style. We didn’t have much problem with the contactless interactions and keyless was convenient. Location was perfect on Newbury st. Everything was good.. until the second night. We woke up at 2:30 in the morning when the woman nextdoor started singing very loud. We couldn’t stand it anymore and contacted Sonder chat at 3 for help. The agent said there’s nothing he can do as there’s no one onsite and told us to have a better night. Seriously? If they don’t have front desk, why don’t they at least have someone on site for emergency? They clearly had house rule for no extreme noise, how does it matter if people don’t follow it and there’s no one to enforce it. We were up until 4am and had to actually knock nextdoor so that we could sleep again. No way for a better night. Very frustrating and disappointing, I will stay in a proper hotel with appropriate staff/service next time.

Property was good. Close to many different shopping and food options. Parking is definitely an issue! We had to park several blocks away in a parking garage that charged $45 a day. It would have been nice to know this up front so it wasn't such a shock.

The location was brilliant, walking distance to great restaurants, shopping and lots of attractions. The room was spacious with nice tall sealing, however the fireplace didn’t work and we couldn’t turn off the light on one of the night table lamps, we had to unscrew the lightbulb, but all that was minor, what really made us frustrated was the check in or rather lack of it. After booking the place, we got a message from Sonders that 3 days before our arrival we will get an e-mail with check in instructions which we never received. There is no phone number on their website to call, fortunately there was a number on the door which I called and after getting to talk to a person I was given a code to open the door. The code didn’t work. You can imagine how frustrated at that point we were, 1am standing at the door with luggage and not being able to get in. The lady on the other end was trying to get hold of somebody to figure out why the code doesn’t work but she couldn’t get hold of them. Anyways after about 15 min of standing there on the street in cold, not knowing if the area is safe I ended up figuring out why the code was not working, the lady gave us 5 digits code and it was supposed to be 6, hallelujah for the sign on the door. I just tried to add one digit in front and that got us in. Also we were not provided with instructions where and how to go about when it comes to change towels, get more toiletries or coffee.

Check in was very poor and difficult after a long travel. The gentleman greeting me couldn’t have been more unhelpful if he tried. I needed to wait for him to finish his break and then I wasn’t able to access the room and had to wait outside. Also surprised there was no cleaning / bins were not changed for a 5 day stay.

Highly recommend! We absolutely loved this place- we stayed on the top floor suite with the rooftop patio. Amazing! Great lighting in the room and we loved spending fall nights on the patio next to the fire. Also cannot beat this area. Gorgeous scenery and just a block from all the shops and restaurants on Newbury and more.

Great location, charming building. I prefer this boutique experience over a very large hotel.