Staying in a Sonder Apartment in London

Note: Sonder hosted us for a complimentary stay, but, of course, all opinions are my own.

My husband and I had the opportunity to stay in a Sonder apartment on a recent trip to London. Sonder offers short term – but still stylish – apartment rentals in select cities. When I’m traveling, I absolutely love to stay outside the tourist zone, and explore the more local neighborhoods. Those cool neighborhoods often don’t have hotels, so we end up renting apartments.

This time, our Sonder neighborhood was SO local that we accidentally found ourselves staying three blocks from one of my old friends! Read on to hear all about our experience with Sonder.

What is Sonder?

Sonder offers stylish short term apartment rentals in select cities worldwide. Sonder’s goal is to offer hotel style convenience and amenities – so you can expect seamless check-in and a spotless space.

But Sonder helps travelers stay in neighborhood where locals actually live and the apartments have more character than many hotels.

Booking with Sonder

Booking an apartment with Sonder is a breeze. Just click here, see if Sonder offers apartments in your destination city, and search your dates.

Checking In

The check-in process was one of my favorite aspects of staying with Sonder. Before we arrived, Sonder sent us an email with passcodes for the front door of the building as well as the apartment unit. The email also had a ton of other useful information like:

• a handy map showing us the exact location of the apartment,
• a phone number we could text with any questions or issues because Sonder knows that no one likes making phone calls anymore,
• the WiFi network and password,
• a link to Uber embedded in the email, so we could easily order a ride to the apartment,
• parking information,
• an option for luggage storage, if we needed to store our bags before or after our stay since Sonder doesn’t have a front desk or on-site concierge,
• check-out instructions, and
• recommendations for 4 pubs/restaurants near the apartment for us to check out.

The fact that this was all sent to me by email before we arrived made our stay so seamless. We didn’t have to wait around for anyone to get a set of keys, since we accessed the apartment by passcode.

The Neighborhood

We rented a Sonder apartment on the border of London’s Camden Town and Kentish Town. We chose the area because we wanted to explore a London neighborhood that we didn’t know very well.

My husband grew up in London, but never had the chance to live in the area. So it was a perfect choice for our Sonder apartment.

As I mentioned in the intro to this post, we had NO IDEA that our Sonder apartment was three blocks away from our friends’ place. Luckily, we realized this the night before we checked out.

Obviously that was a huge coincidence, but it also goes to show you that Sonder really does select interesting and trendy local neighborhoods. Because I totally trust those friends’ taste and they are really happy with the location of their home.

Our Sonder apartment was walking distance from public transportation, a grocery store and a number of stylish pubs. During our stay, my husband mentioned multiple times that he would live in this area if we moved to London.

And he’s a Brooklyn-based graphic designer whose job is based on knowing what’s cool, so I promise you he has VERY discerning taste.

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The Apartment

Our one bedroom apartment was spacious and spotlessly clean. It had a full kitchen and dining area, flatscreen TV (that we didn’t use), and seating area. The kitchen had a coffee maker, coffee and tea, sugar, salt and olive oil.

The bathroom had a big soaker tub, fluffy towels and travel sized versions of high end shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion. The bedroom was a bit more glam with velvet pillows, a sparkly striped wall and gold lamps.

The apartment felt like a hotel in the sense that it was very uncluttered. For example, there were two decorative books on the coffee table and a couple of vases. But not much else.

It wasn’t like renting a person’s home, where you would also see their book collection and other personal belongings. That could be a huge plus if you don’t love renting spaces that are actually lived in by their owners (unless you love to snoop, lol!).

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Checking Out

Checking out of the Sonder apartment was a breeze. All we had to do was wash any dirty dishes, turn the lights off, and shut the door. Since the apartment and building door had passcodes rather than keys, we didn’t have to coordinate dropping off the keys to anyone.

All in all, we had a great stay with Sonder and I’m so grateful that Sonder (accidentally) helped me spend an afternoon with an old friend. Have you had a chance to stay with Sonder yet?

xx

Vicki

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