Marriott is asking guests who were booted out of Sonder properties to go to their credit card companies for refunds.
On Sunday, the hotel chain abruptly ended its licensing agreement with Sonder Holdings, a short-term rental firm, and directed guests staying in Sonder properties to vacate the buildings on short notice. Sonder filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Monday.
Now, affected guests say Marriott is backing out of its promise to help obtain refunds for their ruined Sonder stays.
On Tuesday, the hotel operator said on its FAQ page that customers who had made a Sonder reservation through Marriott channels should “contact your credit card issuing bank to initiate a refund request.”
This is a change from previous communications. On Sunday, Marriott said that customers who had booked a Sonder property through Marriott’s channels would get a full refund.
“A refund for the remaining portion of your stay will be processed on the card on which the advance deposit was processed, and we are working with the credit card processor to get the refund processed as quickly as possible,” Marriott wrote in a Sunday email to guests, which guests shared with Business Insider.
Representatives for Marriott did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Rick van Wijngaarden, a retired banker who was supposed to stay at a Sonder property in NYC for four days in December, said on Sunday that Marriott had not provided him a refund or a solution after several phone calls. He said his credit card was charged about $800 for the stay.
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“Their advice literally was to go fight the charge with the credit card company,” he told Business Insider on Monday.
Craig Murphy, a 59-year-old health insurance broker from Houston who was supposed to stay at a Sonder residence in New Orleans this week for his daughter’s wedding, said he was unhappy with this change.
He said the new instruction was “contrary to what I was provided by Marriott customer service, where they told me that I would automatically receive a refund.”
“This appears to be yet another example of Marriott avoiding direct responsibility for the mishap,” he added. Murphy said he uses a Chase-Marriott credit card.
Chase and major credit-card issuers Visa, American Express, and Mastercard did not respond to a request for comment about how they’re handling chargeback requests.
Sonder runs 7,700 apartments in about 140 properties globally.
