agent

maintenance technician

maintenance tech ii

hospitality supervisor

senior sales agent

Sonder

I am a recent hire so take what I write with the usual caveat: the dream job of today can always become the nightmare job of tomorrow.

PROS:

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
My supervisors and managers always make me feel like a peer at Sonder rather than a mere subordinate. People in higher authority roles really do treat us like we are all on the same team. I always feel heard when I mention something which I feel could be improved upon and the overall culture in the Los Angeles market is very collaborative. These are the most essential signs of a healthy work culture for me.

FRONT DESK EXPERIENCE
Working as a Front Desk Hospitality Agent at Sonder (at least in the Los Angeles market) is not like working the front desk at a traditional hotel because we are often the only staff member on site. It is expected that we dip our toes into many of the different roles that traditional hotels rely upon.

In one moment I am a front desk agent greeting our guests, in another moment I am a concierge offering recommendations to guests or coordinating with the housekeepers to ensure a clean arrival for our guests, and then I am a porter assisting guests who need luggage taken to their room or held. One morning, I had to briefly fill in as a valet to unblock a guest car that had been blocked in.

In all cases, the expectation is that I am the one making the bulk of the important decisions for the hotel while I am on the clock although, naturally, some key issues are specifically set aside for supervisors or operations managers to address. All this is thrilling for me because I thrive in an environment where I am able to solve problems for people. It feels good to help in these ways and it is the main reason I wanted to get into hospitality work.

THE COMPANY
It seems to me (at first blush) that there many opportunities for advancement and for recognition. People who work here tend to be highly motivated so they understand the desire to climb the ladder and are climbing it themselves, so there are few positions (to advance into) that remain occupied. Plus, once I let my supervisor know that I was interested in moving up over time, we began planning for that climb, which is a level of proactive support I have not experienced with previous employers.

CONS:

COMPENSATION 
I think the compensation for this role is actually quite strong, at least compared to previous employers. Unfortunately, this IS Los Angeles and it would be impossible to live on my own with the hourly wage provided. In fact, the current hourly wage for a Sonder Front Desk Hospitality Agent qualifies a person in Los Angeles as being in the 'low income' bracket for affordable housing criteria, and the annual rate is only about $1000 above the 'very low income' bracket. 

No matter how good the current FDHA wage happens to be for the national market, it is far from ideal for the Los Angeles market. An hourly wage within the $25 to $30 range (when taking the cost of rent in the area into account) would make the average studio or one bedroom apartment in Los Angeles much more accessible for Sonder employees. 

FRONT DESK EXPERIENCE
Although I love the structure of the FDHA role here, not everyone is going to like it. Some people coming from traditional hotels may find that the role includes responsibilities that are typically taken on by other roles in traditional hotels, and they may also find the expectation that we 'handle it all' a bit daunting if they are accustomed to having supervisors or managers on site to take on the higher stress tasks. It is not a personal failing if someone is not up to this, or if this role does not conform to their expectations! But it is definitely something to keep in mind. You are also expected to log a certain number of hours on SalesForce, communicating with various guests around the world to help resolve their problems. I include this here because my personal feeling is that this sort of online support and service role really should be exclusive to online customer service staff. Front desk agents have too much that can come up in the lobby, at all hours of the day and night, to be worrying about guests who are not even in our market. 

THE TECH MINDED APPROACH 
I will be straightforward here: the technology which Sonder uses to operate its front desk can be confusing or opaque until you are a true veteran of the system. Even then, certain procedures can take longer than a guest standing in front of the front desk might like. It would be nice if the UI could be made more straightforward, if hyperlinks could be visibly apparent to users (the internet defaults to blue text with an underline for a reason), and if the solutions could be more lightning fast. 

Ideally, in the future, Sonder eventually moves to a one-app solution for all of its operations. Plenty of traditional hotels operate using single app services like Duvet, there is no reason why a tech-driven company like Sonder cannot be making similar moves with its own software.

When I first started working there back in June 2019, the job seemed way too good to be true. Unfortunately, I didn’t fully learn that until I decided to put in my two weeks in. 

The job culture, meaning the environment, was extremely open. Each employee has an open cubicle with an automatic standing desk (controls to adjust the height) & are sat inches away from another employee. This seems like a cool thought at first, right? Yes and no. Cool thought, but when it comes to pick-up an inbound/outbound call(s), it's SO loud and hard to concentrate. 
-I had shared my concerns about this with my manager, and was immediately shut-down. I was told that no one else had concerns, so just deal with it. 

As for management, each one of them is all over the place and continue to blame the company saying the phrase of "well we don't have that put in place or we can't do that since we're a startup company." 
-Yes they are a startup company; however, they are 5 years old. 
-It was difficult to understand why things had to be done that way & why we couldn't think of a better way to go about the job. 

Let's talk about schedules:
-I began in June 2019, they offered/promised that we could work any hours, receive overtime everyday if we like, and take either a 30min / 1hr lunch (paid). 
-The above practice ^ stopped in late July 2019. I'm guessing it's due to hiring over 25-40 people in less than 3 weeks time. 
-Your schedule seems to be locked into place until 6 months in; at least this is what I was told several times. My schedule was as follows, Friday - Tuesday from 11AM - 7PM. I had both Wednesday & Thursday off. 

•This contact center is open 24/7, so if you have open availability, you might be scheduled for an overnight shift. 

Pros:
-Health insurance
-Dental/Vision insurance 
-Life insurance 
-Stock options
-Discounts
-Catering (Monday-Friday) 
-Option to get paid for buying groceries instead of opting for the catering service 
-Stocked Fridge/Freezer, kitchen

Cons: 
-Management style
-No 401k option 
-Scheduling 
-Communication

I do not recommend. Toxic racially motivated company whose only goal is to grab as much cash as possible before the IPO. My boss was a trump supported who insisted that Covid-19 wasn't real and made us "play along" with corporate social distancing guidelines to appease upper management. It was so gross. My GM only took the job and was vocal that he only kept the job for the health benefits and my Operations Manager openly favored fairer skinned employees. Employees are encouraged to provide bosses with plausible deniability so that shady things can happen in units without oversight (I'm talking poor maintenance work, mold being painted over, roach infested units, quick unproductive cleanings that don't even begin to get the grime out after each stay, you name it). I felt dirty leaving the job every day. Not to mention the insane amounts of money they expect you to shell out just to do the job correctly. I was told on many occasions that I should be "grateful" to have been hired. "Play the part of a happy employed black man because you know it could be worse for you" type of situation. I have a decades worth of hotel management experience and I know a s*%t show when I see one. I wasn't thankful. I felt like I had been duped. They routinely look for applicants with no hotel operations experience because they can then get away with over working them in the name of "Acting like an owner" despite the fact that our stock options aren't fully vested for 3 years. When confronted with standard operation procedures they rebuke them because they are here to "disrupt the system". The owners are like rebellious teenagers trying to prove something to their overbearing parents. I highly recommend you stay away. Beware of the shiny new "scrappy startup" mentality their going to sell you. So glad to be done and with a company that values diversity and not celebrating white privilege. 

I’d definitely miss working at Sonder. I was part of a department that was let go once they discontinued a certain city. 

I learned a lot in the company. Thanks that I will definitely be able to take with me and other jobs and my own business! I will definitely continue to stay at Sonder spaces.

With this company, it started off great. I had a really great manager. I only had a hiccup once I had to switch manager for a different cities team. I must say he was awful. Very disrespectful and didn’t know what he was doing. The reason why I’m able to leave a good review today is because Sonder did not stand for the treatment I was getting from him. They really care about their employees. It’s very important to be open and honest and go to higher management if you have a problem like that. 

I really loved all the employees. As a remote worker, on zoom, I never thought I would build such a bond with so many coworkers. We helped each other, and I learned so much from everyone. 

The hardest part of the job I would say, learning the policies, and processes in the beginning. You really have to be patient with yourself being a CGS representative. Once you have it, you will figure out your own technique and master it! 

Things always change at Sonder so you have to always be willing to learn!

I’m very grateful for my experience at Sonder, although I was only with them for a year, I can honestly say that every moment of it I enjoyed. It came with lots of great benefits also bonuses that were very well earned! 



Position is attractive for millennials. They sugar coat the low salary with catered lunches, dog-friendly environment, ping pong table/games, unlimited snacks and coffee. Although I am a millennial myself, I would rather have a higher salary than these office amenities. They seem like a waste of money that could be put into paying us higher wages.  

The position started out rigorous, with unlimited work to do everyday. I liked this. It kept me very busy and allowed me to get overtime hours, which they were very ok with allowing. However, they hired so many more agents since I started, that the work load started to dwindle to the point where I was offered to leave early numerous days to save the company money. Most days I just sit at my desk asking managers for more work/waiting around for a guest to call in. Its mind-numbing. I guess they just overshot the amount of new employees they needed to the point where there is little to no work to fill an 8 hour shift. I just hope since the company is still expanding their units globally, that they may temporarily cease their hiring in this department until they see how much more work the new units will actually be for the customer service position.

Hungry start up company with lots of cool perks. Little Management, wish washy expectations, favoritism. Relaxed culture and vibe. Big dreams. My experience was negative because I came in and there was little training. Weekly one on ones with management made me believe I was doing well, but then I was let go out of the blue for poor performance when I had been praised for my performance a few days earlier. Not sure what the purpose of one on ones are with management when you are told lies and provided little help or guidance. Other than that, the job atmosphere was cool.

Sonder is not your typical hospitality or hotel position. It is very much an industry disrupter which means the daily tasks and format of guest bookings can resemble traditional hotels but has a lot of elements that are very modern. This can make my position challenging, but I am never bored and 100% believe in this companies product. My managers are consistently asking how they can better support me and our team. The environment is inclusive and fair. I am learning all the time and getting way more exposure to different departments than I would in a traditional hotel setting. I feel very fairly compensated and to top it off, the perks and benefits are amazing. 

Management is terrible. They all play childish games and talk about agents in slack through DMs. There are so many harassment issues regarding personal relationships throughout the office, as well as badgering between management and agents.They try to act all inclusive with ethnicities but they are all entitled to their white privilege selves. There is not one member of the colored community in a management position. A few agents of color were fired or quit because of the constant act of having to defend themselves for being singled out. Overall there are many other companies to devote your time to whom will actually make you feel inclusive to the environment, and will pay more. Perks are okay but not worth the stupidity this company brings.

Sonder started as a great place to work, for a minimum time. Once Covid hit we were told to stay with the company we would all need to take a 15% pay cut. I had already taken a 25% pay cut to work there when I was sold “the dream” of what Sonder would be. 

The pandemic had many problems, with the wave of folks leaving. New Senior Operation manager was hired leaving more to be desired. He has an approach that was lackluster. 

Instead of learning about our roles, and giving us the space to do our jobs, he inundated us with zoom meetings that often left 30-45 minutes each day for us to actually do any work. 

If you like pipe dreams, work for Sonder. What a waste of my time.

The company showed toooo many red flags from deducting money from peoples checks to pay back the IRS for the perks they GAVE us, they have favorites and they will most likely get moved up into the company before you do and you were the one that trained them, management is LAUGHABLE ( a hot grASS miss) , the entire NY district as a whole does not get along and there is no team unity. This job is just like every other startup up with a Nepo baby ceo that doesn’t have a single clue on how to operate a HOSPITABLE business. Also… if you are a POC, the lighter side of your hand will 1000% get favored over you. I can’t fit my entire experience in on box but overall, avoid this company at all cost, 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Agent 7 salaries reported	$20.79 per hour
Maintenance technician 5 salaries reported	$22.05 per hour
Maintenance tech ii 1 salary reported	$27.50 per hour
Hospitality supervisor 3 salaries reported	$69,000 per year
Senior sales agent 4 salaries reported	$30.00 per hour

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