Sonder Woods Cove - Laguna Beach, California

Jeremy W.

Single night staycation at Sonder Woods Cove and overall a disappointing experience. We booked and contacted the property ahead of time informing them that we would be traveling with our baby. We were guaranteed a crib with sheets by the staff. When we arrived, the crib was set up in the room but there was no mattress. We were informed that the mattress would not be available but we could use a folded comforter instead. Given this is incredibly unsafe, we had to spend the next few hours driving to stores to buy a full crib/pack & play for the night.

The rooms are spacious and well appointed, especially the bathrooms. Beautiful design and materials for the price. The floors in the room, however, were incredibly dirty. All of our feet turned black after five minutes of walking around and we had to clean them by hand so our baby could crawl around.

Several other guests were smoking on the patio outside the room and our wall air unit blew the smell in, which was impossible to get out for the rest of the stay. The staff did respond quickly and told the group to leave.

Location is great and the staff is friendly and responsive. But overall a bad experience, and we certainly will look elsewhere when booking for ourselves and others in the future.

Caroline B.

Overall I loved this little place. Rooms were beautiful and had everything you needed. The location was at the top of the hill and the main part of town was an easy walk down the hill.
Would definitely stay again.

Malak

I had an incredibly disappointing and unsettling experience at this “hotel”. While it appears to be a remodeled motel with an aesthetic look, the reality was far from welcoming. The property had a sinister vibe, with all rooms exposed to the main street and curtains that barely provided any privacy. Parking was another nightmare, as the spots were so tight that fitting our Jeep was a struggle.

The most alarming issue was the blatant disregard for the hotel’s “no pets” policy, which was a key reason we chose this property (as someone in our group is allergic to dogs). Upon our arrival, we encountered two aggressive, unleashed dogs running around the parking lot. These dogs even attacked another dog walking with his owner on the Main Street, creating chaos for over 10 minutes. When the owner of these dogs finally took them inside, we politely asked her to leash them for everyone’s safety, but she became hostile, recorded us, and flicked us off.

We reported this to the hotel, expecting resolution, but instead, the manager dismissed our concerns, claiming these were service dogs. However, these dogs were clearly not under control, which contradicts the behavior of any legitimate service animal. To make matters worse, the dog owner continued harassing us by walking past our room and making obscene gestures through our window.

At this point, we felt unsafe, uncomfortable, and completely unsupported by hotel management. We had no choice but to leave and find alternative accommodations at 10 PM.

This property is not only poorly managed but also attracts trashy, disruptive guests who seem more interested in partying and smoking than respecting others. I would never recommend this hotel to anyone. 0/5 stars.

Karlotta M.

Don’t get me wrong this hotel is gorgeous but we were only able to stay one of our nights because our door frame was split in half and was unusable. We were moved to La Ensenada and had a pretty bad experience it was so noisy and dirty there was bugs crawling around and it was pulling teeth to even get a partial refund. Now we both noticed rashes and will be disputing the rest with our credit card. Will not be staying again.

Julie G.

No privacy. Poor window coverings.
Noisy. You may as well be sitting and sleeping with the people next door. You can hear EVERYTHING.
If you want a peaceful and quiet stay in Laguna, do not stay here,

nicole H.

In summary avoid Sonder and any of their properties, Especially this overpriced, freeway-like noise, one human (over worked) maid management style (from only 8am-6pm).

A tech originator created a poor/dysfunctional UBER/FRONTIER style motel experience at premium prices. All customer service, payment, requests, early checkin, or anything at all is online only. No changes are allowed three days prior to arrival or the full price of your reservation is billed. Billing is upfront and months in advance - clever way for Sonder to invest that prepayment and make interest till we arrive (3 months later).

I purchased 4 rooms, about $275/night. Within 3 days of arrival I was notified daily cleaning is an upcharge of $40/day/room. Calling the online customer service is a 20 minute wait time, CS is non-helpful, cookie cutter, apologetic response. Sonder takes zero responsibility for misleading a renter with the incessant upcharges.

There is no mentioned of a $40/day cleaning upcharge in their Booking.com listing.

Technically it’s a terrible user experience. -10. Only the trip organizer has access to phone key cards via the app. Meaning if multi rooms booked, no other person in you party can access the phone key entrance. Secondly the app key card did not work. No one to call or help onsite, but the email and app says someone is available 24/7. Expect to waste an hour of your precious holiday time to speak with an outsourced customer service agency - they apologize for your inconvenience and explain they will “try” to fix it, but they cannot/do not help. Problems not solved or Compensation given for their poorly working tech and poorly run accommodations. If you read other’s experience, you will find similar experiences.

Finally, if the app doesn’t work, or you have multiple rooms, the access code is literally 8 buttons, for example 1234567#.

This excessive heavy traffic noise (like freeway noise). -10

Location is 1.4 miles from downtown. Not walkable. Pool is located on the corner in front of the freeway-like view and minimal privacy from oncoming traffic. Pool is NOT heated, so only useful during summer months. Otherwise the pool is freezing. -10

Sonder’s online only management runs this place like Frontier airlines (everything is an extra charge including daily cleaning). Only after your reservation is non-refundable or non-changeable do they share cleaning service is $40/day. Very sneaky and misadvertised. Sonder’s false claim to improve guest experience by removing cleaning fees is only PR. It’s not true. Soon they will charge $20/clean towel and $10/soap. -10

Coffee maker is only coffee, no tea. No instructions and no one to call. So no coffee. Only one set provided for entire stay.

Sound machines and ear plugs are provided for obnoxious road noise.

Don’t pay extra for the ocean view room # 19. The view is composed of 50% freeway-like, 30% old buildings, 3% ocean, 17% sky. This room is located above the laundry room and consistently over heats. The joke is one cannot open the windows because of the assault to one’s ears from the traffic noise. AC smells like a mix between barf and urine.

Room # 3 had a major broken refrigerator, that was equivalent to a Harley Davidson going 0 to 50 bedside. No staff on sight to assist as this occurred at 2AM. We were expected to wait until the only human on the property arrived (one front desk human) to assist. Front desk hours are 8AM-6PM. Sonder did nothing, except share their deepest condolences with a flowery preset apologetic text. No one came to fix the frig, so unplugged it, and did not have use of the frig for 90% of the stay.

Room # 12 shower drain clogged, again no Sonder onsite representative to assist. No one could take showers that night after the beach. Sonder’s online text response was the same as above, unhelpful, apologetic, and did nothing.

They wrongly sold rooms when MAJOR road construction was planned from 10PM-5AM

Outdoor furniture is filthy, stained, and smells like moldy cheese.p

Desiree L.

We stayed at the Woods Cove location for 5 days in December. Room was clean and bed was comfortable. Coffee machine was broken. When I went to the office to use the community coffee machine, the "front desk" asked why we were using the communal machine in the lobby. I told him ours was broken. He shrugged his shoulders. So I am assuming he didn't care. I guess their convo on getting passports and tattoos was more important than working. Ice machine was also broken. Front desk kid said someone from the other location up the street would come and fix it, but no one came to fix it the entire 5 days we were there. You have to pay for parking and the spots are very tight and small. So if you have a large SUV, be careful!
Also, the staff does NOT clean your room. Its a $90 fee to have your room cleaned. You also can't refresh ANYTHING. No clean glasses, or coffee mugs, toiletries. There's no where to even take out your trash. That was the strangest thing.
But the worst part...the cleaning staff stole our clothing!!!
We checked out early in the morning and left 3 items in the closet. When we realized a few hours later, we called the main Sonder number based in Boston right away, explained what we left and that we would come by that early evening to gather our items, the assistant told us that the staff was leaving at 5 pm!!! and would be back at noon the next day! We asked if anyone would be there to just let us get our things and she/he said there is no staff there at night. So there is no attendant/staff on the premises from 5pm to noon and no one at night either!?! That seemed crazy to us. But there was no one at the actual property to talk to. So we used the chat option online that night to ask someone to make a note for the staff in LB so they would see it the next morning bc there is no actual phone number to the hotel...told them we were coming back to the hotel to gather our items. We came back the next morning and some of the cleaning staff was there and let my husband into the room. They also checked the lost and found, NOTHING. The clothing was gone. My husband described to the cleaning staff what the items looked like, and she shook her head and said she didn't speak/understand English. The only people that had access to that room was the front desk staff and the cleaning crew. So it was someone in those groups that took it. So beware of that. I will never stay here again bc of this experience. Yes, we did leave items accidentally, but we have stayed in numerous hotels and they all have lost and found and have never had staff steal. Whats the point of having a lost and found on the premises if the staff is just going to take your things! If you stay here, lock your stuff up, and don't leave it out in plain sight where the klepto staff might take it. And definitely don't accidentally forget things when you check out. No one can be trusted.

Cody M.

Great value, perfect location, and the room was fantastic. Very conveniently located to the main shopping/dining area and there’s a trolly stop right outside the hotel to get you anywhere else in the city. The room was very nice – and even had a second bathroom that wasn’t listed in the description. The beds were very comfortable. Service was great. This is our new go-to spot for a Laguna Beach getaway.