Sonder rolls out early access to new Marriott partnership for Bonvoy members

The world’s largest hotel company continues to think outside the box of its traditional brands.

Marriott International announced in August a partnership with Sonder Holdings — a short-term rental platform of apartment-style residential units largely in major cities. The deal encompasses more than 10,500 rooms and is a major boost to Marriott’s overall growth, as well as expansion beyond traditional hotel stays. The new offering will fall under the new “Sonder by Marriott Bonvoy” brand.

More than 9,000 Sonder rooms will join the Marriott system later this year, and roughly 1,500 more rooms are in the Sonder development pipeline. Sonder operates apartment-style developments and smaller boutique hotels across North America, Europe and the Middle East.

Marriott Bonvoy members are now able to earn and redeem points on stays at roughly 200 Sonder properties in early access of the program integration, according to terms and conditions of the partnership revised Wednesday morning. However, full integration across Marriott’s digital platforms won’t come until early next year.

Earn Marriott points and elite night credits at Sonder hotels

Sonder will now offer early access for Marriott Bonvoy members to earn points, elite night credits and bonus points if they book off the Sonder website and add their Marriott Bonvoy number to the reservation before completing the reservation. The early access earning structure is as follows:

Sonder Hotels

Ten Marriott Bonvoy points per dollar spent on a nightly room rate
One elite night credit per qualifying night

Sonder Apartments

Five Marriott Bonvoy points per dollar spent on a nightly room rate
One elite night credit per qualifying night

Marriott Bonvoy members looking to redeem points for a Sonder stay need to book through Sonder’s call center at 1-415-849-2740. The ability to do all this through Marriott’s own booking channels arrives early next year when full Sonder integration is expected to be completed.

Where Sonder fits into the Marriot Bonvoy ecosystem

When the partnership was first announced, it was not made public whether Sonder properties, which also appear as Airbnb listings for some units, would continue to list on other short-term rental booking channels following the Marriott integration.

Sonder joins a growing list of Marriott offerings geared toward longer-term stays that are a bit more upscale than its extended-stay brands like Residence Inn and Element. Marriott currently operates brands like Marriott Executive Apartments, Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy and Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy.

“Sonder has a digital-first operating model and is available exclusively in urban markets, which we expect to appeal largely to younger travelers,” a Marriott spokesperson said in a statement to TPG. “This model distinguishes it from Marriott’s current longer stay and apartment-style accommodations – such as Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy and Marriott Executive Apartments – but we see it as very complementary to these other brand offerings.”

Sonder would also be more of an urban-focused brand compared to Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy. But if you’re scratching your head as to why a hotel company like Marriott wants to get into the short-term rental business after the hotel industry fought so hard against entities like Airbnb, there’s a key differentiator here. Unlike Airbnb, Sonder operates its properties under long-term master lease agreements and registers them as hotels. Thus, it continued operating in New York City after the Airbnb ban went into effect last year.

Consider this deal a continuation of the ongoing partnerships-over-mergers trend taking place in the industry, per a Bernstein report from August. The analysis shows how the Sonder-Marriott partnership is the latest in an ongoing partnership push like that of Hilton and Small Luxury Hotels of the World or Marriott and MGM Resorts International.

For travelers, that means more ways to earn and redeem points in new places, which is always a good thing.

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