Sonder is back. More or less. TravelAI, a Canadian artificial intelligence travel company, announced Monday that it has purchased the Sonder brand and relaunched Sonder.com. The deal did not include Sonder’s properties or its operating business. Sonder, which operated boutique hotels and short-term rentals, filed for bankruptcy and shuttered operations in November after hotel giant
Sonder is back. More or less.
TravelAI, a Canadian artificial intelligence travel company, announced Monday that it has purchased the Sonder brand and relaunched Sonder.com. The deal did not include Sonder’s properties or its operating business.
Sonder, which operated boutique hotels and short-term rentals, filed for bankruptcy and shuttered operations in November after hotel giant Marriott International abruptly ended its partnership with rival Airbnb. Guests were forced to leave properties mid-stay, while employees were left out of work overnight.
Despite the chaotic end of a $2.2 billion travel company in 2021, TravelAI said Sonder’s name still carries weight among travelers and in search results.
“There is a large percentage of travelers who still search for Sonder each month who were unaware of the issues from last November,” John Lyotier, CEO and founder of TravelAI, told Business Insider. “What they remember is that they had a great travel experience.”
The new Sonder will not operate properties or accept reservations. Instead, it will function as an AI-powered curated list of city stays, including boutique hotels, apartments and houses, and send users to third-party sites to book, such as Vrbo, Expedia and Booking.com.
Lyotier said TravelAI is trying to capitalize on Sonder.com’s “search value and residual traffic” to provide travelers with the same type of unique, quality stays they’ve come to expect at Sonder properties.
Properties listed on the site meet what TravelAI calls the “Sonder Bar.” TravelAI’s system bases its selection on reviews, ratings, photos, neighborhood characteristics, and features identified in former Sonder properties.
The new Sonder.com features properties listed by third parties, such as Vrbo and Expedia, curated with AI. TravelAI
Of the 10 million properties TravelAI can curate on its partner sites, only about 5% meet the Sonder Bar, Lyotier said.
While he declined to share what TravelAI paid for Sonder’s brand and website, he said it was a “good value,” that payback will be measured in “months, not years” and that he is targeting $100 million in bookings through Sonder.com in the first year. On Monday afternoon, Lyotier said the platform had already generated bookings. The company receives a commission when customers click and book.
TravelAI has acquired several travel brands in recent years, including Casai.com, OwnerDirect.com and Smarttours.com. Sonder is its highest-profile brand acquisition to date, Lyotier said.
Through the acquisition of Sonder, Lyotier said TravelAI also hopes to draw attention to the broader AI travel technologies it is working on.
That includes Sonder Concierge, a beta tool that recommends properties based on what it learns about an individual traveler’s preferences. TravelAI also launched an AI memory tool last month, Traveler.md, which is designed to make those preferences usable across different travel sites and AI assistants.
With the relaunch of Sonder.com, Lyotier said the company will need to communicate to customers that it is not the same brand that kicked them out of hotels and stranded them on vacation last fall.
“That’s the challenge we’ll have to face: making sure old customers understand that we’re not that old Sonder.”